Ashlyn Aven, NFCA D3 Catcher of the Year
Ashlyn Aven led all of Division III in home runs and RBI, struck out four times all season, and earned the NFCA D3 Catcher of the Year — proof that elite catchers are made at every level.
Maybe you have never heard the name Ashlyn Aven. That is about to change.
Aven is a senior catcher from Gresham, Oregon — an exercise science major at Linfield University in McMinnville, a Division III program with no scholarships and no national spotlight. She squats, catches, calls the game, and leads. In 2026, she did all of it better than any catcher at her level in the country.
The NFCA agreed. The organization named her the Diamond Sports/NFCA NCAA Division III Catcher of the Year — the highest catcher honor in D3 college softball. The NFCA watches every level of the game. After watching them all, they picked Aven.
Here is what they were looking at.
| AB | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | HR | RBI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 151 | .409 | .492 | .970 | 1.512 | 25 | 89 |
Twenty-five home runs led all of Division III. Eighty-nine RBI led all of Division III. But the number that stops people cold is not in that table. In 151 at-bats — a full season of swings — Aven struck out four times.
Four.
That is not a power hitter hunting fastballs and hoping. Instead, that is metronomic discipline — the same controlled, repeating approach, pitch after pitch, game after game. Behind the plate, her .977 fielding percentage over 266 chances told the same story. Six errors all season.
She powered Linfield to its fourth straight trip to the D3 World Series. In the Super Regionals alone, she hit four home runs and drove in six runs. The Wildcats then reached the championship finals in Salem, Virginia. Redlands eliminated them 9-7 on May 28 and went on to win the national title.
Aven was also named a 2026 NFCA Division III First Team All-American.
D3 is not a consolation prize. The blocking drills, the throw-down footwork, the pitch-calling reps — they are the same at every level. Still, Aven ran those reps better than anyone in her division. Then she ran them some more.
What a catcher can learn from this
Four strikeouts in 151 at-bats does not happen by accident. It comes from studying pitchers, trusting your pitch recognition, and staying in the at-bat when the count gets hard.
Those habits are not locked behind a Division I facility or a five-star recruiting profile. Instead, they are built in the batting cage. They are built in the film session nobody asked you to stay for. They are built in the extra rep on a ball in the dirt when practice is technically over.
Aven’s defense tells the same story. A .977 fielding percentage across 266 chances means almost no wasted plays. So that kind of consistency starts with preparation.
Know the game situation before the pitch. Communicate with your pitcher so nothing is a surprise.
The catcher is the hardest job on the field. Yet Aven did all of it well enough to earn the best honor her level offers.
That standard is available to you.
Try this at your next practice
- Pitch-type tracking drill. Before each at-bat in batting practice, call the pitch type (fastball, off-speed, rise) out loud before it arrives. No swinging until you’ve called it right. This is the drill behind the four-strikeout discipline — you cannot lay off a pitch you didn’t see coming.
- 266-chance blocking circuit. At the end of practice, take 20 consecutive balls in the dirt without a break — left, right, center, mixed. Count your blocks, not your errors. The goal is to make 20 clean stops a habit, not a highlight. Aven’s six errors across 266 chances came from making every rep count.
Sources: NFCA 2026 Diamond Sports/NFCA Catcher of the Year Collegiate Recap · Linfield Softball Advances to DIII Championship Finals — KPTV · NFCA 2026 Division III All-Americans · Redlands wins 2026 NCAA DIII softball championship — NCAA.com
