Auburn's Kasey Cooper; Florida Aleshia Ocasio; and Michigan's Sierra Romero will be the three players vying for the title of National Player of the Year when the award is handed out prior to the Women's College World Series.Cooper, the SEC Player of the Year, boasts a .431 batting average with nineteen home runs and seventy-five runs driven in. Her .906 slugging percentage leads the SEC and her .591 on-base percentage was second in the conference. The 2013 National Co-Freshman of the Year, 2016 is the first time Cooper has reached the final stage of finalists for Player of the Year.
Ocasio, the only non-upperclassman of the bunch, posted an 0.65 ERA mark prior to yesterday's upset loss to Georgia, an appearance that gave her only her second loss of the season and increased her ERA to all of 0.77. Opponents hit just .183 against the sophomore hurler and she stands in the top ten nationally in five different categories.
Sierra Romero, now a three-time top three finalist for the award, is in the final season of a stellar career in the maize and blue. Three times the Big 10's Player of the Year, Romero ranks in the top ten nationally of four categories, including with her .470 batting average and 934 slugging percentage. She also boasts nineteen home runs and seventy-six to her own credit.
An original list of twenty-five finalists was released earlier in the season, a grouping that was then trimmed down to ten from which the final three vying for the award were selected.
All three players suited up for teams that earned top-four national seeds in the NCAA tournament.
The National Player of the Year will be announced on May 31st. The National Freshman of the Year award will also be handed out that day; finalists for that award are Ocasio's teammates Kelly Barnhill and Amanda Lorenz and Oklahoma's Shay Knighten.
The group of ten finalists for the 2016 National Player of the Year award have been announced, narrowing the list from the twenty-five finalists announced last month.
Twice-defending champion and likely NCAA #1 seed Florida has two representatives on the list, the only school who can boast that. Two other SEC schools, Alabama and Auburn, are represented by a single player each, as are Michigan; Minnesota; Notre Dame; Florida Atlantic; James Madison; and Louisiana-Lafayette.
Pitchers Delanie Gourley and Aleshia Ocasio represent the Gators as finalists - Ocasio leads the Gators with a 0.71 ERA and a 19-1 record. She's collected 127 strikeouts in 128 innings and allowed just fourteen extra base hits. Gourley sports an 0.76 ERA and an 18-3 record. She boasts more than 200 strikeouts of her own, while opponents are batting just .142 against her.
Auburn's Kasey Cooper - the SEC Player of the Year and likely national award front-runner - batted .435 on the year, with nineteen homeruns and seventy-three RBI. She led her team in five statistical categories, numbers that also included a .939 slugging percentage.
Michigan's Sierra Romero is one of just three seniors in the final ten. For her part, she is batting .485 on the season with sixteen homeruns, seventy-one RBI, and a .947 slugging percentage. She has earned forty-two walks on the year and scored sixty-six times.
Alabama senior outfielder Haylie McCleney; James Madison sophomore pitcher Megan Good; Minnesota junior pitcher Sara Groenewegen; Florida Atlantic junior pitcher Kylee Hanson; Notre Dame junior outfielder Karley Wester; and Louisiana-Lafayette's injured senior catcher Lexie Elkins round out the list of finalists.
Perhaps the most glaring omission from the ten finalists might be Washington's Ali Aguilar, who posts a .362/20/58 thus-far and boasts an .872 slugging percentage. She leads the PAC-12 in home runs, RBI, and slugging percentage.
The list of finalists will be narrowed down one more time, to the final three, on May 25, while the winner will be selected a week later prior the start of the Women's College World Series.
