Karenmarie Pena enters her second season as the Governors' assistant/pitching coach, joining Shane Showalter’s staff, August 17, 2015.
In her first season, Pena oversaw a vast improvement in the Govs pitching staff, with APSU pitchers giving up 139 fewer hits, 68 fewer runs, a 1.62 drop in earned-run average, while striking out 67 more opposing batters than the previous year. Governors pitchers also saw opponents' overall batting average drop 81 points overall while the slugging percentage fell 94 points.
Prior to coming to Austin Peay, Pena spent the previous three seasons at St. Ambrose University (Davenport, Iowa) and was part of a coaching staff that led the Fighting Bees to 98 overall wins and the 2013 Midwest Collegiate Conference regular-season championship, its first conference title in 12 years, along with two MCC tournament runner-up finishes.
Previously, Pena served three seasons (2009-12) at Ashford University (Clinton, Iowa), where the Saints improved from two wins prior to her joining the coaching staff to 14 wins in Year 1 to 27 victories in her third Saints season.
Pena's first venture into coaching was at her alma mater Western Illinois (Macomb, Ill.), where she learned under legendary head coach Kathy Veroni, who has 869 career victories. She served as an undergraduate assistant in 2006 helping construct practices and working with the pitchers before coaching in the prep ranks for three years.
In her playing days at Western Illinois, Pena was twice named first-team Mid-Continent All-Conference as a pitcher In fact; she earned conference's Pitcher of the Year honors her senior season in 2005. She was selected National Fast-pitch Coaches Association (NFCA) second-team Great Lakes Region and to the All-Mid-Continent Tournament Team. Pena also was named pitcher of the week five times while at Western Illinois.
Despite only pitching two seasons for WIU, Pena is still ranked in the program's top 10 all-time in career wins, strikeouts, shutouts, strikeouts per inning, games pitched, complete games and innings pitched.
Pena played her first two collegiate seasons at Santa Fe Community College (Gainesville, Fla.), where she was first-team All-Conference in the Florida College System Activities Association.
She prepped at Alleman High School (Rock Island, Ill.), where she still holds Illinois high school state single-game record of 38 strikeouts (22 innings), while also recording a 31-strikeout effort – in a 14-inning contest. She was inducted into the Alleman High School Hall of Fame in 2011.
