![]() On the field and behind the scenes, it’s Brady’s time. ![]() Then she realizes everyone is looking at her. Now a veteran on a team that welcomed seven freshmen while pushing for its eighth consecutive Women’s College World Series berth, Brady occasionally finds herself waiting for someone else’s calm voice to command the clubhouse. UCLA stars such as Briana Perez, Kinsley Washington and Delanie Wisz would speak up in any team meetings. (Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)įor three years, Maya Brady sat back and relied on upperclassmen and national champions to lead the way. The redshirt junior has become the vocal leader for the Bruins. She admitted to putting too much pressure on herself.UCLA shortstop Maya Brady reacts to a play against Washington earlier this season. It was a dreaded sophomore slump Brady feared would follow her standout redshirt freshman season in which she was named All-Pac-12 first team. The powerful left-handed hitter was five for 35 in the 12 games before her current hot streak. Power-hitting senior Aaliyah Jordan tore her anterior cruciate ligament less than two weeks into the season.Īlthough Brady’s presence has been consistent, she’s not exempt from this season’s struggles. They overcame injuries to senior first baseman Kinsley Washington and freshman Savannah Pola, who played last week’s super regional with a splint covering her right pinkie. But Inouye-Perez is quick to note that these Bruins didn’t take an easy route here. With UCLA’s seventh consecutive trip to Oklahoma City during a season that included a 25-game winning streak, it’s easy to dismiss the successful year as an annual tradition in Westwood. “What I see in Maya now is just Maya being Maya, getting away from the expectations and noise and getting back to just playing softball.” She is one of just two UCLA players to start in the same position every game this season, joining fifth-year senior Briana Perez, who has made 157 consecutive starts at shortstop. After experimenting at second base and all over the outfield, Brady is now the team’s consistent center-field force. But I feel like this year for me, I’m in a lot more control.”Ī former shortstop who switched to center field when she joined the Bruins, Brady said she feels “10 times more confident” in her defensive prowess. “We’re traveling and we got to the World Series and it would just kind of happen so fast for me that I felt like I was along for the ride. “I was going a million miles an hour,” said Brady, who still tied for the team lead in home runs with 14 last season and was named a first-team All-American by the National Fastpitch Coaches Assn. That’s why her “second freshman season” last year felt like a “whirlwind.” But the season ended before the Bruins entered Pac-12 play, leaving Brady without a true test of her abilities on the highest collegiate level. She led the Bruins in home runs with seven during the pandemic-shortened season and was named Softball America freshman of the year. 438 postseason batting average trails only red-hot catcher Delanie Wisz (.500). ![]() 333 mark that earned her first-team All-American honors last season. The late-season surge is helping Brady shake off her sophomore struggles as she enters the World Series with a. PDT on ESPN in the double-elimination tournament.īrady arrives in Oklahoma City on a hot streak with hits in 10 of her last 11 games, including a three-for-three, two-RBI performance in UCLA’s super regional-clinching win over Duke last week. 5-seed Bruins (48-8) face Texas (43-19) in Thursday’s opening game at 9 a.m. The redshirt sophomore first fell in love with UCLA as a kid watching the Bruins win the national championship in 2010, and now she’s playing on the same stage, hoping to help the program to its 13th NCAA title. Standing in center field amid the chaos, Brady felt at peace. When the UCLA star made her Women’s College World Series debut last year, she marveled at the packed stands that extended into an upper deck and wrapped around the outfield. Stepping onto the field at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium gave Maya Brady chills.
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