Ava Brown is finding out what all the good power hitters have to face — teams are going to change their pitching approach when you step in the box.
But the junior Idaho State centerfielder has matured in her approach this season, as well. She’s not going to let a few walks challenge her faith in her teammates hitting behind her.
“Being a junior, I’ve gotten two years to play and that experience under my belt,” said Brown, who is tied for third in the nation in home runs with 20. “I’m a lot more relaxed this year. It just goes back to what I worked on in the fall — putting the team before ourselves. I feel like in the past, I’ve put too much pressure on myself to perform and now I know my team is going to have my back no matter what, so I think that’s helped a lot.”
Last week in the Bengals’ three-game sweep of Weber State, Brown and ISU head coach Andrew Rich noticed the Wildcats had made a conscious decision not to give Brown much to hit. She walked three times in one of the games.
“It was not really a change of what we’re going to do, it was just, ‘We’re not really going to throw to her,’ ” Rich said. “Even the pitches she did swing at, she kind of got a little antsy. So just take your walks and let your teammates do their thing behind you. But she still had a triple and a sacrifice fly, she did some really good things last week, too.”
Brown has put together a monster season for the conference-leading Bengals, hitting .389, driving in 56 runs, with 11 doubles and a triple, 24 walks and a slugging percentage of .947. She’s also been playing well at centerfield, with 54 putouts, two assists and only one error, for a .985 fielding percentage.
She bounced back from not seeing a lot of great pitches from Weber State to hit a home run and a double in ISU’s 6-0 win over Utah Valley on Tuesday. That continued with a monstrous performance in Friday’s doubleheader against Montana at Miller Ranch Stadium. Brown hit not one, not two, but three dingers for a total of four RBIs in the Bengals’ (31-13) 17-8 and 9-4 wins over the Grizzlies.
“This season is one of the better seasons I’ve seen since I started coaching,” said Rich, who is in his fourth season at the helm, after serving an assistant at Sonoma State and Boise State. “We had some really good players at Boise State, for sure, and some really good players at Sonoma State when I was there, too. But just the numbers and the way it’s been throughout the season. It’s not like she hit five home runs in one weekend and then five in another, and then all of a sudden she’s at 10. It’s been consistent throughout the year to get to (20) home runs. Anytime you have a season where you hit that many is a special season.
“And the runs she’s driven in, the runs she’s scored, and plus she’s played really good defense in centerfield, to be an all-around player. It’s one of the better seasons I’ve seen as a coach,” added Rich.
Brown has been a productive player since she stepped on campus as a freshman in 2023.
She hit .326 and drove in 25 runs with 24 runs scored, and was named to the All-Big Sky Conference team while helping ISU to the conference regular season championship. Last season, she slumped a bit, hitting .257, but still drove in 29 runs and scored 21, while battling an ankle injury that required off-season surgery.
“She was pretty much out the entire fall,” said Rich. “She just worked her butt off the entire fall doing what she could do. And then as soon as she was cleared to do everything else, then it was just full go and she worked her butt off from there.”
Rich started recruiting Brown when he was an assistant at Boise State. It was during COVID, so all of that recruiting was done by video and phone call. Then, when he got the Idaho State job, she was one of the first players he offered.
“I knew she was a really good athlete and could play,” said Rich. “She came on her visit and committed pretty quick. She was just a really good fit for what we were trying to build here and in that first recruiting class that we had. She was just a great addition — athleticism, strong, powerful, everything that we tried to find when we were going through the recruiting process.”
Brown quickly bonded with her fellow recruits, several of whom are still playing key roles in ISU’s run to what the Bengals hope will be a second regular season conference title for the group.
“They’re my best friends,” Brown said of her classmates. “Ever since we got here, there’s just been such a connection. These girls are going to be my best friends until I’m 80 years old. I love them so much and appreciate them so much. I think that’s really what contributes to our team’s success. We’re sisters out there. It means so much more when you’re playing for someone you truly love and want the best for.”
After Friday’s wins, ISU can clinch the regular season conference title with a win Saturday over Montana. But winning the conference tournament, which will be played May 6-9 in Greely, Colo. is really the big prize for Brown and her teammates.
“That’s where we’re headed, that’s what we want to do — we just want to win the tournament,” said Brown, who will graduate with a degree in education and hopes to coach softball back in her native California. “Idaho State’s never been in the regional before or made the NCAA Tournament and I just think it would be huge if we just do that. That’s been our goal, and what we’ve been working on this last year — and honestly for the three years since I’ve been here.”
Brown still has another year of eligibility after this season, and Rich is hopeful she’ll return to Pocatello with her other junior classmates who have grown so close.
“We’ve got to take care of her a little bit for sure, but the bond she has with that group of juniors this year, they’ve built a really special connection with each other. ... They’ve been here for the entire time together, so I think they want to finish it out and see it through,” Rich said. “We’re going to have to do some work to help her out a little bit, but that’s part of the deal these days, you’ve got to do work to keep people here.”
Brown certainly talks like she’s coming back next fall.
“I’m planning on student teaching in the fall, and I’m super excited about that,” she said. “I’ll graduate in the summer and I’m applying for graduate school in the spring of 2026, so I’ll finish out my season here and then hopefully get a job back home.”
Rich, who picked up career wins No. 100 and 101 in his coaching career on Friday, and Brown have certainly formed a solid foundation for the rebirth of the Bengal softball program.
“I think he (Rich) had a vision for the program coming in, and I was on board with it and I wanted to be a part of it,” said Brown. “So I think he just does a really good job of making relationships with everyone, and making sure that he knows that you care about him, and he cares about you. He’s from my area in California, too, so just knowing we’re from the same area, that definitely helps a little bit too.”