Carbondale, Ill. – Southern Illinois’ Maddia Groff was named Softball America’s National Freshman Pitcher of the Month for March. Just yesterday, Softball America released its updated player rankings and listed the freshman as the No. 12 pitcher in the country.
With 109 innings pitched on the year, the left-hander has posted a 0.58 ERA, which is currently the second-best in the country, trailing only Stanford’s NiJaree Canady (0.52) who was the 2023 NFCA Freshman of the Year.
Groff picked up 10 wins in the month of March as she totals a 16-1 record on the season. Both her total wins and winning percentage rank second in the country. Of her 10 wins in the month of March, six of them were complete games, four of which were complete game shutouts, while only allowing more than a run in one game.
With 115 strikeouts on the season and just 14 walks, her strikeout-to-walk ratio (8.21) ranks 8th in the country. She set a season-high 10 strikeouts on two separate occasions in March. The first being in her home opener against Loyola (3/9) in which she went all seven innings and allowed zero earned runs. A week later returning home, Groff came out of the bullpen and struck out the first five Drake batters she faced and she would go on to pitch the remaining 4.2 innings of the game and total 10 strikeouts for one of her most dominant outings of the season.
