Leah Marie O'Brien-Amico (born September 9, 1974) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

, former collegiate All-American, three-time Olympian, left-handed-hitting

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

and sports commentator originally from

Chino, California Chino ( ; Spanish for "Curly") is a city in the western end of San Bernardino County, California, United States, with Los Angeles County to its west and Orange County to its south in the Southern California region. Chino is adjacent to Chino ...

. O'Brien-Amico is best known for playing for the

Arizona Wildcats The Arizona Wildcats are the sport, athletic teams that represent the University of Arizona, located in Tucson, Arizona, Tucson. The Wildcats compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I (NCAA Divis ...

(1993–1997, winning three National Championships) and earning gold medals at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympics. She is a USA Softball Hall of Fame honoree.

Arizona Wildcats

Born in

Garden Grove, California Garden Grove is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States, located just southwest of Disneyland (located in Anaheim, CA). The population was 171,949 at the 2020 census. State Route 22, also known as the Garden Grove Freeway, ...

, O'Brien-Amico graduated from

Don Lugo High School __NOTOC__ Don Antonio Lugo High School is one of the four high schools of the Chino Valley Unified School District located in Chino, California, United States. The mascot is the Conquistador. Don Lugo High School was founded in 1972, and during t ...

in nearby Chino in 1992 and attended the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

. Playing for the

Arizona Wildcats softball The Arizona Wildcats softball team represents the University of Arizona in NCAA Division I Softball. Having claimed eight national championships (second only to UCLA), the team is one of the most successful in the history of the sport. It plays it ...

team, she was named to the First Team All-

Pac-10 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

for her freshman efforts. At the 1993

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States. Eight teams participate in the WCWS, which begins with a double-elimination tournament. In other wo ...

, the Wildcats faced rival

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

in the finale and with the only hit allowed, she drove in the game-winning run off

Lisa Fernandez Lisa Maria Fernandez (born February 22, 1971) is an American former softball player and current associate head coach at UCLA. She played college softball at UCLA as a pitcher and third baseman, and is a three-time medal winning Olympian with Te ...

. It was Arizona's second title. O'Brien-Amico earned First Team All-American honors to accompany conference honors. It was Arizona's second title. Her 16 doubles were the second best total and still rank top-10 for the Wildcats. Returning to defend their title at the WCWS, O'Brien-Amico hit .750 (9/12 with 5

RBIs A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

, a

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

and two doubles) to set the tournament record for

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

. Eventually the Wildcats were able to successfully defend their title, besting the

Cal State Northridge Matadors The Cal State Northridge Matadors (branded as the CSUN Matadors) are the athletic teams that represent California State University, Northridge in Northridge, Los Angeles, California. The Matadors field 17 teams in nineteen sports. The Matadors c ...

on May 30, 1994. O'Brien-Amico was perfect at the plate (3/3) and scored two runs against pitchers Jennifer Richardson and Amy Windmiller to be named All-Tournament. For her junior year after red-shirting for the

Atlanta Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, O'Brien-Amico earned all-season honors for a third straight year. She broke the school record for doubles and her 101 hits was a top-5 record. She still ranks top-10 all-time in both categories. With her third straight appearance in the WCWS finals, O'Brien-Amico and the Wildcats again faced the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). ...

but were defeated 4-2 on May 29, 1995. O'Brien-Amico went 2/3 with an RBI and was again named All-Tournament. The title was later vacated by the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

due to rules violations. She earned her final First Team All-American and All-Pac-10 honors. With a career best .467 average, O'Brien-Amico collected 99 hits to rank top-5 for both stats and remains in the top-10 all-time for the Wildcats. Concluding her finals streak at the WCWS, O'Brien-Amico won her third National Championship over the

and was a perfect 2/2 with two RBIs and two walks against hurler

Christa Williams Christa Williams (born: Christa Bojarzin 5 February 1926 – 28 or 29 July 2012) was a German pop singer most popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Williams was chosen to represent Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest 1959 with the s ...

