RANKINGS
EVENTS
I COMMITTED
COLLEGE
ABOUT
(During the week of July 17th, Extra Inning Softball is announcing superlative awards for the 2023 college softball season.)
Helen Pena got to Murfreesboro as a veteran assistant coach with experience in the state.
In one year, she shouldered a heavier-than-expected load and helped lead Middle Tennessee to a deep postseason run that included a conference championship and a berth in a regional final.
Pena has done a little bit of everything at various points during her career, but was primarily a pitching coach most recently. In January, she re-assumed the jack-of-all-trades persona, serving as the only assistant coach at MTSU for the 2023 season.
Still tasked with leading the Blue Raiders’ pitching staff, Pena also handled the infield work during the year. She worked with various aspects of the Blue Raiders’ program, including serving as third-base coach at times.
Victors of 34 games during the regular season, the Blue Raiders were 13-10 in conference play and were .500 against Power Five opponents prior to the postseason. The Blue Raiders made a run in the Conference USA tournament, upsetting top-seeded Charlotte and North Texas en route to the tournament title. Placed in the Tuscaloosa Regional of the NCAA tournament, the Blue Raiders twice beat 2-seed Central Arkansas to reach the regional final. There, the squad bested hosting Alabama to force a winner-take-all final game.
Pena’s pitching staff notched a 2.44 staff ERA, down more than a run and a half from the same mark a year earlier. Under Pena’s guidance, pitcher Gretchen Mead lowered her ERA by more than two full runs year-over-year and set a career high with twenty wins in 2023.
Statistically, the MTSU pitching staff improved across the board, including lowering their opponent’s batting average by more than sixty points and allowing 60 fewers runs through the course of the year.
For her efforts in shepherding and assisting the Blue Raiders to an impressive run during the season and throughout the postseason, Helen Pena is the 2023 Mid-Major Assistant Coach of the Year.