Penn State Athletics announced that softball senior pitcher Bailey Parshall have been selected as the 2021-22 Female Athletes of the Year. Parshall will represent Penn State on the ballot for Big Ten Female Athletes of the Year with honorees from the other conference institutions.

Bailey Parshall:

Parshall became the first Penn State pitcher to earn first-team All-Big Ten honors since Ashley Esparza in 2005. She was dominant in the circle for the Nittany Lions this season, posting a 22-9 record with a 1.68 ERA and nine shutouts in 212.1 innings. She held opponents to a paltry .199 batting average. She ranks seventh in Division I in innings pitched and shutouts, 16th in wins and strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.59), 25th in walks per seven innings (1.05), 30th in strikeouts (211) and 34th in ERA.

Parshall name is sprinkled throughout the Penn State record books after her tremendous season. She tied the school record for wins in a season, equaling the mark set by Kelly McCann in 2001. She also became the third player (fifth occurrence) in Penn State history to have 200 strikeouts in a season, she finished ranked tied for third with Jackie Hill’s 2010 performance. Parshall’s nine shutouts are tied for third in school history and her 212.1 innings pitched are fourth in season history.

From a career perspective, Parshall is tied for eighth in wins (41), third in strikeouts (607), fifth in shutouts (14), ninth in complete games (44), eighth in innings pitched (559.0), fifth in appearances (125), eighth in starts (79) and third in saves (7) in Penn State history.

The gem of Parshall’s season is her perfect game against FIU Feb. 18. The perfect game was the fifth in program history and second to be a seven-inning perfect game. Parshall’s perfect effort is the first for Penn State since Missy Beseres had a five-inning perfect game against St. Francis (Pa.) in 2005. In addition, Parshall was named Big Ten Co-Pitcher of the Week on March 21 after going 4-0 with two complete game shutouts. It was the second Big Ten weekly award of her career with her other honor coming in March 2020. Parshall was also named to the Big Ten All-Tournament team for her efforts. She was the only member of the team to be from a team that did not reach the semifinals.

Parshall graduated in May with her degree in health policy and administration, and will be returning for her COVID year next year while pursuing her master’s degree in organizational leadership. She is a member of ADLI and SAAB.

(Thanks to Penn State Athletics)