SEC Softball Star Named Winner of the 2025 Johnny Bench Award

Junior catcher Reese Atwood was named the winner of the 2025 Johnny Bench Award. | Texas Athletics

Announced by the Cincinnati Reds and Johnny Bench on Wednesday afternoon, Junior catcher Reese Atwood was named the winner of the 2025 Johnny Bench Award. Atwood becomes the first player in Texas program history to earn the title. 

The nation's best (x2)🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/iOTr4GVhkO

— Texas Softball (@TexasSoftball) July 9, 2025

The Johnny Bench Award annually recognizes the top NCAA Division I male and female catchers, along with the top high school baseball and softball catchers from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and West Virginia. The Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission created the award in 2000 and dedicated it to Hall of Fame and Reds Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench. 

Atwood and Coastal Carolina baseball's Caden Bodine were chosen as the top catchers at the collegiate level.

Being tabbed as a top catcher and player comes as no surprise to many. Aside from a National Championship year, Atwood has been stellar at and behind the plate. As a 2025 First-Team All-American and NFCA Catcher of the year, she became the first Longhorn with 20 or more home runs in back-to-back seasons and finished with a team-best 21. 

She led the nation with 89 RBIs, which doubled as the second-most in program history, the record she set as a sophomore in 2024 with 90. She hit .393 with 13 doubles, 41 walks, a .504 on-base percentage, a .822 slugging percentage, and a 1.326 OPS. 

In the postseason, she was a Women’s College World Series hero in game one when she hit a pitch that was meant to intentionally walk her to drive in the go-ahead run.

"I saw my opportunity and I took it."

Reese Atwood explains her approach on her go-ahead hit on a 3-0 count in the sixth inning of @TexasSoftball's Game 1 win in the #WCWS finals. pic.twitter.com/LA9AT4Wo3w

— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) June 5, 2025

Behind the plate, her numbers were just as incredible. She posted a .988 fielding percentage with 313 putouts, 18 assists, and had just four errors. 

Atwood and the rest of the 2025 Johnny Bench award winners will be honored at a luncheon on July 29 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati and will be recognized during an on-field ceremony before the Reds vs. Dodgers game at 6:10 p.m. CT.