Junior shortstop Destiny Frankenstein throws toward first base during a game against North Dakota State last month. Frankenstein was named Big 12 Player of the Week yesterday for her performance last week.

Junior shortstop Destiny Frankenstein, team co-captain, earned her first career Big 12 Player of the Week honors, the conference office announced yesterday. Frankenstein went 6-for-10 during the week of May 2-8, helping the Jayhawks sweep Iowa State in Ames, Iowa.

“It’s about time,” coach Tracy Bunge said.

Bunge said there had been several weeks this year that she felt Frankenstein was deserving of the honor. The last three weeks, in particular, Frankenstein has been consistent offensively and defensively, Bunge said.

“I feel really honored to win. It kind of blindsided me but I’m really excited,” Frankenstein said.

Frankenstein drew attention this week as she led the Jayhawks to 2-1. But most importantly, Kansas moved up to No. 6 in the Big 12 standings, averting the single elimination play-in game in the conference tournament. She had six hits, including one homer and a perfect fielding percentage during the week.

“The honor is very much deserved,” Bunge said.

She is the second Jayhawk to be named conference Player of the Week. Junior second baseman Jessica Moppin was honored April 26.

Frankenstein, Broken Arrow, Okla., native, leads the team in batting average (.360), runs (36), hits (53), home runs (14), total bases (106), slugging percentage (.741), walks (22), on-base percentage (.458) and assists (111).

Earlier this season, she broke the single-season home run record for Kansas. She passed Leah Tabb on the all-time list when she hit her 13th home run of the season on May 1 against Texas Tech.

The team left for Oklahoma City yesterday afternoon for the Big 12 tournament. Frankenstein said the team needed to continue being aggressive at the plate to do well. She said Kansas could defeat anyone in the conference.

“We want to win. My goal is for us to play our best ball. If we lose, I don’t want it to be because we beat ourselves,” she said.

The first stop for Kansas will be against No. 3 seed Texas on Thursday at 11 a.m. Frankenstein said the team couldn’t let Cat Osterman, an Olympian, get in the way.

Bunge said the team had a lot of respect for Osterman’s accomplishments.

“The first time we played Texas we were in awe of Osterman. We still have a great deal of respect for her but we’re not in awe,” Bunge said.

She said Texas was a great team but the Jayhawks would bring their “A” game to the stadium.

“We have to play our game every day,” she said.

Bunge said the team needed to take advantage of the opportunities they got with Osterman in the circle. But the bottom line, she said, started with the pitching staff. The pitchers need to hold Texas down offensively because Osterman does not give up many runs, Bunge said.