Best

A total of six Penn State Altoona softball student-athletes earned All-Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference recognition on Tuesday, when the league office released its postseason awards in the sport.

Headlining the All-AMCC honors was junior outfielder Riley Best, a Glendale High School graduate who was voted the league’s Player of the Year while also being a first-team all-conference pick.

Joining Best on the first team was senior shortstop Karli Storm (Cambria Heights), while junior right-handed pitcher Josselyn Nau, sophomore second baseman Lauren Davidson and sophomore utility player Gracie Wilt (Altoona) were second-team selections.

Sophomore Madison Kennedy (Central) earned third-team recognition at two different positions, pitcher and designated player. She was fourth in the conference in hits (56) and fifth in batting average (.438).

Best had a sensational first season, playing in all 40 games. Through the conference postseason, the junior led the AMCC in hits (59), home runs (10), runs batted in (61), total bases (106), and slugging percentage (.869) while also ranking second in batting average (.484) and on-base percentage (.552), third in runs scored (44) and fifth in walks (19).

Best contributed 43ª innings in the pitching circle, going 5-1 with a 2.89 earned run average and 27 strikeouts.

Storm played in all 40 games during her senior campaign.

In the AMCC, she ranked first in on-base percentage (.559) and walks (39), second in runs scored (48) and home runs (7), third in RBI (34), total bases (82), and sacrifice flies (3) and fourth in slugging percentage (.752).

Wilt, a sophomore in her first year with the Lions, played in all 40 games. She ranked fourth in the conference in runs scored (41), and fifth in stolen bases (22) and sacrifice hits (5).

Baseball honors

Five Penn State Altoona baseball players were voted to the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference’s all-conference team, which was released by the league office on Tuesday.

Freshman Judd Dasso took one of the conference’s major awards, winning AMCC Newcomer of the Year to go along with a third-team all-conference nod as a designated hitter.

Voted to the All-AMCC first team were senior first baseman Jonathan Rauch and senior outfielder Brian Chelli and senior third baseman Cole Strick and senior outfielder Zach Ingold were second-team selections.

Dasso played in 35 games as a freshman with Penn State Altoona and led the AMCC in doubles (19). He also ranked second in the conference in runs scored (46), fourth in hit by pitch (11), ninth in total bases (80), 11th in hits (50), runs batted in (31), stolen bases (9), and slugging percentage (.556), 17th in triples (1), 18th in home runs (3) and 20th in batting average (.347).

Tennis recognized

Four student-athletes on the Penn State Altoona women’s tennis team were honored for their academic achievements by the College Sports Communicators for District III.

The four Penn State Altoona women’s tennis student-athletes named to the CSC’s NCAA Division III Academic All-District team are:

– Caitlin Blessel

– Lexi Colaianni

– Sienna Fell

– Daniel Fulton

To be eligible for a spot on an Academic All-District team in tennis, student-athletes must meet certain academic and athletic requirements.

Student-athletes must be at least sophomores while holding cumulative grade-point averages of 3.5 or higher.

Athletes must have been in the lineup for at least 75 percent of a team’s matches. Nominators could submit up to four qualified student-athletes per team.