UK Athletics Photo
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky Softball’s Erin Coffel became the program’s first-ever three-time National Fastpitch Coaches’ Association (NFCA) All-American on Wednesday afternoon, as the senior shortstop from Bremen, Indiana was voted to the third team of the 2024 All-America roster by the NFCA for the shortstop position.
Coffel leaves Kentucky as a record holder in several significant offensive categories including becoming the new home run leader at UK with a school-record 68 long balls hit during the four-year career Coffel had. She also leaves as the Kentucky record holder in walks, runs batted in and runs batted in.
During the 2024 season, Coffel helped lead Kentucky to its program-record 15th-straight NCAA Tournament, in which she hit .317 on the season with 25 extra-base hits including 12 doubles and 13 home runs. Coffel, who hails from Bremen, Indiana also had 38 runs scored on the year with 46 hits, including 47 walks and only 14 strikeouts on the season.
Coffel was named an NFCA All-American for the first time in the spring of 2022 after a record-setting year and followed that up with an All-American slot in 2023 after leading the NCAA in both walks and on-base percentage for the season, becoming the first player to lead the nation from Kentucky in either of those categories.
This season, Coffel was named First Team All-Southeastern Conference for the second time in a row and was also awarded a spot on the prestigious All-SEC defensive team, with the league coaches voting her as the best shortstop in the conference.
Coffel joins Tiare Jennings (Oklahoma), Valerie Cagle (Clemson), Jadya Coleman (Oklahoma), Kinzee Hanson (Oklahoma), Skylar Wallace (Florida) and Maya Brady (UCLA) as three-time winners of the NFCA All-America honors this season.
Kentucky Softball NFCA All-Americans
2009 – Molly Johnson (SS)
2016 – Kelsey Nunley (P)
2017 – Katie Reed (SS)
2019 – Abbey Cheek (3B)
2021 – Kayla Kowalik (C), Erin Coffel (SS)
2023 – Kayla Kowalik (C), Erin Coffel (SS)
2024 – Erin Coffel (SS)
