Reese Atwood has been named the 2026 Athletes Unlimited Softball League Rookie of the Year, the league announced Friday as part of its annual postseason awards.
Atwood joins Ana Gold (2025) as the second player in Carolina Blaze history to earn Rookie of the Year honors after making an immediate impact in her first professional season. She also earned All-League recognition after emerging as one of the most productive hitters in the AUSL.
The former Texas standout finished the regular season batting .309 with a .405 on-base percentage, a .735 slugging percentage and a 1.140 OPS across 23 appearances and 22 starts. She totaled 21 hits, including three doubles, one triple and eight home runs, while driving in 25 runs, scoring 15 times and drawing 10 walks.
Atwood led all rookies in both home runs and RBIs while finishing fourth in the league in home runs and third in RBIs. She recorded six multi-hit games during the season, highlighted by a three-hit, four-RBI performance against the Chicago Bandits on June 20.
Behind the plate, Atwood served as the Blaze’s primary catcher, helping guide a pitching staff that finished the regular season with the league’s third-lowest ERA (4.08). She formed the primary battery with fellow rookie Karlyn Pickens, who emerged as one of the league’s breakout pitchers while logging the heaviest workload among rookie pitchers and the second-most innings pitched in the AUSL.
Although the Blaze concluded the season with a 9-16 record and missed the postseason, Atwood established herself as one of the league’s brightest young stars in an impressive rookie campaign.