Texas’ Reese Atwood Wins 2025 Johnny Bench Award as Nation’s Top Catcher

All-American junior led Longhorns to historic WCWS title, becomes program’s first recipient of prestigious honor

AUSTIN, Texas | Texas Softball standout Reese Atwood has been named the 2025 Johnny Bench Award winner, the Cincinnati Reds and Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench announced Wednesday. The junior catcher is the first player in Texas program history to earn the honor, which recognizes the top NCAA Division I catchers in both softball and baseball.

Atwood joins Coastal Carolina’s Caden Bodine as this year’s collegiate recipients of the prestigious award, which also honors top high school catchers from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and West Virginia.

A force both at the plate and behind it, Atwood was a unanimous First-Team All-American in 2025 and was named the Diamond Sports/NFCA Catcher of the Year. She powered the Longhorns to their first-ever Women’s College World Series championship, rewriting the record books along the way.

The Sandia, Texas native became the first Longhorn to hit 20 or more home runs in consecutive seasons, finishing with 21 long balls in 2025. She led the nation with 89 RBI—just one shy of her own school record set in 2024—and posted a .393 batting average with 13 doubles, 41 walks, and a 1.326 OPS. Defensively, she was nearly flawless, recording a .988 fielding percentage with 313 putouts, 18 assists, and just four errors. Opponents rarely tested her arm, as she caught four of the seven runners who attempted to steal in 68 games.

Atwood’s impact extended throughout a Texas lineup that led Division I in base hits (630), ranked second in RBI (460), and placed among the nation’s top 15 in batting average, home runs, and slugging.

Created in 2000 and originally awarded only to college baseball’s top catcher, the Johnny Bench Award was expanded in 2019 to include NCAA softball and high school players. The award is now housed at the Reds Hall of Fame & Museum at Great American Ball Park, with input from the Reds Scouting Department and local media in each participating state.

Atwood and the other 2025 winners will be honored during the Johnny Bench Awards Luncheon on July 29 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. The group will also be recognized on-field before the Reds take on the Los Angeles Dodgers that evening at 6:10 p.m. CT.

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-- By John James

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