Maya Brady, UCLA Softball Nearly Sweep Annual Pac-12 Awards
A handful of Bruins earned Pac-12 honors after their team's first-place regular season finish.
No. 2 UCLA softball (50-4, 21-3 Pac-12) came up one award short of sweeping the annual conference awards, the Pac-12 announced Wednesday morning. Led by Pac-12 Player of the Year winner redshirt junior utility Maya Brady and Pac-12 Coach of the Year Kelly Inouye-Perez, the blue and gold were honored across the board.
Brady – who was the NCAA batting champion with a .456 batting average – became the first Bruin to win Pac-12 Player of the Year since 2021. Inouye-Perez, meanwhile, matched former UCLA coach Sue Enquist with her third-career Coach of the Year award.
Other Bruins honored were freshman infielder Jordan Woolery, who won Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, and redshirt senior pitcher Megan Faraimo, who hurled her way to Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year recognition for the second-straight campaign.
Woolery is currently hitting .409, good for third in the Pac-12, and also contributed 10 home runs and 45 RBI to UCLA's offense. The rookie Bruin is the first player from Westwood to win the award since Faraimo nabbed it in 2019.
Faraimo, on the other hand, put a cap on her collegiate career with a 28-2 record, 1.11 ERA and 215 strikeouts. The fifth-year Bruin currently leads the nation in wins.
Freshman utility Megan Grant joined Brady, Faraimo and Woolery as All-Pac-12 First Team selections, while sixth-year pitcher Brooke Yanez and redshirt junior catcher Sharlize Palacios earned All-Pac-12 Second Team honors. Palacios was also the Bruins' only Pac-12 All-Defensive Team selection.
Sophomore utility Savannah Pola and redshirt senior utility Anna Vines were chosen for the All-Pac-12 Third Team.
Rounding out the conference honors, freshman utility Kennedy Powell, freshman pitcher/infielder Taylor Tinsey, Grant and Woolery were named to the All-Pac-12 Freshman Team, where UCLA led the way with four players.
UCLA will compete in the inaugural Pac-12 Softball Tournament starting Thursday, facing the winner of Oregon and Stanford in the quarterfinals.
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