SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist pitcher Kayleigh Jones was named the Great American Conference Pitcher of the Week for the third straight time, the league office announced Monday afternoon.
No other Bison in the program's Division II era has earned the accolade three consecutive weeks, let alone three times in a season. The next closest in OBU history was Jones, who collected the recognition twice in 2022. Furthermore, Jones is one of two softball players in GAC history to garner the award thrice.
Jones put together another fantastic weekend in the circle, making three appearances to help Oklahoma Baptist to have a 2-1 record at the Emporia State Classic.
The Claremore, Okla. native fanned 30 batters in 14.0 innings of work without surrendering a run for an ERA of 0.00. In Sunday's 4-0 shutout victory over Emporia State, Jones collected her third career no-hitter and nearly claimed the first perfect game for OBU since 2002. The only blemish towards the historic feat came on a walk in the fifth inning.
In her first appearance, Jones handed Minnesota Duluth their first loss of the season after coming into the tournament 8-0. She punched out 14 batters and allowed one hit in the 4-2 victory over the Bulldogs.
Against the Hornets of ESU, Jones collected 16 strikeouts for the second time in her career. The figure is a tie for OBU's all-time single-game record.
Her lone loss of the season came against No. 21 Washburn, who scored the winning run on an error after Jones' second pitch of the game in the eighth inning.
Jones has an 8-1 record in 10 appearances this season. She leads the nation in strikeouts (94) and has only given up one earned run for an astounding 0.14 ERA.
