OKLAHOMA CITY -- Maya Brady's first hit this season was a grand slam.
On her next at-bat, she bunted to advance a runner and ran it out for a single.
Spark coach Amber Flores knew she could depend on one of the best power hitters in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League to willingly give up a shot at another homer and execute the game plan.
That's because Brady, above all, is about winning.
"She's one of the best players in the world," Flores said after Oklahoma City's 13-5 win over the Texas Volts last month. "It's impressive to see. It's impressive to be a part of.
"Really, just a natural-born leader. She really sets the tone for us offensively."
That description sounds like another member of the Brady family -- seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom. Maya has followed in her uncle's giant footsteps to become another MVP-caliber cornerstone for a professional franchise.
Despite missing four games with a hamstring injury, after Thursday's contests, Brady was tied for the league lead in runs scored (20) and home runs (8). She was third in slugging percentage (.911), sixth in on-base percentage (.478) and third in on-base plus slugging (1.389).
Spark general manager Kirk Walker said Brady belongs in the most valuable player and hitter of the year conversations as the season moves into its final week. She has helped the Spark get on a late hot streak to improve to 11-11 and stay in playoff contention.
"Maya is somebody that I have believed in and seen, so to me, there's nothing happening in Maya's world that I'm not comfortable expecting," Walker said. "I love to see how she's competing right now."
Maya, 25, has had a rare opportunity to see what an elite competitor looks like up close. She has fond memories of childhood vacations doubling as family trips to watch Tom's games. She also watched him play in the Fanatics Flag Football Classic in March at age 48.
"He's so amazing, and his greatness, I think, knows no age," she said. "He is just one of the most dedicated, hard-working people on this planet."
The respect has been mutual. In a 2021 post on X, Tom called Maya "the most dominant athlete in the Brady family...by far!" He posted on Instagram in 2024 when she broke UCLA's career home run record. When she hit two home runs against Oklahoma in a Women's College World Series game, he said it "must run in the family."
Like Tom, Maya is a champion. Last year, she was part of the Talons' AUSL championship team and the Toyota Red Terriers championship team in the Japan Diamond Softball League. She also won a gold medal in the 2025 World Games.
Although Maya is close to her uncle, her mother, Maureen Brady, is her primary role model. Maureen hit high-level athletic success well before her brother as an All-American softball pitcher at Fresno State who won a nation-best 36 games her junior year.
Maya said she wouldn't be as successful without her single mother's support.
"She is a freaking competitor, and she is probably the most competitive person I've ever met," Maya said. "My failures, she feels like they're her failures, and my wins, she feels like they're her wins."
There's been even more success in the Brady family. Tom's sister Julie, who is married to former Major League Baseball infielder Kevin Youkilis, played soccer at Saint Mary's College. Another sister, Nancy, received a softball scholarship to Cal. Maya's sister, Hannah, plays volleyball at Michigan. All actively support each other.
The strong family connection plays a key role in their collective success. Walker has seen it since Maureen's college days, when he was an assistant at UCLA and had to coach against her.
"They're all amazing athletes with a real committed mindset around how to compete as an athlete and how to kind of dedicate as an athlete," Walker said. "So it's just ingrained in their family. And she [Maya] is every bit a Brady as any one of them."
Resilience has been a consistent Brady quality for years, and Maya has demonstrated her share. She missed much of last season with a strained hamstring, but was dominant when she returned. In six regular-season games, she hit .647 with 11 hits in 17 at-bats.
Even with the strong finish, she was made available in the expansion draft. Walker, an assistant with the Talons before becoming Spark general manager, knew Brady would be available because the Talons were focused on keeping pitchers. Oklahoma City made her the first overall pick in the expansion draft, and it has worked out. As of Wednesday, Brady was hitting .393 with eight home runs and 17 RBIs.
Her eight home runs have come in 18 games. Walker said that power comes from years of strength training and fine-tuning her skills, going back to when Walker was an assistant helping her at UCLA.
"If you were to watch her swinging, none of her home runs are coming from a bat speed, explosive swing," he said. "It's about being on time and it's about her levers and her strength. So sometimes, she'll hit a ball and she looks like she's taking a half swing. But she's squaring it up and she's got those levers and she hits it a freaking mile. That's what's really impressive."
Bubba Nickles, her Spark teammate and former UCLA teammate, said Brady's detail-oriented approach doesn't just show up on game day. It shows up in practice, and even away from the sport.
"What you're seeing is, one, her ability physically, but also how much attention to detail she's put in behind the scenes," Nickles said. "She'll always be someone that she leaves early to go to the field and work with the trainers. She's always someone that'll stay and do extra reps if she feels like she needs to do more. But then, she also makes sure that she's a good teammate."
Walker said the leadership element might be the biggest jump from Brady's rookie year with the Talons.
"I think it's very easy for Maya to just kind of blend in and just contribute, be a really good follower to a good leader," he said. "And what we've seen out of her more this year has been her actually stepping up and being the leader. So I think she's really coming into her own, I think, as an elite professional athlete that she's prepared and eager to kind of step up and lead."
