Janae Reann Jefferson (born February 3, 1999) is an American professional softball player for the Texas Smoke of the

Women's Professional Fastpitch Women's Professional Fastpitch (WPF) is a professional women's fastpitch softball league in the United States. The new league began its promotional campaign in 2021 and launched its first official season in 2023. The league is unrelated to the d ...

and a member of the

United States women's national softball team The United States women's national softball team is the national softball team of the United States. It is governed by USA Softball (formerly known as the Amateur S ...

. She played

college softball College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. College softball is normally played by women at the Intercollegiate level, whereas college baseball is nor ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

where she holds several program records.

High school career

Jefferson attended Nimitz High School in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, Texas, where she was a three-sport athlete, playing softball, volleyball and basketball. During her first year in 2013, she hit .617 overall with 16 doubles, 11

triples TripleS (; ; stylized as tripleS) is a South Korean 24-member multinational girl group formed by Modhaus. They aim to be the world's first decentralized idol group, where the members will rotate between the full group, sub-units, and solo activi ...

, 16

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base unaided by other actions and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or out ...

s and 27

run batted in A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) 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 th ...

(RBI)s. During her second year in 2014, she hit .727, with 74 hits, 18 doubles, 13 triples, four

home runs 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 ...

, 21

s and 37 RBIs. Her .727 batting average and 74 hits where the highest in her school's history. During her junior year in 2015, she hit .687, with 70 hits, 21 doubles, 15 triples, 31 RBIs and 18 steals. During her senior year in 2016, she recorded 14 doubles, 14 triples, six home runs, 21 steals and 48 runs scored. She finished her career as the school's all-time leader in stolen bases. In basketball, she was named a first-team All-District 18-6A honoree in 2015, and 16-6A Girls All-District Co-Offensive Player of the Year in 2016–17.

College career

Jefferson made her collegiate debut for

on February 9, 2018, in a game against UIW. During her first year in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

, she led the Longhorns in

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 ...

(.392), hits (74), multi-hit games (23), runs (30),

total bases In baseball statistics, total bases is the number of bases a player gains with hit (baseball), hits. It is a weighted sum with values of 1 for a single (baseball), single, 2 for a double (baseball), double, 3 for a triple (baseball), triple and 4 ...

(87),

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batting (baseball), batter reaches base (baseball), base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA ...

(.463) and steals (11). Her 32 hits during the Big 12 conference play were the most by any Longhorns player in program history and the second most by a player in a single-season in conference history. Her 72 hits were the second-most all-time in a single season in program history, trailing only Lindsay Gardner's 83 hits in 2000. Following the season she was named to the first-team All-Big 12 and Big 12 All-Freshman team. She was also named a top-ten finalist for the

NFCA National Freshman of the Year The NFCA National Freshman of the Year is an award given by Schutt Sports to the best college softball College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. ...

and named a second-team NFCA All-American. She became the fourth Texas freshman to earn NFCA All-American honors in program history. During her second year in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, she led the Longhorns in batting average (.408), hits (80), multi-hit games (25), and runs (39), and ranked second in on-base percentage (.438) and stolen bases (10). Her 80 hits were the second-most hits in a single season in program history. Following the season she was named to the first-team All-Big 12 and named a second-team NFCA All-American. She was also named a Softball America first-team All-American. During the

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

season, she Started all 27 games while batting .554 overall to rank third in the f NCAA Division I and first in the Big 12 Conference, and ranked tied for fourth in NCAA Division I and led the Big 12 in total hits (41), in a season that was shortened due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Following the season she was named a Softball America second-team All-American. During her junior year in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, she started all 51 games and led the Longhorns in batting average (.446) hits (75), multi-hit games (25), on-base percentage (.495) and steals (14) and second in the league in runs scored (49) and third in total bases (100). She Reached base safely in 47-of-51 games played. On May 9, 2021, in a game against Baylor she recorded her 255th career hit, setting a new Texas program record for career hits, surpassing the previous record held by Brejae Washington. Following the season she was named a unanimous first-team All-Big 12 selection, and named a third-team NFCA All-American. During her senior year in

