Reese Atwood named finalist for USA Softball national player of the year

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The honors just keep coming for Texas sophomore catcher Reese Atwood.

Atwood is the only position player on the finalists list for the USA Softball collegiate player of the year award announced Monday by the organization. She's the first Texas player to be named a finalist since pitcher Cat Osterman won her third consecutive honor in 2006.

Atwood leads NCAA Division I in runs batted in with 88 and is No. 5 with 22 home runs. Both are single-season program records along with her 154 total bases. She's also set a program record for the most sacrifice flies in a season with eight.

Atwood is hitting .433 with a .901 slugging percentage and was named the Big 12 player of the year.

Stanford's NiJaree Canady and Oklahoma State's Lexi Kilfoyl, both pitchers, are the other finalists. Atwood hit a 2-run home run off Canady earlier in the season. Canady leads Division I with a 0.52 ERA while Kilfoyl is second at 1.08.

Texas breezed through the regional tournament and takes on Texas A&M in the best-of-three super regional series starting 5 p.m. Friday at McCombs Field.