The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Duo from No. 5 Softball named to Top 50 Watch List for 2024 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year
01.24.2024 | Softball
The University of Texas was one of eight programs with two student-athletes listed, one of 14 with multiple honorees
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – USA Softball announced Wednesday morning the inclusion of The University of Texas' Mac Morgan and Mia Scott among the organization's Top 50 Watch List for the 2024 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year.
Scott was appointed to the watch list prior to the 2023 season, while Morgan, who is set to begin her second season on the Forty Acres in 2024, becomes the seventh different Longhorn softball student-athlete — Morgan, Scott, Janae Jefferson, Hailey Dolcini, Mary Iakopo, Shea O'Leary and Miranda Elish — under sixth-year head coach Mike White to be recognized by the organization prior to the start of a new season.
Last season, Scott was named to the All-Big 12 First Team and the NFCA All-Central Second Team after slashing .377/.444/.503 in 199 official plate appearances throughout 2023. She finished her sophomore campaign with a team-high 53 runs scored and a team-leading 19 stolen bases, while her 24 walks were tied for the team lead. By the end of the season, Scott had tallied 21 multiple hit games — 16 2-hit, 5 3-hit — and was credited with at least one hit in seven of the Longhorns' eight postseason games a year ago.
Morgan, who was a NFCA All-Central Region First Team and All-Big 12 Conference Second Team selection following the 2023 season, picked up the Big 12's Pitcher of the Week honor — twice — after recording a span of 31.2 consecutive innings of scoreless softball across seven appearances. She paced the Longhorn pitching staff with seven complete games and five shutouts to go along with two saves and a 2.50 earned run average (ERA). Morgan won a team-high 18 games in 37 pitching appearances, including 26 starts, after throwing 145.2 innings.
Former Texas standout Cat Osterman remains the only student-athlete in Division I softball to have won the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award on three separate occasions: 2003, 2005, 2006. Fellow Longhorn pitcher Blaire Luna was also a three-time (2010, 2011, 2013) Top 10 finalist for the award during her time at Texas.
The 50-member watch list will be trimmed down to 25 on May 1, before going down to 10 two weeks later. Five days later, the list will drop to three finalists before a Player of the Year being named prior to the beginning of the Women's College World Series.
The USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award is voted on by previous award winners, coaching representatives from 10 Division I Conference in the 10 USA Softball Regions as well as members of national and local media who consistently cover Division I softball across the country.
The organization, alongside ESPN.com, released its preseason Division I Collegiate Top 25 poll on Tuesday, when Texas, which finished last season ranked No. 11, was slated No. 5 to begin the upcoming 2024 season.
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