Wisconsin softball: three UW standouts earn NFCA all-region honors

On Thursday, the National Facepitch Coaches Association Great Lakes All-Region honors were announced and three Wisconsin Badgers made the list. Slugger Kayla Konwent was named to the first team, ace pitcher Maddie Schwartz made the second team and outfielder Ally Miklesh made the third team.

The Big Ten’s 38 all-region selections also ranked third nationally among NCAA Division I conferences.

The awards honor softball student-athletes from the Association’s 10 regions with first-, second- and third-team selections. NFCA member coaches from each respective region voted on the teams, and all the honorees now become eligible for selection to the 2022 NFCA Division I All-America squads. The NFCA will announce this year’s All-America selections June 1.

Konwent also earned first-team All-Big Ten honors earlier this month after leading the Badgers with a .377 batting average and leading the Big Ten Conference with a .537 on-base percentage. While this isn’t an honor for her impressive career, she still broke the school record for career home runs with her 32 career home run earlier this season.

Schwartz was second-team All-B1G this year and is one of only four pitchers in school history to log 200+ innings in a single season. She has 23 wins on the season and was one of the more dominant pitchers in the midwest all year. Miklesh, who was also named second-team All-B1G, ranks second on the Badgers with a .342 batting average and 26 runs scored.

The Badgers open up NCAA Tournament play on Friday (that’s today!) with a showdown against Georgia Tech. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. CT and the game can be seen live on ESPNU.