Reese Atwood named 2025 Johnny Bench Award winner, to be honored July 29

AUSTIN (KXAN) — After helping lead Texas to its first softball national championship, junior catcher Reese Atwood grabbed another trophy for her already crowded display.

Atwood was named the softball recipient of the 2025 Johnny Bench Award, given to the top collegiate catchers in both baseball and softball by the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission to honor the legendary Cincinnati Reds catcher. The award is on permanent display in the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

Atwood will be honored July 29 in Cincinnati at both a luncheon and before the Reds take on the Dodgers that evening. Coastal Carolina’s Caden Bodine won the baseball honors, and the award also recognizes the top catchers from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia.

She’s the first player in program history to win the award. Florida’s Jocelyn Erickson won it in 2024. The award was expanded to softball in 2019 and has been awarded to baseball catchers since 2000.

Atwood led Division I with 89 RBIs, one short of the program record she set in 2024. She batted .393 with 21 home runs, 13 doubles, 41 walks and an eye-popping 1.326 on-base plus slugging percentage. She was also great defensively, notching 18 assists with 313 putouts and four errors for a .988 fielding percentage.

She was named a unanimous first-team All-American for the second consecutive season and the National Fastpitch Coaches Association catcher of the year in 2025.