OKLAHOMA CITY – Concluding a record-setting season with one of the top honors in collegiate softball, Auburn's Maddie Penta was selected a First Team All-American by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, the organization announced Wednesday.
Earning an at-large selection as a pitcher, Penta is just the 16th NFCA All-American in school history. She is the first Tiger pitcher to ever earn first-team accolades. She is Auburn's first NFCA All-American selection since Kaylee Carlson (Third Team) in 2017 and is the first Tiger to take home first-team honors since Kasey Cooper in 2016. Penta also earned Second Team All-American honors this week from D1 Softball.
A right-handed pitcher from Chesapeake City, Maryland, Penta leads the SEC and currently ranks fourth nationally with 27 wins, a mark that tied the program's single-season record. Penta was just the fifth player in school history to win at least 10 games in conference play, closing her junior campaign with 12.
The first SEC Pitcher of the Year in program history, Penta ranks second nationally with 303 strikeouts to her credit, which shattered Auburn's junior strikeout record. She is just the second pitcher in program history to record 300 strikeouts in a season, joining Kristen Keyes (2004). Penta is also the first pitcher since Anna Thompson (2009, 2010) to record at least 250 strikeouts in back-to-back seasons. Penta totaled a career best 10 double-digit strikeout games in 2023.
Penta began the season with 62.1 consecutive innings before allowing her first earned run to score. She closed the year second in the conference and 13th in the country with a 1.33 earned run average, allowing just 42 earned runs in 220.2 innings of work. Penta issued just 55 walks compared to her 303 strikeouts and held opponents to a .160 average at the plate.
With just the Women's College World Series left to play, Penta currently also sits as the SEC leader in innings pitched and ranks second in shutouts (8), third in hits allowed per seven innings (3.93), fourth in strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.41), fifth in strikeouts per seven innings (9.6) and ninth in walks allowed per seven innings (1.74).
Other highlights for the First Team All-SEC honoree include setting the program record with four SEC Pitcher of the Week selections, tying the program record for strikeouts in a SEC game with 17 versus Missouri, earning Auburn's first shutout win over Florida in Gainesville since 2017, picking up Auburn's first road series win at Alabama since 2017 behind a pair of victories and tossing Auburn's first no-hitter in SEC play in 17 years with her efforts in the series finale at South Carolina.
She closed her junior season ranked in the top 10 in 11 Auburn single-season pitching categories, which included finishing first or tied for first in wins, games started and combined shutouts in a season. She also sits in the top 10 in 20 Auburn career pitching categories, including wins, strikeouts, earned run average, innings pitched and shutouts.