BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – With the 2023 season a little over a week away, Auburn softball's Maddie Penta and Bri Ellis were selected to the 16th annual Preseason All-SEC Team, the league announced Thursday.
The Preseason All-SEC Softball Team is voted on by the league's head coaches and consists of a minimum of 21 student-athletes. No ties are broken.
The dynamic duo of Penta and Ellis has garnered recognition throughout the preseason with overall and position rankings from national publications of D1 Softball, Softball America and Extra Inning Softball. Earlier this month, Penta was also selected to the watch list for USA Softball's Collegiate Player of the Year.
Both Penta and Ellis ended their 2022 campaigns as All-SEC honorees.
Penta led the SEC and ranked 15th in the nation with 24 wins, 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.
Ranking in the top 20 in the nation in total strikeouts, Penta closed the season second in the SEC with 269. She was one of just seven pitchers in program history to record 250 strikeouts in a season. Her strikeout total set the program's sophomore record and ranked fifth overall in Auburn single-season history.
Penta allowed just 49 earned runs over 195.0 innings of work for a 1.76 ERA, the lowest among qualifying pitchers in the conference. 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 record-setting performance last season earned her All-Southeast Region honors from the National Fastpitch Coaches Association to become the first pitcher in program history to win first team all-region honors from the organization.
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 was good for 13th in Division I softball.
Ellis was 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.
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.