AUBURN, Ala. – Making it a clean sweep across the three major national softball publications, the duo of junior Maddie Penta and sophomore Bri Ellis earned their third preseason player rankings this time with spots on Softball America's Preseason College Top 100.
With previous top-100 rankings from both D1 Softball and Extra Inning Softball, Penta was tabbed No. 61 and Ellis at No. 76 on Softball America's breakdown of the top returning student-athletes ahead of the 2023 season.
Auburn's first All-SEC First Team honoree since 2017, Penta led the SEC and ranked 15th in the nation with 24 wins in the circle, which included a streak of nine consecutive winning decision to set a program record. Her 24 victories were tied for the second most by an Auburn pitcher in a season. She ended her sophomore campaign with 23 wins in her 35 starts.
Penta closed her sophomore season ranking second in the SEC with 269 strikeouts. She was one of just seven pitchers in program history to record 250 strikeouts in a season and was the first to do so since Anna Thompson in 2010. Her strikeout total set the program's sophomore record and ranked fifth overall in Auburn single season history.
The right-hander allowed just 49 earned runs over 195.0 innings of work to a 1.76 ERA, the lowest amongst qualifying pitchers in the SEC. She issued just 53 walks compared to her 269 strikeouts and held opponents to a .181 average at the plate. The Chesapeake City, Maryland, native also led the SEC in innings pitched and ranked third in the league in strikeouts per seven innings (9.8) and fourth in both hits allowed per seven innings (4.59) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.08).
Her efforts also earned Penta a spot on USA Softball's watch list for the 2023 National Collegiate Player of the Year earlier this week.
The most powerful bat in the Tiger lineup, 20 of Ellis's 45 hits were home runs. She led all SEC freshmen and ranked third in the conference in both total home runs and home runs per game (0.36). Her home run total is also good for 13th in Division I softball.
Ellis is just the second Auburn freshman in program history to slug at least 10 home runs in their debut season. The Houston, Texas, native surpassed three-time Auburn All-American Kasey Cooper for the program's freshman record. Ellis closed her freshman campaign tied for the second most home runs hit in a single season at Auburn.
Adding eight doubles and a triple to her power numbers, Ellis closed the season tied for fifth in Auburn single-season history with a .772 slugging percentage. The mark is the seventh highest slugging clip among SEC hitters. She led the team with 49 RBI and added 32 runs scored.
She rounded out her debut season with the program's second highest slugging percentage, total bases and RBI recorded by an Auburn freshman.
Auburn opens its 2023 season traveling to Clearwater, Florida to compete in the NFCA Leadoff Classic. The Tigers open the season with a twin billing on Friday, Feb. 10, taking on St. John's at 12:30 p.m. CT before facing Fordham at 3 p.m. CT.
