Grace Lyons Named Big 12 Softball Scholar Athlete of the Year… & When She Was Top 10 in the 2018 Extra Elite 100

One of the best parts of being with a site like Extra Inning Softball is we get to watch the athletes grow-up–literally!–as they progress from high school and club ball to college and maybe beyond (international, pro)…

And this just on the field… it’s rewarding to see many fastpitch softball players succeed in all areas of life; perhaps giving back to the game as an instructor or trainer, going out into the business world and carving their own paths and, especially, as they begin families and have little athletes of their own!

Five years ago, when we did our Extra Elite 100 rankings for the Class of 2028, we were impressed with future Oklahoma Sooner infielder Grace Lyons.

One thing that I always remembered about Grace was that she came from a baseball background, which Coach Patty Gasso addresses in the Top 10 blurb on the Arizona product below.

It was just a few weeks later in 2018 when she was announced as a member of the West team for the PGF All-American Game that was played on July 27th and for which Grace was one of the 40 great players who competed from around the country (click HERE to see the article).

Jumping to today–August of 2023–here’s a wonderful article the Oklahoma Sooners published that details how the NCAA champion has gotten it down successfully in the classroom as well.

As this release on the Oklahoma Sooner website explains, the senior put a cap to a wonderful career by getting academic recognition, including All-American status, as well as winning three National Championships.

— Brentt Eads/Extra Inning Softball

Lyons Named Big 12 Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year

Published Aug. 16, 2023 on SoonerSports.com

NORMAN — University of Oklahoma softball graduate Grace Lyons was announced as the 2023 Big 12 Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the conference announced the spring scholar-athletes of the year on Wednesday.

Lyons, who received her Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering in 2022 with an undergraduate GPA of 3.88, is currently pursuing a Master’s of Business Administration and held a 3.89 the past academic year.

The five-time Academic All-Big 12 honoree and three-time CSC Academic All-American helped lead the Sooners to three consecutive national titles throughout her time as a Sooner.

In 2023, the senior captain hit .331 with nine home runs and 34 RBIs and collected her second straight Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year award.

The Peoria, Ariz., native also earned Oklahoma’s first Rawlings Gold Glove Award in 2023 for her stellar play at shortstop, starting 53 games and helping the Sooners to an NCAA best 61-1 record and Big 12 title sweep and the program’s seventh national championship.

*****

A look back five years ago when Grace made the Top 10 of her recruiting class..

The Final Countdown! The Extra Elite 100 Class of 2018 #’s 10-1

Originally published May 18, 2018

6—Grace Lyons, MIF, Firecrackers – Rico (Oklahoma)
From early on you could see that Grace was one of the sleekest, smoothest infielders in the nation at any age, with a ball-to-hand transition as fast as anyone on the softball diamond. Growing up playing baseball, her mechanics and technique are solid and she makes every movement look effortless and fluid, whether it’s going deep in the hole at short or pivoting and throwing from second. There was no doubt that her defense would earn her a scholarship—it was a question of whether her bat could match the high bar her glove skills had set. As of the last year, it looks like that mission has been accomplished. Grace led her Sandra Day O’Connor (Phoenix, Arizona) High team to a 6A state title as a junior when she hit .526 with 35 RBI and this year—for the fourth season in a row—her batting average has increased. This season Grace hit .642 and she matched her seven home runs from last year in four fewer games while completing her career going 35-for-42 on the basepaths. A three-time All-Region pick, look for her to be a strong candidate for All-American honors this year. A teammate of Brooke Vestal on the Firecrackers-Rico team, Grace will join the Texas pitcher in Norman, Oklahoma. Says OU’s Coach Gasso: “Grace Lyons grew up playing baseball and you can see that in her style. She’s very smooth at shortstop with good hands and a strong arm. That position is not going to be an easy one to fill next year, but I think Grace could be one of the leading candidates to do just that. She’s very recognizable on the field because she makes those big-time plays look so easy.”

COPYRIGHT © 2023 Extra Inning Softball TM

Check out our other EIS links: