Leah O'Brien

Born in Garden Grove, California,[1] O'Brien-Amico graduated from Don Lugo High School in nearby Chino in 1992 and attended the University of Arizona.[2] Playing for the Arizona Wildcats softball team, she was named to the First Team All-Pac-10 for her freshman efforts. At the 1993 Women's College World Series, the Wildcats faced rival UCLA in the finale and with the only hit allowed, she drove in the game-winning run off Lisa Fernandez.[3] It was Arizona's second title.

O'Brien-Amico earned First Team All-American honors to accompany conference honors.[4] 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 home run and two doubles) to set the tournament record for batting average.[5][6] Eventually the Wildcats were able to successfully defend their title, besting the Cal State Northridge Matadors 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.[7]

For her junior year after red-shirting for the Atlanta Olympics, O'Brien-Amico earned all-season honors for a third straight year.[8] 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 but were defeated 4-2 on May 29, 1995. O'Brien-Amico went 2/3 with an RBI and was again named All-Tournament.[9] The title was later vacated by the NCAA due to rules violations.[10]

She earned her final First Team All-American and All-Pac-10 honors.[11] 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 UCLA Bruins and was a perfect 2/2 with two RBIs and two base on balls against hurler Christa Williams. She also scored two of Arizona's 10 runs in the mercy rule victory.[12] 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 of .745%. She also hit safely in 17 of 18 games, being shut out just once by Melanie Roche and the Oklahoma State Cowgirls on May 30, 1993.[13] 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 NCAA and still does at Arizona for her average and doubles.[14]

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.[15] To open her Olympics career, O'Brien-Amico went 2/3 with a walk in a 10–0 mercy-rule win over Puerto Rico. She did not play the gold medal game.[16]

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics she hit under .250 for the tournament.[17] O'Brien-Amico nabbed hits in games with Italy, Japan, China and Australia 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.[18]

On the "Aiming For Athens" Tour, O'Brien-Amico hit .386 with 43 RBIs, 5 home runs and 9 doubles.[19] Facing the Stanford Cardinal on February 20, 2004, O'Brien had a tour-high 3 RBIs on a home run to eventually win 9–0.[20] 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.[21] She would equal her performance vs. Greece on August 19.[22]

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.[23] She hit .200 for her final international tournament.[24]

In 2002, O'Brien-Amico was inducted into the University of Arizona Hall of Fame.[14] 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.[25][26]

• 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-Pac-10
• 3-time ASA All-American
• 1996 Atlanta Olympics Gold Medalist
• 1997 NCAA "Woman of the Year" (State of Arizona)
• 1998 ISF World Championships Gold Medalist
• 1999 Pan American Games Gold Medalist
• 2000 Sydney Olympics Gold Medalist
• 2002 University of Arizona Hall of Fame
• 2002 ISF World Championships Gold Medalist
• 2003 Pan American Games Gold Medalist
• 2004 Athens Olympics Gold Medalist

• NCAA Division I softball career .400 batting average list

• Player profile
• Arizona vs. UCLA: 1993 Women's College World Series FULL REPLAY on YouTube
• 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