SAN FRANCISCO — The Pac-12 has announced the conference's 2022 softball award winners, including yearly award recipients and All-Pac-12, All-Defensive and All-Freshman teams, as voted on by the league's coaches. Washington's Baylee Klingler was voted Pac-12 Player of the Year, UCLA's Megan Faraimo earned Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year honors, fellow Bruin Briana Perez was selected Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, Arizona State's Cydney Sanders was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, and Sun Devil head coach Trisha Ford received Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors. 

Pac-12 Player of the Year: Baylee Klingler, Sr., INF, Washington (Houston, Texas)

On the verge of becoming the first Pac-12 Triple Crown winner since 1999, Klingler is putting the finishing touches on a dominant season with her first Pac-12 Player of the Year honor. The star-studded infielder is the conference leader in batting average (.453), RBI (65), home runs (22), slugging percentage (1.007) and total bases (149), while also ranking second in hits (67), third in on-base percentage (.520) and tied for fourth in runs scored (43). The two-time All-Pac-12 first team honoree is also in the running for 2022 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, as she was recently announced as a top-10 finalist for the award. On a national scale, she currently ranks in the top five in almost every major statistical category. She is third in the nation in both RBI and slugging percentage, fourth in total bases, and fifth in both batting average and home runs. In addition, Klingler was named Pac-12 Player of the Week twice this season. 

Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year: Megan Faraimo, R-Jr., P/1B, UCLA (Oceanside, Calif.)

The 2019 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and a 2021 NFCA First Team All-American, Faraimo adds to her historic UCLA career with her first Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year award. The 2022 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top-25 Finalist claimed two Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week honors this season and became the 17th pitcher in program history to reach 50 career wins. Faraimo is second in program history in solo perfect games (3) and total perfect games (4) and already holds the Bruins' single-season saves record (6). Entering the final weekend of the regular season, she leads the Pac-12 in strikeouts (244), batters struck out while looking (59), saves (6) and appearances (35). Her career-high 18 strikeouts against then-No. 17 Tennessee on Feb. 26 are the conference's best this season. Compiling an 18-4 record to lead the sixth-ranked Bruins, she has tallied nine double-digit strikeout games and surrendered more than five hits only four times. Faraimo has also been named to the All-Pac-12 first team for the third consecutive season.

Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year: Briana Perez, R-Sr., INF, UCLA (Martinez, Calif.)

Also named to both the All-Pac-12 first team and All-Defensive Team for the fourth consecutive year, Perez has been a defensive presence all season long. She has tallied 56 putouts, only committed eight errors and boasts a .938 fielding percentage heading into the final weekend of the regular season. Offensively, Perez became just the fourth Bruin to join the 300 hits club and is also UCLA's career runs scored leader. This season, she has stolen 15 bases to bring her career total to 72. She leads the conference in triples (6), has driven in 37 runs, hit 10 home runs and scored 40 times. 

Pac-12 Freshman of the Year: Cydney Sanders, Fr., INF, Arizona State (San Marcos, Calif.)

The talented freshman enters the final weekend of the regular season leading all Pac-12 freshmen in batting average (.425), slugging percentage (.950), on-base percentage (.557), runs scored (45), RBI (52), home runs (17), total bases (114) and walks (34). The Pac-12 Freshman of the Year has been an impactful piece to the Sun Devils' roster, as she led Arizona State to its longest winning streak since 2013 (20), the fifth time in program history that the Sun Devils had won 20 straight. During the 20-game span, Sanders tallied nine home runs, which led the team and conference during that span. She made national headlines as she was tabbed a top-25 finalist for both the 2022 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year and the Schutt Sports/NFCA DI National Freshman of the Year awards.

Pac-12 Coach of the Year: Trisha Ford, Arizona State

In her fifth season at the helm of Arizona State, Ford garnered her second career Pac-12 Coach of the Year award. The last time she was the recipient of the award in 2018, Ford led the Sun Devils to their 12th NCAA Women's College World Series appearance. Atop of the conference standings heading into the regular season's final weekend, Ford has the opportunity to clinch Arizona State's first Pac-12 title since 2011, which the Sun Devils captured en route to a national championship. Following a series win against then-No. 4 UCLA this past weekend, ASU's first over the Bruins since 2015, the Sun Devils are No. 8 in the USA Today/NFCA DI Top 25 Coaches Poll. This year's Arizona State roster produced eight all-conference selections, including four on the first team. The Sun Devils lead the Pac-12 in on-base percentage (.432), runs per game (7.02), slugging percentage (.642), home runs per game (1.98) and doubles (75). Entering the season, Ford was 20th among all active NCAA coaches in winning percentage in only nine seasons as a head coach. 

2022 PAC-12 SOFTBALL ALL-CONFERENCE TEAMS
FIRST TEAM

SECOND TEAM

THIRD TEAM

ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM

ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM