May 16, 2023 | Los Angeles, Sports, Valleys

Brady Earns Top Honor in PAC-12

UCLA’s Maya Brady, the Pac-12 Batting Champion, was voted Pac-12 Player of the Year.

UCLA shortstop Maya Brady was named PAC-12 Player of the Year and also claimed the leagues batting title.

(AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)

By Earl Heath | Contributing Sports Writer

UCLA’s Maya Brady, the Pac-12 Batting Champion, was voted Pac-12 Player of the Year. Brady finished the regular season hitting .456 with 16 home runs and 56 RBIs, the only player in the country with those numbers. The first Pac-12 Batting Champion from UCLA since 2019 (Kelli Godin).

The Redshirt junior is also in the hunt for the league’s Triple Crown. In addition to her league-leading average, she is second in both home runs and RBIs, three shy of the leader in both categories.

The Thousand Oaks native also leads the Conference in hits (72), total bases (138), extra-base hits (31), on base percentage (.519) and slugging percentage (.873), is in the top 10 nationally in batting average (seventh), hits (ninth) and total bases (fourth), and 11th in both RBIs and slugging. Also one of 10 finalists for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, the two-time All-Pac-12 first team selection (2023, 2021) is the ninth from UCLA to win Pac-12 Player of the Year accolades, joining Rachel Garcia (2018, 2019, 2021), Ally Carda (2014, 2015), Megan Langenfeld (2010), Andrea Duran (2006), Natasha Watley (2003), Stacey Nuveman (1999, 2001, 2022), Lisa Fernandez (1991, 1992, 1993) and Lisa Longaker (1987, 1988, 1990.