Helen Peña - Softball Coach - Ball State University Athletics

Photo by: Todd Drexler - SESportsMedia

Helen Peña

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
helen.pena@bsu.edu
Phone:
765-285-5137

Helen Peña enters her second season as Ball State’s head softball coach in 2025 looking to build upon last year’s run to the title game of the Mid-American Conference Softball Championship.

In 2024, Peña’s first season at the helm, the Cardinals boasted a 29-29 overall record, including a 12-13 mark in MAC play. Ball State secured the sixth and final seed in the conference championship with a 5-2 victory over Central Michigan in its final game of the regular season, and after losing its second game in the tournament to Ohio, won three consecutive elimination games to make it to the title tilt.

A former collegiate pitcher, Peña helped the Ball State staff steadily improve over the course of the season, capped by the first career complete game victory for redshirt junior Emma Eubank in the 5-1 win over Ohio (May 10) in the elimination bracket championship game of the MAC Tournament.

The Cardinals boasted a 4.22 ERA for the season, but dropped the mark to 4.04 in MAC play which ranked sixth in the league. Ball State’s pitchers also logged eight shutouts on the year, including a 6-0 win over Western Michigan (May 8) to open the league tournament.

On the offensive front, the Cardinals ranked second in the league and 58th nationally with a 5.16 runs-per-game average. The Cardinals blasted 52 home runs on the year, led by a BSU single season record 25 from McKayla Timmons.

Overall, Peña helped four Cardinals earn All-MAC honors in her first season, with both Timmons and fifth-year senior Haley Wynn being named to NFCA All-Great Lakes Region teams.

Ball State was just as solid in the classroom, with a league-high 14 student-athletes earning Academic All-MAC Honors. In addition, 18 members of the squad were named Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar-Athletes, while five earned recognition 2024 Academic All-District® Softball Team as selected by College Sports Communicators.

Peña, who was named the 11th head coach in program history on July 31, 2023, was named the 2023 Mid-Major Assistant Coach of the Year by Extra Inning Softball after serving as the associate head coach at Middle Tennessee State University for the 2023 campaign. She helped guide MTSU to a program record 42 wins in her first and only season in Murfreesboro. The effort included the Blue Raiders’ second-ever Conference USA tournament title and a berth in the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional Final.

"Throughout our search process, we sought an individual with exceptional coaching ability and who demonstrates intentional efforts to grow human potential while developing a program," Mitchell said. "Helen Peña is the perfect coach for Ball State softball. Her devotion to student-athlete excellence encompasses a charge for our talented student-athletes to improve athletically, scholastically and socially. We are thrilled to have Coach Peña join the Ball State community as we continue to advance our softball program."

MTSU earned three wins in regional play, including knocking off host and fifth-seeded Alabama to force a decisive seventh game. While the Crimson Tide won the final contest by a score of 1-0 and eventually advanced to the Women’s College World Series, the Blue Raiders’ three regional wins were the most by a Conference USA team since 2014.

As Middle Tennessee State’s pitching coach, Peña helped her staff rank 35th nationally with a 2.44 ERA. MTSU ranked 175th nationally with a 3.96 team ERA in 2022. In addition, the 2023 Blue Raiders ranked 35th nationally with 12 shutouts, limited opposing batters to a .219 average and struck out 247 total batters. For their play, Gretchen Mead was named to the NFCA All-Region and All-Conference USA second teams, while Kamryn Carcich earned Conference USA All-Tournament Team honors.

Prior to joining the Blue Raiders staff, Peña spent five seasons at the University of Memphis, where she helped guide the Tigers to 100 wins. Highlighting the list of pitchers Peña mentored at Memphis was Molly Smith, who finished her career as the program’s all-time leader in strikeouts (498), wins (50) and shutouts (19). A 2018 second team All-American Athletic Conference selection, Smith earned 25 wins and registered 220 strikeouts under Peña’s tutelage.

Peña also helped Mariah Nichols finish her Memphis career as the program’s all-time saves leader, with 10, including a single-season record four as a sophomore in 2019. Nichols also ranked fourth in innings pitched (428.1), sixth in wins (24), sixth in strikeouts (267) and 10th in ERA (3.92) at the end of her Tigers career.

Before joining the Tigers’ coaching staff, Peña spent two seasons as an assistant at Menlo College in Atherton, California, helping guide the Oaks to a program record 31 wins in 2017. Her pitching staff finished the same season with a 2.59 ERA, the program’s lowest in over 14 years.

After starting her collegiate coaching career at her alma mater, Cal Poly, as a student assistant in 2011 and a volunteer coach in 2012, Peña worked the 2013 and 2014 seasons as an assistant coach at Cal State Bakersfield. While with the ‘Runners, she coached Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year Kelsie Monroe and helped lead CSUB to a berth in the 2015 WAC Tournament Championship.

As a student-athlete, Peña helped lead Cal Poly to a pair of Big West Championships over her four-year career, including the program’s first-ever title in 2007. She finished the 2007 season with a 1.75 ERA to rank third among all Big West pitchers. A two-time All-Big West honoree, Peña helped the Mustangs break into the top 25 for the first time in program history in 2009, with the squad ranking as high as 21st nationally.

She finished her playing career ranked among the program’s all-time leaders in strikeouts (236), victories (28), shutouts (10), saves (2), ERA (2.36), complete games (14) and innings pitched (314.1).