Oklahoma Pitcher Lands Big 12 Honor

One week into her Sooners career and Kelly Maxwell is off to a great start.

Oklahoma senior Kelly Maxwell has been named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week following her debut weekend with the Sooners, the conference announced Tuesday.

Maxwell, a left-handed pitcher, made two appearances for OU at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge, earning wins over No. 9/11 Duke and No. 10/7 Washington to help Oklahoma to a 4-0 appearance south of the border.

The graduate student spun 7 2/3 scoreless innings over her two outings, striking out four while allowing just four base runners on a hit, two walks and a hit batsman. Opponents batted just 1-for-23 (.043) off Maxwell as she held hitters to a .197 OPS.

The southpaw made her Oklahoma debut on Feb. 8 against Duke and earned the win with five scoreless frames of one-hit ball. Maxwell closed her first start with the Sooners by retiring 11 consecutive batters and recorded two strikeouts on the afternoon.

Called out of the bullpen with runners on the corners and one away in the sixth inning on Feb. 9 vs. Washington, Maxwell proceeded to escape the jam with a pair of soft ground-ball outs. She then held the Huskies’ lineup scoreless over 2 2/3 innings of stellar relief, retiring eight of nine faced with a pair of punch-outs to earn the win.

Maxwell recorded both her 70th collegiate win and 750th career strikeout against Washington and became the first pitcher to win her first two appearances with OU since Nicole May did so in 2021.

The honor is Maxwell’s seventh career Big 12 Pitcher of the Week nod.

OU looks ahead to the Cowgirl Challenge hosted by McNeese State in Lake Charles, La., beginning Friday, Feb. 16. The Sooners will play Central Arkansas twice, McNeese twice and Lamar once over the course of the three-day event.