Jenna Heffner capped off her illustrious four-year career by being earning National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-America Second Team honors, as announced at the NCAA Division III Championship Banquet on Wednesday evening in Oklahoma City.
The NFCA Division III All-America softball teams are selected from the pool of players who earned first team All-Region recognition by eight NCAA Division III head coaches representing the eight NCAA regions. Each team is made up of two pitchers, six position players (including a utility player), one designated player, three outfielders, and three at-large selections. Heffner earned one of the three outfield spots on the second team.
Heffner, who was named the NEAC South Division Player of the Year and was an All-NEAC First Team selection, enjoyed the finest all around season of her career in her senior season. She finished the season with a .467 batting average (63-for-135) to go along with 16 doubles, eight triples, 45 RBI, 40 runs scored, and was a perfect 20-for-20 on stolen base attempts. Heffner also sported a .704 slugging percentage and had a .500 on-base percentage. She ranks 4th in the nation with eight triples, while her .23 triples/game average is the fifth best in Division III. Heffner also ranks among the leaders in the nation for batting average, hits, runs per game, RBI, RBI per game, and doubles per game. She has been just as vital in the outfield this season, finishing with 34 putouts and two outfield to sport a .947 fielding percentage.
During her four seasons with the Nittany Lions, Heffner has etched her name all over the record books. She is the all-time record holder at Berks for hits (215), RBI (142), runs scored (159), doubles (44), triples (31), total bases (336), and at-bats (503). Heffner ranks second in program-history in games played (147), games started (147), and stolen bases (58), while ranking third in batting average (.427) and fifth in home runs (5).
Heffner is just the second member in program-history to receive the All-America distinction, joining Jess Epler who was named to the first team in 2013.
Heffner and teammate Jessica Rozick were both NFCA All-Northeast First Team selections. Heffner was a 2016 NFCA All-Northeast selection and had been named the NEAC South Division Player of the Year each of the last two seasons. She was an All-NEAC South Division First Team recipient three times and was named the conference Rookie of the Year in 2014.
