Faraimo, Azevedo Named USA Softball Player of the Year Top 25 Finalists

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – Megan Faraimo and Holly Azevedo were named 2022 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 25 Finalists. UCLA is the only team in the nation to boast two pitchers the list.

Top 10 finalists will be announced May 4 and top 3 finalists on May 18. Stacey Nuveman (2002) and Rachel Garcia (2018, 2019) are the only two Bruins to have won the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award in its 19-year history.
 
The Bruins are tied for second in representation amongst the top 25 finalists with fellow Pac-12 school Arizona State.
 
Faraimo has now been named a USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 25 Finalist in back-to-back seasons. In 2022, Faraimo has collected a 15-1 record with a 1.24 earned run average and a Pac-12-leading 193 strikeouts over 118.2 innings pitched. She has thrown 11 complete games, three shutouts and recorded eight double-digit strikeout performances.
 
Faraimo has thrown three perfect games this season versus Fresno State on March 3 (5 inn.), Pennsylvania on March 10 (combined with Lauren Shaw) and CSU Bakersfield on March 11 (5 inn.). She struck out all 15 batters she faced against the Roadrunners on just 59 pitches. Faraimo ranks second in program history in career perfect games with four trailing only Debbie Doom (6).
 
Azevedo owns a 13-2 record and 1.20 earned run average over 75.2 innings pitched this season. Azevedo has established a career-high 103 strikeouts in the last of her five seasons in Westwood and is on pace to set career bests in wins, ERA, innings pitched and opponent batting average.
 
Azevedo has been a part of her fair share of history this season as well tossing the first two no-hitters of her career. Her first of the season came on opening night in a 22-0 win over CSUN on Feb. 10. The second came in game two of the Arizona series on March 20 in which she also set a new career-high in strikeouts with 13.
 
Together, the two aces have helped lead UCLA to a 33-5 record and 1.15 earned run average this season which is second-best in the country and first in the conference. The Bruins rank first in the Pac-12 in K/7 (9.60), and Faraimo and Azevedo rank first and second in K/7, respectively, with ratios of 11.38 and 9.53.