Extra Inning Softball 2023 National High School Player of the Year – Ava Brown

What an amazing ride it’s been for Ava Brown, who on June 26, 2023 was named as one of Extra Inning Softball’s 1^st Team High School All-American Pitchers and today was announced as the Extra Inning Softball National High School Player of the Year.

The reasons why are hard to dispute.

On June 3, 2023, Ava and her Lions team won the Texas 5A State Title for the second year in a row. In this year’s title game, the phenomenal pitcher was all but untouchable as she struck out 15, gave up just one hit and one walk in the 8-0 shutout victory over Canyon High.

Here’s the final play of the championship, which was, interestingly enough, one of the strikeouts but it took a few seconds to play out before Lake Creek could celebrate:

STATE CHAMPIONS! @LakeCreek_SB pic.twitter.com/29Z7YQZu4d

— Montgomery ISD (@MontgomeryISD) June 3, 2023

This year’s 44-1 record (the only loss game in a best two-of-three playoff series in which Ava didn’t pitch in the loss) also meant Lake Creek would finish as the No. 1 team in the final Extra Elite 80 National High School Rankings and the senior right-handed pitcher was a key reason why.

Ava went 27-0 with a 0.53 ERA and had 292 strikeouts in 172 innings but it wasn’t just her pitching arm that led the Lions to greatness: the 5-foot-7 athlete also batted .462 this year with nine homers, 17 doubles and 65 runs driven in.

The National High School Player of the Year award for 2023 is, of course, based on just this season but you can’t talk about Ava without looking at her career accomplishments, too.

The Texan finished her prolific prep career with an 81-0 record, two state titles and an impressive 830 strikeouts—and this, mind you—is coming against some of the top competition in the nation at the prep level.

Such an accomplished year also meant, not surprisingly, that the senior took home a truckload of other honors including the Gatorade National Player of the Year and MaxPreps State Player of the Year recognition in addition to the National POY and All-American plaudits awarded by Extra Inning Softball.

Here’s a great clip produced by Gatorade when Ava was surprised at Lake Creek High’s school gym when she was awarded the trophy in front of family, teammates, students and fans:

Interestingly, this the third year in a row that a future Florida Gators pitcher won the EIS National Player of the Year award as in the two previous years (2022 & 2021) Keagan Rothrock of Roncalli High in Indianapolis, Indiana, took home the prestigious award (click HERE to read about last year’s POY coverage).

And, with both being seniors headed to the SEC, it means that Gators Head Coach Tim Walton also got the top two pitchers in the 2023 class as Keagan was rated #1 and Ava #3 overall and #1 and #2 hurlers in the final 2023 Extra Elite 100 rankings that came out last November.

So, class, let’s recap shall we:

• Texas 5A state title in 2023 (second in a row)
• 15 K’s in the championship game win with just one hit and one walk given up
• 27-0 individual pitching record this year
• 292 K’s in 172 innings or an average of 1.7 K’s per inning
• Offensive stats including a .462 batting average, nine homers and 65 RBIs this year
• No. 1 team ranking in the Extra Elite 80 High School Team Rankings
• … and, certainly not to be overlooked, a 3.55 GPA

Yep… that looks to be a pretty compelling case for National High School Player of the Year honors so congrats to Ava Brown and her Lake Creek team for an amazing year and the team as well as the individual honors for this record-setting pitcher.

You definitely earned it.

— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball

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