. She also scored two of Arizona's 10 runs in the mercy rule victory. She was named to the All-Tournament Team for a third series. With combined stats from previous seasons, O'Brien-Amico had a WCWS career of .563 (31/55) with 19 RBIs, two home runs, 4 doubles and 7 walks, striking out just once with a

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at bats for a given player, ...

of .745%. She also hit safely in 17 of 18 games, being

shut out Shut Out may refer to: * Shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as ...

just once by Melanie Roche and the

Oklahoma State Cowgirls The Oklahoma State Cowboys and Cowgirls are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Oklahoma State University–Stillwater, Oklahoma State University, located in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Stillwater. ...

on May 30, 1993. Beginning the next game of that doubleheader day with the ULL Ragin' Cajuns, O'Brien-Amico went on a 15-consecutive-game hit streak ending with her title in 1997. O'Brien-Amico graduated atop the list for the Arizona Wildcats in career average and doubles. She also ranked top-10 for hits in the

and still does at Arizona for her average and doubles.

Team USA

For the Athens Olympics, O'Brien-Amico was the only collegiate athlete selected to the roster and hit .300 in 7 games and was perfect at right field. To open her Olympics career, O'Brien-Amico went 2/3 with a walk in a 10–0 mercy-rule win over

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

. She did not play the gold medal game. At the 2000

Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug language, Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport ...

she hit under .250 for the tournament. O'Brien-Amico nabbed hits in games with

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

running September 23–25, 2000. She drove in her only RBIs in a 6-0 win over Italy and in the gold medal game was shut out by Japan, though Team USA won 2-1 on September 26. On the "Aiming For Athens" Tour, O'Brien-Amico hit .386 with 43 RBIs, 5 home runs and 9 doubles. Facing the

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. As of June, 2022, Stanford's program has won 131 NCAA team championships. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 46 consecutive ...

on February 20, 2004, O'Brien had a tour-high 3 RBIs on a home run to eventually win 9–0. In the Olympics, O'Brien-Amico had a tournament-best 2 RBIs off Melanie Roche of Australia on August 15; the US eventually won 10-0 run-ruling the Australians. She would equal her performance vs.

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

on August 19. In the August 23 gold medal game, O'Brien-Amico had a single as the United States defeated Australia 5-1 to close out their dominating tournament in victory. She hit .200 for her final international tournament.

Personal life

She is the daughter of Frederick G. O'Brien and Denise M. Lynch. In 2002, O'Brien-Amico was inducted into the

Hall of Fame. She now lives in California with her husband Tommy and three children. She currently works in the ministry and occasionally offers color commentary for ESPN.

Statistics

University of Arizona

Team USA

Awards and honors

* Three-time NFCA First-Team All-American (1994, 1995 and 1997) * WCWS National Champion (1993, 1994 and 1997) * 3-Time Academic All American * 3-Time First-team All-Pacific Region * 4-Time All-

* 3-time ASA All-American * 1996

Gold Medalist * 1997

"Woman of the Year" (State of

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

) * 1998 ISF World Championships Gold Medalist * 1999 Pan American Games Gold Medalist * 2000

Gold Medalist * 2002

Hall of Fame * 2002 ISF World Championships Gold Medalist * 2003 Pan American Games Gold Medalist * 2004 Athens Olympics Gold Medalist

References

External links

*
Player profile
* * https://web.archive.org/web/20120512214410/http://www.leah20.com/index.asp * https://web.archive.org/web/20120923065626/http://www.arizonawildcats.com/sports/w-softbl/ariz-w-softbl-body.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Leah 1974 births Living people Softball players from California Arizona Wildcats softball players Olympic softball players of the United States Softball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Softball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Softball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in softball People from Chino, California People from Garden Grove, California Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Orange County, California Sportspeople from San Bernardino County, California

Arizona Wildcats

Team USA

Personal life

Statistics

University of Arizona

Team USA

Awards and honors

See also

References

External links