Meylan Named Big 12 Pitcher of the Year, Four Others From OSU Garner All-Big 12 Honors
STILLWATER – Big 12 Pitcher of the Year Ruby Meylan and fellow first-team performer Rosie Davis highlight a group of five Cowgirls who received All-Big 12 recognition as the conference announced its yearly awards today.
Jayelle Austin and Aubrey Jones were both All-Big 12 Freshman Team honorees, with the latter a unanimous selection, and redshirt senior Audrey Schneidmiller was named the catcher on the All-Big 12 Defensive Team.
The workhorse of the Cowgirl pitching staff, Meylan leads all Power Four pitchers with 213.2 innings pitched and ranks second in the nation with 26 wins while maintaining the third-lowest ERA in the Big 12 (2.03). Her 201 punchouts on the season also rank inside the top 10 in the nation. The senior right-hander made Big 12 history as the first pitcher in league history with 15 wins and at least 100.0 innings pitched in Big 12 play, and she is just the second pitcher in Big 12 history to reach 15 or more wins in conference play.
Meylan is the fourth Cowgirl in program history to be named the conference’s top pitcher, and the fourth in the last six years. All four OSU Big 12 Pitchers of the Year have come under head coach Kenny Gajewski.
The Omaha, Neb., native was also a unanimous selection to the All-Big 12 first team for the second straight season.
Meylan was joined by Davis on the All-Big 12 first team.
Davis paced the Cowgirls with eight home runs and 20 RBIs in Big 12 play to go with a .301/.363/.639 slash line and a team-best 17 runs scored. On the year, the Readyville, Tenn., native is one of 18 players in the Big 12 with double-digit totals in both doubles (11) and home runs (13).
This is the second-straight first-team All-Big 12 selection for the junior third baseman.
Austin, a freshman out of Owasso, Okla., has 16 RBIs on the year with 11 extra-base hits and a .257 batting average. She has tied the OSU freshman single-season walk record at 30, needing one more base on balls to set the freshman record.
Jones, a freshman hailing from Gaylord, Mich., looks like a four-year veteran at shortstop and boasts a .326 batting average with 24 RBIs in her first season of collegiate softball. She ranks second in the Big 12 with 118 assists on the year.
Schneidmiller, a five-year Cowgirl who is reaping the benefits of consistent playing time, earned the first All-Big 12 selection of her career as she was named the catcher on the All-Big 12 Defensive Team. The Burleson, Texas, native is the only catcher in the Big 12 with a perfect fielding percentage while catching and managing the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year in-game. Schneidmiller ranks third in the conference with eight runners caught stealing.
Oklahoma State opens the Phillips 66 Big 12 Softball Tournament as the No. 2 seed, slated to play the No. 7 seed, Utah, at 5 p.m. CT on Thursday, May 7, inside Devon Park in Oklahoma City.
