OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – Redshirt junior utility Maya Brady was announced as a 2023 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 3 Finalist, the organization announced the list on Wednesday.
The award is considered the most prestigious honor in Division I college softball and recognizes outstanding athletic achievement among Division I softball players across the country. There have been only two UCLA players who have won the award. Rachel Garcia (2017-21) won the award twice in 2019 and 2018 and Stacey Nuveman won the Bruins’ first honor in 2002.
The Player of the Year will be revealed prior to the start of the Women’s College World Series.
Brady is UCLA’s first top 3 finalist for the award since Rachel Garcia in 2021.
As the 2023 Pac-12 Player of the Year, Maya Brady has been the anchor of the Bruins’ lineup in the No. 2 spot this season. She leads the team in batting average (.458 AVG), home runs (18), runs batted in (59) and slugging percentage (.892) all while undertaking a new position defensively at shortstop.
Brady is a force at the plate with a conference leading .458 batting average – which also ranks sixth in the nation – while place top 10 in five other categories including total bases (2nd – 148), runs per game (7th – 1.12 RPG), slugging percentage (7th – .892), RBI (9th – 59) and home runs (10th – 18 HR).
Brady won the 2023 Pac-12 batting title with a .456 average following the conclusion of all conference regular-season games. In total, 33 of Brady’s 76 hits have gone for extra bases, including 18 home runs, three triples and 12 doubles. Brady is the 13th Bruin to be crowned as the Pac-12 Batting Champion and the first since Kelli Godin in 2019.
After her two homers against Arizona in the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals, Brady now has four multi-homer games this season which ranks tied for second all-time by a Bruin in a single season.
Brady, who leads the Pac-12 in batting average with a .458 clip, is one off the conference lead in home runs with 18 and five off the conference lead in runs batted in with 59. She trails Arizona State’s Jordyn VanHook…
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