OKLAHOMA CITY - After earning Most Outstanding Player honors at the American Athletic Conference Championship last weekend, Emily Watson has been named the USA Softball Collegiate National Player of the Week, it was announced on Tuesday.
Watson went 3-0 with a 0.33 ERA and an American Athletic Conference Championship-record 36 strikeouts against just 13 hits in 21 innings to help Tulsa earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with its third consecutive conference tournament title. She is the first player in league history to earn the championship's Most Outstanding Player award twice.
"I'm very honored and humbled to receive this award," Watson said. "Without my teammates and coaches, this wouldn't be possible. I'm fortunate to have them behind me and always supporting me and we're all just excited to represent Tulsa and The American this weekend at our regional."
Watson outdueled all three pitchers who were named first-team all-conference and the Golden Hurricane beat the top three seeds (Wichita State, Houston, USF; all earned NCAA at-large bids) on its way to the seventh conference tournament crown in program history.
"I'm very happy for Emily to receive this well-deserved honor," Tulsa head coach John Bargfeldt said. "She would be the first to tell you that her teammates had her back and played well defensively behind her. I can't imagine there is a coach in the country who wouldn't want a pitcher and competitor like Emily. She is someone who wants the ball for all the right reasons, to help her team compete at the highest level."
Watson started the tournament with an American Championship record-tying 13 Ks to defeat No. 3 seed Wichita State. She then set the championship's single-game mark with 15 strikeouts in the semifinal against No. 2 Houston before she allowed just an unearned run on three hits with eight more strikeouts in the championship win over top-seeded USF. Watson needed just 88 pitches against the Bulls in the championship game and closed out the victory by striking out the side in the bottom of the seventh.
The week concluded Watson's dominant career in the American Championship. In six career starts at the conference tournament, she went 6-0 with a 0.17 ERA (one earned run) and 68 strikeouts in 42 innings of work.
This is the first USA Softball Collegiate National Player of the Week honor for Watson and the first for a Tulsa student-athlete since the 2014 season, when Aimee Creger earned the accolade in Week 2 of the campaign.
Watson and the Golden Hurricane (33-23) will face Missouri (28-27) at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, May 18 in the opening game of the NCAA Norman Regional.
Release courtesy Tulsa Athletics