Tag: Kasey Cooper

Maddie Penta earns another All-America honor

After finishing up a successful career on the Plains, Auburn’s ace earns All-American honors for the second year in a row.

Auburn’s softball season ended on May 19 with a loss to Florida State in the regional finals of the Tallahassee Regional. Despite that, not everything has proven to be bitter about the ending of the season.

For ace pitcher [autotag]Maddie Penta[/autotag], she is ending her career on the Plains with some honors. She is walking away as an All-American for the second straight season, earning a Third Team placement by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA).

Her All-America accolade goes as the 17th one earned by an Auburn player and the first to go back-to-back years since [autotag]Kasey Cooper[/autotag] and [autotag]Emily Carosone[/autotag] in 2015 and 2016. She is the only pitcher in Tiger history to rack up multiple NFCA All-America honors.

Penta posted a 1.90 earned run average, giving up 55 earned runs over her 202.1 innings of work in 2024. She also struck out 264 batters, which contributed to opposing players batting just .184 against her.

She goes down as the winningest pitcher in program history with 76 wins over the course of her career. She went 16-10 this season, posting 15 complete games in 30 starts.

Penta finished her time at Auburn in the top seven of 15 career pitching categories. On top of being the all-time winningest pitcher, she has the most career starts at 122 career combined shutouts at 20. She is also the only Tiger to record multiple perfect games in her career, being part of two this season.

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Maddie Penta earns SEC Pitcher of the Year honor

Penta wins the award after winning 20 games and striking out more than 250 batters in two straight seasons.

For the first time in program history, an Auburn Tiger has been named SEC Pitcher of the Year.

[autotag]Maddie Penta[/autotag], a junior from Chesapeake City, Maryland, won the award after putting together an impressive season that ranks among the best in SEC history as well as program history.

Penta finished the year with a 1.12 ERA, a 25-5 record, 16 complete games, and 283 strikeouts to 45 walks. She appeared in 38 games this season and started 32 of them, picking up three saves along the way. The ace right-hander logged 200.1 innings of work this season.

Additionally, Penta was named All-SEC First Team for the second year in a row, the first Tiger to do that since [autotag]Kasey Cooper[/autotag] in 2015-2016. Penta also earned Auburn’s first SEC All-Defensive Team selection since [autotag]Casey McCrackin[/autotag] in 2019.

The Tigers were carried by Penta in conference play, as Penta led them to their highest finish in league play since 2017. She is the first Tiger to record back-to-back seasons with more than 20 wins and more than 250 strikeouts since [autotag]Anna Thompson[/autotag] in 2009-2010.

Penta’s record-setting season also included having the lowest ERA in an SEC season and leading all pitchers with more than 65 innings pitched with a 1.02. Her six shutouts in SEC play tied [autotag]Kristen Keyes[/autotag]’ 2004 season for most in program history.

[autotag]Denver Bryant[/autotag] and [autotag]Nelia Peralta[/autotag] also earned All-SEC honors, being named to the league’s second team.

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