Feb. 10, 2009

IRVING, Texas - Freshman left-hander Whitney Canion was named the Big 12 co-Pitcher of the Week the league office announced Tuesday. Canion shared the award with Nebraska freshman Ashley Hagemann, while Oklahoma's Amber Flores won Player of the Week honors.

The award comes after a dominating performance against No. 1 Florida on Sunday in which the Aledo, Texas native led the Lady Bears to their first win over a number one team in program history. Canion pitched a complete-game shutout after allowing just three hits, one walk and striking out 10 in seven innings of work for a 1-0 win on Sunday.

For the weekend, the freshman went 1-1 with a 0.54 ERA against the Gators, recording 19 strikeouts and allowing just one earned run in 13 innings of work (two complete games) in her collegiate debut. The loss for Florida was the first regular season loss at home since April 27, 2007 and broke a streak of 38-straight regular season home wins.

She becomes the first Baylor pitcher to win the award since Lisa Ferguson did so on March 27, 2007.

Canion and the Lady Bears will open up the home portion of its schedule with the Getterman Classic on Feb. 13 beginning with a game against Northwestern State at 3:00 p.m.