Bradley University Athletics

Grace French Earns NFCA All-Region Honors

Softball 5/19/2022 1:44:00 PM

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- For the first time since 2019, Bradley Softball had a National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Region selection with senior pitcher/utility Grace French (Benicia, Calif./Benicia) voted a Second-Team NFCA All-Mideast Region pick announced Thursday.

French, who earned NFCA All-Mideast Region honors for the first time in her career, is Bradley's first Second-Team NFCA All-Mideast honoree since Maria Schroeder in 2018 and first Brave to garner NFCA all-region recognition dating back to 2019 when Allison Apke and Kealia Wysocki were both third-team selections.

A Second-Team All-Missouri Valley Conference selection this spring, French led the Braves in homers (7) and RBI (32) to go with her .288 average as she split time between second base and pitcher in 2022. In the circle, she led Bradley in nearly every statistical pitching category with her team-best 11 wins the most by a Brave since 2015. French also paced the team with a 3.18 ERA with 14 complete games in her 22 starts, along with leading the squad in innings pitched (134.1) and strikeouts (76), while holding teams to a .245 average.

At the MVC Tournament, French hit a pair of homers and earned the win in the circle in a 4-1 victory over Loyola and followed it up with another homer later that same day in a season-ending setback to Drake as she became the ninth player in league history to hit three homers in a single MVC Tournament.

In MVC play, French was 8-5 with a 3.44 ERA and she was named to the Valley's All-Defensive team. An honorable mention MVC Scholar-Athlete in 2022, French is the only player in program history to win 11 or more games in a season and hit seven or more homers. She tossed Bradley's first no-hitter since 2007 in early March, when she blanked St. Thomas and closed the year ninth in Bradley history with 30 career victories.

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Players Mentioned

#32 Grace French: P/UT; 5' 4"; Senior; R/R

Players Mentioned

#32 Grace French
: 5' 4"; Senior; R/R
: P/UT

Grace French Earns NFCA All-Region Honors

Players Mentioned

#32 Grace French

Players Mentioned

#32 Grace French