ORLANDO – The accolades just keep rolling in for UCF softball's star junior Jada Cody.
On the heels of a stellar 2022 spring season that saw her shatter the Knights' single-season RBI record, Cody has been ranked the No. 14 player in the country by D1Softball.com.
The honor arrives as the latest for the junior utility player on a resume that already includes 2021 NFCA Mideast Third Team All-Region, 2021 AAC First Team All-Conference, and 2021 AAC All-Rookie selections during her freshman campaign, as well as 2022 NFCA Second Team All-Region, 2022 AAC First Team All-Conference, D1Softball.com First Team All-America, and Softball America Second Team All-America honors a year ago.
Cody, who joined Shannon Doherty as the lone two Knights to start each of UCF's 63 games in 2022, plated 75 runs to break UCF Hall of Famer Stephanie Best's previous single-season record of 66 RBI set during the 2003 season. Cody's final RBI came by way of a solo homer, her 15th of the season, in the Knights' NCAA Super Regional matchup against No. 1 Oklahoma on May 28. The swing produced the first run scored in Super Regional play in program history.
The Murrieta, California native finished the year hitting .361/.439/.701 in 194 at-bats, collecting 33 extra-base hits and 136 total bases while also playing steady defense with a career-high .978 fielding percentage. Cody was also named AAC Player of the Week twice during the 2022 slate, the second time after becoming the fastest player in team history to reach 50 RBI in just 33 games.
"She is throwing herself into all those places and she always wants to get better. She is never settled," Knights head coach Cindy Ball-Malone told D1Softball.com last year. "As coaches, we have to make sure she is not doing too much and gets some rest."
In addition to leading the team in RBI, average, home runs and runs scored (48), Cody also ranked second among American Athletic Conference leaders in RBI and total hits (70), and third in total bases (136).
Her reputation for durability began during her freshman 2020 season, when she appeared in each of UCF's 27 games, including 25 starts, before the season was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She then came back the next year and started in each of UCF's 61 games, the only Knight to do so. Cody finished the 2021 slate hitting .324/.412/.500 with 28 RBI, 18 extra-base hits and a team-leading 44 runs scored.
