University of Memphis Athletics
Softball
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
Helen Peña joined the University of Memphis softball program prior to the 2018 season. Peña, a graduate of Cal Poly with seven years of collegiate coaching experience, came to the Tigers after two seasons at Menlo College in Atherton, Calif.
Peña’s first season with the Tigers was one to remember, as she helped coach one of the all-time pitching greats at Memphis. Molly Smith’s illustrious career was capped with career-bests in innings pitched (222.1), strikeouts (220), ERA (1.98) and wins (25). Under Peña’s tutelage, Smith earned Second-Team All-American Athletic Conference honors in 2018. The senior ended her career with the most strikeouts (498), wins (50) and shutouts (19) in a Memphis career.
Peña also saw the development of pitcher Mariah Nichols, who joined the program in 2018. As a freshman, Nichols posted 11 wins, 10 complete games, and tied the school record with three saves during the season. With Peña’s coaching, Nichols recorded 74 strikeouts and held opponents to a .250 batting average.
With a school-record four saves in 2019, Nichols enters the 2020 season with seven saves to her name. She also has 170 career strikeouts and 17 complete games.
In addition to her work with the pitching staff, Peña works closely with the Tiger hitters. In 2018, Memphis set several offensive program records including team batting average record of .308. In 2019, Peña helped guide three players to all-conference honors in Ashley Threatt, Baylee Smith and Alyssa Dean. Threatt finished her Memphis career with a .302 batting average and 13 home runs.
In the classroom, Peña’s importance on academics helped push Threatt to CoSIDA First Team Academic All-District honors in 2019 as well as a program-record 14 NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete selections. Threatt became the first player in program history to earn both First Team All-Conference honors as well as a First Team Academic All-District nod in the same season.
After the 2019 spring semester, Memphis posted a program-record 3.55 grade-point average.
Peña started her career with four seasons as a pitcher for Division I Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, Calif. While with Cal Poly, Peña helped lead her team to a pair of Big West Conference championships including the first-ever in program history in 2007. During the 2007 season, she collected a 1.75 ERA that ranked her third among all Big West pitchers.
In 2009, Peña and her Cal Poly squad broke into the top-25 for the first time in program history, ranking as high as No. 21 in the nation. She ended her career ranked in the top 10 in pitching categories including strikeouts, victories, shutouts, saves, earned run average, complete games, and innings pitched.
After a season as the volunteer assistant coach at her alma mater, Peña was named an assistant coach at Cal State University Bakersfield in 2013 and assumed that role for two seasons. She helped develop and mentor Kelsey Monroe, the 2015 Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year and Third-Team All-Region Pitcher while coaching her pitching her staff to the lowest team ERA and the most shutouts in the WAC.
Her most recent coaching stop was at Menlo College where her efforts helped Menlo break the single-season program record for most wins with 31 in 2017. The season before Menlo won just 11 contests.
With a 2.59 ERA in 2017, her staff at Menlo had the lowest combined ERA in 14 seasons. The pitching staff improved its ERA over five runs from the 2015 season.
Peña also recruited a pair of freshman All-Conference athletes as well as coached a total of eight All-Conference players and eight Scholar-Athletes in her time at Menlo.
