MU softball's Taylor gets Big 12 player award

Missouri outfielder Rhea Taylor, of Buford, Ga., was named Big 12 Player of the Week. Only a sophomore, Taylor has received the award three times in her two year Tiger career.

Taylor went 6 for 11 last weekend and scored seven of her team’s 20 runs at the Georgia State First Pitch Classic

Taylor was called one of the five Big 12 student athletes to watch according to the 2009 USA Softball Player of the Year Watch List. Others on the list included: Oklahoma’s Samantha Ricketts and DJ Mathis, and Nebraska’s Robin Mackin, Baylor’s Brette Reagan.

As a freshman, Taylor, stole the second-most bases in the country at 57 and set a  Big 12 record. She was just shy of Alabama’s Brittany Rogers, who had 60.

 Of her 64 leadoff at bats, Taylor reached base 58 times.

Taylor became the first Missouri softball player to earn the Big 12 Freshman of the year award.

Missouri is ranked 15th in the NFCA Division I poll.

This weekend the Tigers play in the Florida Atlantic Tournament in Boca Raton, Fla. They face off against Florida International at 11am on Friday.