“Softball got me through”: Lupus pitcher hits pro

Maya Johnson’s – Maya Johnson has lived with lupus since she was 15, but a severe kidney flare-up during the last offseason forced her into aggressive treatment. Still, she leaned on softball—treatment schedules, long stretches of uncertainty, and the daily grind of proving sh

MIAMI — While her Oklahoma City Spark teammates take swings in the cages and fall into the cadence of a professional practice. left-handed pitcher Maya Johnson is elsewhere. Another hour of treatment waits for her. along with the kind of careful management that comes with a chronic illness that has never left her alone.

Lupus—an autoimmune disease that causes the immune system to attack healthy tissues and organs—has been part of Johnson’s life since she was 15. Learning to keep playing the sport she loves anyway became its own form of discipline, one she carries into every inning and every appointment.

In the Spark organization, Johnson said, she repeats a phrase with her teammates: “we have hearts of grace and gratitude.” She explained what it means at this level—“The grace to carry yourself in a professional manner at this level, and the gratitude that we were given the opportunity to be here.”

Johnson isn’t just surviving lupus. She has turned it into momentum. A Columbia Station, Ohio, native, she became the highest-drafted professional athlete in university history across all sports. During her most recent season, she led NCAA Division 1 softball in ERA (0.78), strikeouts (397), strikeout-to-walk ratio (11.03) and complete games (31).

That milestone is more than a personal achievement for her. Johnson hopes it shows athletes from programs beyond the traditional Power Four conferences that a professional career can be within reach. She also showed she was ready for the pro game in her AUSL debut. In that appearance, Johnson was OKC’s Opening Day starter as a rookie and threw six innings, earning the win.

Her message to other players is rooted in what her body has demanded from her, and what she has refused to give up. Johnson’s story is also an inspiration for players managing chronic illnesses.

“I’m grateful to even be stepping on the field, given my personal adversity with my health circumstances,” Johnson said. “I had so much personal adversity in my life that the adversity on the softball field doesn’t seem that hard.”

The most intense period in her recent timeline came during the last offseason. During her sophomore year of high school, her condition was under the care of her rheumatologist. Then a severe kidney flare-up forced a more aggressive treatment plan. including 10 rounds of low-dose chemotherapy infusions to prevent kidney failure.

Johnson described how quickly her mindset had to change.

“I was like, ‘Oh, OK, this is serious,’” she said. “‘I guess I don’t have a choice. ’ and the whole time. my brain is focused on softball. because I [was] going to have to do chemo if I wanted to play. So softball got me through one of the hardest things in my life. because it was my thing to look forward to.”.

Treatment didn’t just take time—it took a mental toll. Johnson said the process moved in cycles: she would feel better before each infusion, then brace herself for feeling worse again.

“There’s this really interesting mental toll it takes on you to know you’re going into something to feel awful, and hope that it works,” she said.

Even when the weight was heavy, Johnson never seriously considered quitting. The only time the thought crossed her mind. she said. was when she was a second grader on a farm team in her hometown. Recruited while in Girl Scouts and stuck in the outfield. she passed the time singing Hannah Montana songs. picking dandelions and doing high kicks.

But boredom followed her. By the end of third grade, Johnson turned to pitching because she wanted a more active role.

She said she has never looked back—far from the fourth grader motivated by ice cream for base hits and gummy worms for sliding into a base.

“[Softball] has been such a lifeline for me, and that’s not even just in terms of the fact that I get to do that as my career,” Johnson said. “It’s brought so many of my closest friends, it’s taught me discipline [and] it’s helped me manage things in school.”

Her path through school and softball kept moving even as her health demanded more careful decisions. Johnson attended Saint Joseph Academy in Cleveland, where she accumulated a 0.65 ERA with 505 strikeouts before beginning her collegiate career at the University of Pittsburgh.

As a freshman, she redshirted due to concerns related to her lupus. Because she was not medically cleared to compete, she was offered the option to remain on scholarship as a medically disqualified student-athlete.

Under NCAA rules, that disqualification is generally reserved for athletes whose injury or illness is considered permanently incapacitating and prevents them from participating in athletic activities at that institution.

Johnson didn’t let that define her future. She entered the transfer portal and was eventually cleared to compete at Belmont, where medical staff determined she could safely participate. Medical-clearance decisions are made independently by each institution based on its evaluations.

“I entered the transfer portal and was told ‘no’ a bunch,” Johnson said. “… I’ve had periods of adversity where it would have been easier to just walk away from softball and be done.”

Instead, she kept returning to one question.

“But she kept returning to the same question: If she wasn’t able to play, what was the point of feeling bad?”

Softball taught her that with belief in herself, her teammates and her support system, she could overcome anything—and she would not let anyone tell her she couldn’t play.

“Pursuing professional softball was no different for me,” Johnson said.

The pro moment didn’t arrive quietly. On April 17, at Belmont University’s E.S. Rose Park in Nashville, Tenn., Johnson watched the AUSL draft video play on the video board. As it ran, she tried to convince herself that the Golden Ticket awarded to drafted players wasn’t meant for her.

Then she noticed the cameras locked in her direction.

“I had tears in my eyes,” Johnson remembered. “It was the culmination of every person that ever believed in me, all of my fight through adversity. … I made it, all of the things that I went through, all the hurdles I had to jump over, every person that bet on me, this is why they did that.”

Pro softball has long been part of Johnson’s imagination. She grew up watching the Akron Racers of the former National Pro Fastpitch league, which played about an hour from her house.

“I have such a unique opportunity,” Johnson said. “I didn’t even know if I was going to play my last season of collegiate softball, so to get to play pro, something I’ve dreamed of since I was 9 or 10 years old, is the ultimate moment.”

Now, she’s aiming her experience outward. Johnson wants athletes with chronic illnesses to find what she didn’t always have: clear, high-level examples of players who openly balance illness with elite competition.

Her advocacy work shapes both her public message and her education. She works with the Lupus Foundation of America and chose to earn a bachelor’s degree with honors in nursing.

Johnson said she intends to keep speaking so young athletes can see themselves on the field.

“[I am] being vocal about that. so that other kids that are diagnosed with chronic health conditions can still see someone perform within their sport at a high level. ” Johnson said. “[So] they know that their diagnosis. a lot of times. is not going to impede them if they have the right physicians and the right support system.”.

Maya Johnson lupus Oklahoma City Spark AUSL pitching chronic illness Lupus Foundation of America NCAA softball Belmont University nursing