Missy Zoch is the Big 12 Softball Pitcher of the Week, while Oklahoma’s Tiare Jennings and Texas Tech’s Yvonne Whaley share Player of the Week in Week 10.

On the road facing Kansas, Zoch tossed a school record 16 strikeouts as part of a 2-0 weekend for the right-hander, with 23 total strikeouts. The 16-strikeout performance in the Game 1 win over the Jayhawks is also the top single game total in the Big 12 in 2021. Zoch then pitched Tech to a series win on Sunday with another seven strikeouts, allowing only two earned runs. Both Ws were in eight innings. This is Zoch’s second recognition in five weeks, and second overall in the senior’s career.

But it was the Red Raiders’ Whaley providing pivotal hits that helped secure both wins. In Game 1, it was Whaley, who came through with the seventh inning RBI that tied the game and allowed Tech to win it in the eighth – where Whaley again dealt a key 2-RBI single. Then in Sunday’s finale, tied at four in the eighth inning, down to an 0-2 count with two outs, Whaley was clutch yet again and delivered the game-winning RBI single. For the junior from Houston, this is her first career weekly honor from the conference.

Jennings shares the player honor with Whaley after leading the Sooners at the plate in a sweep of the ninth-ranked Longhorns. Facing some of the best pitching OU has seen all year, the national Player of the Year candidate was 4-for-7 at the plate, while blasting a home run in each of the three run-rule wins. The freshman from San Pedro, California now has 20 homers on the year, ranking third in the nation and second in the league behind teammate Jocelyn Alo. Jennings also scored five runs and accounted for 13 total bases, raising her season slugging percentage to 1.857, also top-3 in the NCAA.