As Oklahoma's softball team aims to continue its dominance this Spring, baseball fans may recognize a familiar name.

Ailana Agbayani is in her first season with the Sooners after transferring to Oklahoma from BYU last Summer. The junior has quickly emerged as one of Oklahoma's key players, as she made the 2025 All-SEC defensive team for her work on the Sooners' infield, along with batting .336 with a .945 OPS during the season.

The name Agbayani should ring a bell for baseball fans, as Benny Agbayani was a key player for the Mets in the late 1990s and early 2000s. While he was nothing more than a role player, his performance on the 2000 NL champion Mets team earned him a place in baseball history.

Now, a different Agbayani is trying to pave her own path in sports. Are the two related? Here's what you need to know.

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Is Ailana Agbayani related to Benny Agbayani?

Ailana Agbayani is the daughter of Benny Agbayani, the former MLB player for the Mets, Rockies and Red Sox. Ailana is one of Agbayani's three kids, and all three have followed in their father's footsteps to play either softball or baseball.

Ailana is the middle of the three Agbayani kids, as her sister Aleia played softball at Cal and BYU, and her brother Bruin is committed to play college baseball at Michigan next year. However, Bruin is draft-eligible this year as a high school graduate.

In her senior year of high school in 2022, Agbayani won Gatorade Hawaii Softball Player of the Year, after Aleia won the same award three years earlier. The current Oklahoma infielder credits her dad for her family's interest in baseball and softball.

"I think my dad was a big influence on me because he really pushed me to my limits because he knew I could always be better than I am, and I still can be better to this day," Ailana said in 2022, via KITV.com in Hawai'i.

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Benny, who coached all three of his kids in high school, explained why he was so impressed with his middle child as a high schooler.

"I'm just so proud of, you know, my daughter. She worked so hard after school, you know after practice we're in the cages for a long period of time, and I think for her it was well deserving from me and my wife just seeing her grow into the sport," he said in 2022. "It was just one of those things where wow, she actually did it."

Where is Benny Agbayani now?

In 2024-25, Agbayani coached the baseball team at Saint Louis High School in Hawai'i, where his son Bruin is the starting shortstop, to a state championship. Agbayani has now led all three of his children to state titles, as the 2019 Iolani softball team also went all the way when Agbayani was coaching both of his daughters.

"To do it with my daughters, to do it with my son is a special moment," Agbayani said, via Spectrum News. "You can never take that away."

MORE: Teams, odds & bracket for 2025 NCAA softball tournament

Benny Agbayani stats