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, she ranked second in the NCAA Division I in hits (92), and fourth in doubles (24). She also ranked second in the Big 12 in batting average (.431), third in runs scored (70), fourth in steals (16) and total bases (131) and fifth in on-base percentage (.502) during the regular season. She led Texas with a career-best 29 multi-hit games. On April 24, 2022, in a game against

Oklahoma State Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

, Jefferson recorded her 333rd career hit, breaking the Big 12 Conference recorded for career hits, surpassing the previous record held by Sami Williams of

Iowa State Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State be ...

. She helped Texas advance to the

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 and is held annually in Oklahoma City, OK. The event is held at Devon Park (stadium), Devon Park loca ...

for the first time since

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, where they finished as

2022 Women's College World Series The 2022 NCAA Division I softball tournament was held from May 20 through June 9, 2022, as the final part of the 2022 NCAA Division I softball season. The tournament culminated with the 2022 Women's College World Series at USA Softball Hall of F ...

runner-up to champions

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. Following the season she was named a unanimous first-team All-Big 12 selection, and named a second-team NFCA All-American. She became the second Texas player in history to be selected as a four-time NFCA All-American, following

Cat Osterman Catherine Leigh Osterman (born April 16, 1983) is a retired American softball player and currently the general manager of the Volts for the inaugural 2025 season of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL). Osterman pitched on the United Stat ...

. She finished her career at Texas as the program's record holder in batting average (.424), games started (269), runs (222), hits (362) and doubles (55).

Professional career

Jefferson was the drafted fourth overall during the 2022

Athletes Unlimited Softball Athletes Unlimited (also known by its abbreviation AU) is a women's professional sports organization based in the United States that organizes and administers competitions in the sports of basketball, softball, volleyball, and formerly lacrosse ...

College Draft and made her professional debut on July 29, 2022. During the 2023 Women's Professional Fastpitch season in her first season with the Texas Smoke, she hit .438, with a .523

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, an ...

and a .580 on-base percentage, and helped lead the Smoke to the WPF playoffs in the team's first season. She was subsequently named the WPF Player of the Year and named to the All-WPF Team. During the playoffs, she hit .500, with nine hits, six runs scored, a home run and a stolen base. During game one of the championship series she went 4-for-4, with a home run, two singles and a double. She helped the Smoke win the inaugural WPF championship, and was named the Championship Series MVP.

National team career

On January 7, 2022, she was named a member of the

for the

2022 World Games The 2022 World Games, commonly known as Birmingham 2022, were an international multi-sport event held from July 7 to 17, 2022, in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. They were the 11th World Games, a multi-sport event featuring disciplines ...

. In the gold medal game against

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the second inning, Jefferson hit a bases-clearing double to left-center field to give USA a three-run lead, and help USA win a gold medal. She finished the tournament with a .333 batting average (3-for-9) with four runs batted in and three runs scored in five games. On August 31, 2023, she was named to the U.S. women's national team for the

2023 Pan American Games The 2023 Pan American Games (), officially the XIX Pan American Games () and commonly known as Santiago 2023, were an international multi-sport event governed by the Panam Sports Organization, held in Santiago, Chile from 20 October to 5 Novem ...

. Jefferson represented the United States at the

2024 Women's Softball World Cup The 2024 Women's Softball World Cup was the 18th Women's Softball World Cup, an international softball tournament taking place in Balbriggan, Ireland; Buttrio and Castions di Strada, Italy and Valencia, Spain. The group stage took place from 11 ...

and won a silver medal.

Personal life

Jefferson was born to Vincent and Catherine Jefferson. She is the cousin of former professional baseball pitcher Mike Jackson.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jefferson, Janae Living people American softball players 1999 births Sportspeople from Houston Softball players from Texas Texas Longhorns softball players Texas Smoke players World Games gold medalists for the United States World Games medalists in softball Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in softball Softball players at the 2023 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2023 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2022 World Games