Big 12 softball coaches did their research before voting for the league’s player-of-year and pitcher-of-year awards last week. They rightly chose Arizona senior Devyn Netz as POY.
Arizona's Devyn Netz delivers a pitch against Iowa State in the semifinals of the Big 12 Softball Championship on Friday, May 9, 2025, at Devon Park in Oklahoma City.
Texas Tech pitcher NiJaree Canady is the Big 12’s most well-known player, the $1 million acquisition from Stanford who went 23-5 in the regular season with an 0.83 ERA, possibly the top pitcher in college softball. She also hit .314 with 29 RBIs. Netz was 20-5 with a 2.01 ERA.
There were also better hitters than Netz: BYU freshman sensation Ilove'a Brittingham hit .410 with 21 homers and 69 RBIs. Netz hit .353 with 17 homers and 60 RBIs in the regular season.
But the coaches looked past Canady and Ilove’a and saw that Netz’s total contributions, hitting and pitching, had greater impact.
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As a reminder of how difficult it is to become the conference player of the year in college softball, think back to 2001 when Arizona’s Jennie Finch went 32-0 pitching and hit .313 with 11 homers and 57 RBIs. Try to top that. But Pac-10 coaches selected .440-hitting UCLA catcher Stacey Nuveman as the league’s player of the year.
Contact sports columnist Greg Hansen at GHansenAZStar@gmail.com. On X(Twitter): @ghansen711
Greg Hansen
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