Jess Oakland Named Big Ten Player of the Year

The Gophers kick off the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday

The Minnesota Gophers finished in fifth place in the Big Ten Softball standings this season, but were once again well represented when the Big Ten awards were announced Wednesday morning before the kick off of the Big Ten Tournament. Minnesota Golden Gophers shortstop sophomore Jess Oakland was named the 2024 Big Ten Player of the Year after an absolute monster season for the maroon and gold. Oakland is the first Gopher to win the Big Ten Player of the Year award since Kendyl Lindaman won in back to back seasons in 2017 and 2018. She is the fifth player to win it in Minnesota softball history.

How historic was Oakland’s season? She set a single season Gopher record with 68 runs, and with at least the Big Ten Tournament yet to play currently ranks second in batting average (0.455), fifth in doubles (19), third in home runs (19), and fifth in walks (38). She needs just one more homerun to tie Lindeman’s single season record of 20 in a Gopher uniform.

Not only is she the biggest offensive threat in the conference, she also is near the top of the NCAA rankings in all those statistics as she ranks fifth in batting average, ninth in doubles, eighth in home runs, fifth in on base percentage (0.554), fifth in slugging percentage (0.915), and fourth in total bases (151).

Oakland was obviously an unanimous All-Big Ten First Team selection as well where she was joined by Gopher catcher junior Taylor Krapf for the second consecutive season. She has been the second biggest offensive threat behind Oakland and this season Krapf is batting 0.316 with 10 home runs and 48 RBI, is slugging 0.600 with a 0.427 on base clip.

The Gophers had a pair of 5th year seniors named to the All-Big Ten second team as well. Second baseman Sydney Strelow earned the honors both for her bat and for her glove. She and Oakland have combined to be a major double play combination up the middle with the Minnesota defense ranking second in the nation and first in the conference turning double plays per game. Joining Strelow is 5th year senior transfer Morgan DeBord. Coming in from Loyola Marymount, DeBord has been a defensive presence in centerfield for the Gophers and also has produced with her bat. DeBord is second overall on Minnesota’s roster batting .350 with 33 runs and 27 RBI. Defensively, she’s had 92 putouts and a 0.990 fielding percentage.

The four honored Gophers will try to keep their season alive as long as possible as they head into the Big Ten Tournament this week in Iowa City. The Gophers are the #5 seed and will open play at 1:30 on Wednesday afternoon when they take on #12 seed Illinois. Minnesota swept a series from the Illini in March by a combined score of 35-5. The winner will advance to play #4 seed Nebraska who the Gophers dropped two of three to at home in the regular season finale last weekend. That game would start at 1:30 Thursday. All games of the Big Ten Tournament will be broadcast live on Big Ten Network.

Minnesota enters the Big Ten tournament with an RPI of 68 meaning that the Gophers most likely will need to win the Big Ten Tournament to advance to the NCAA Tournament. If they do not advance, it would be the first time since 2012 that the Gophers did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

The full Big Ten Tournament bracket is below. Good luck to the Gophers!