No. 1 Texas softball’s Elish named Softball America National Player of the Year

Texas Athletic Department Photo
Used with permission

AUSTIN, TEXAS (April 9, 2020) Texas softball senior pitcher/utility player Miranda Elish (shown right) was named the 2020 Softball America Shortened Season National Player of the Year, while both Elish (first team) and junior second baseman Janae Jefferson (second team) were honored as 2020 Softball America Shortened Season All-Americans.

The duo helped guide the Longhorns to a 24-3 mark and final rankings of No. 1 in the Softball America and No. 3 in both the USA Today/NFCA and ESPN.com/USA Softball polls. Along the way, Texas tied for the third-best 27-game start in school history, while leading the nation in team batting average (.376) and total doubles (62). The Burnt Orange & White also ranked in the NCAA Division I national top 10 in doubles-per-game (2nd – 2.30), on-base percentage (3rd - .450), solo shutouts (4th – 10), slugging percentage (5th – .597), won/loss percentage (6th – .889) and scoring (8th – 7.37). UT rallied for eight come-from-behind wins, went 5-1 against ranked teams (including beating the top two teams in the nation in consecutive games – No. 1 UCLA & No. 2 Washington) and scored more runs over the first 27 games (199) than any squad in program history.

On her way to national player of the year honors, Elish led the Big 12 Conference and ranked sixth in NCAA Division I in wins (11) while posting a 1.25 ERA, 11 complete games, four shutouts and 96 strikeouts over 84.0 innings of work while limiting the opposition to a miniscule .158 average. At the plate, the Crown Point, Ind., native also hit at a .370 clip over 23 contests with seven doubles, four HR’s and 19 RBIs to go with a 1.200 OPS. Among her individual highlights in 2020 were earning NFCA National Player of the Week honors (Feb. 11), after batting .818 with four HR’s and a remarkable 17 RBIs during the six-game Texas Classic, as well as tossing her second career perfect game by retiring all 21 batters she faced in a 7-0 win over New Mexico (March 8).

Jefferson continued her remarkable career in the Burnt Orange & White by leading the Big 12 in batting average (.554 – 3rd in NCAA Division I), hits (41 – 4th in NCAA) and on-base percentage (.607 – 3rd in NCAA) while posting eight extra-base hits, 13 walks and stealing 10 bases. The Humble, Texas, native currently owns the best career batting average in school history at .425, well ahead of Lexy Bennett’s (2009-12) second-ranked .385 mark. During the abbreviated 2020 campaign, Jefferson led the squad with 13 multi-hit games, including five three-hit efforts, and ended the season on a 17-game streak of reaching base safely. She also earned the final Big 12 Conference Player of the Week accolade on March 10 after hitting .750 with a 1.714 OPS during UT’s 4-0 run through the Longhorn Invitational.