Penn State softball head coach Clarisa Crowell announced the addition of former Division III head coach and previous Big Ten assistant Adrianna Baggetta to the Nittany Lion coaching staff on Tuesday, August 15, 2023. Baggetta returns for her second season with the Blue & White ahead of the 2025 season.
In her first season of work with the Nittany Lions as the team’s hitting coach in 2024, Baggetta oversaw one of the most dominant power hitting teams in Penn State program history and helped guide the Blue & White to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011 as a key contributor to Crowell’s staff. PSU published a 35-20 overall record and paired that with a 12-11 finish in Big Ten Conference play, marking the third-winningest season at PSU in history as well as the fourth-winningest B1G campaign in Happy Valley all-time. The Nittany Lions punched their ticket to the NCAA Bryan-College Station Regional, picking up at least one NCAA Tournament win in a season for just the eighth time in program annals.
With Baggetta serving as a key addition to the staff, a trio of Nittany Lion athletes earned NFCA All-Great Lakes Region accolades in the postseason, with Bridget Nemeth garnering a First Team nod while Maddie Gordon appeared on the Second Team and Gaby Garcia rounded out the Third Team. Nemeth additionally landed unanimous First Team All-B1G accolades and All-Freshman honors while Garcia, Gordon and Kaitlyn Morrison secured spots on the league’s Second Team. Nemeth also landed the B1G Freshman of the Year award, Penn State Female Athlete of the Year award and a pair of Freshman All0-America distinctions in Baggetta’s inaugural PSU campaign. Penn State’s decorated student-athletes led the way in one of the most productive offensive campaigns in school history, with the Nittany Lion offense hitting the most doubles and home runs in a single season while accumulating the most total bases in a year in program history. PSU also mustered the third-most RBI, runs scored and triples in a single season in school history with Baggetta helping to steer the offense.
Baggetta joined the Blue & White as an assistant after spending the five prior seasons as the head coach at Division III Emory University. While at the helm in Atlanta, Baggetta compiled 91 overall victories and led Emory to the championship series of the 2019 NCAA Division III Softball Tournament. Emory’s landmark 2019 campaign included a University Athletic Association conference championship, while the program’s national runner-up finish proved to be the most dominant single season in school history. The Eagles garnered the No. 2 final ranking in the NFCA Coaches Poll and landed a trio of student-athletes on the NCAA All-Championship team.
In her five seasons with Emory, the Eagles mustered 20 All-UAA selections, five NCAA All-Regional Team honorees, two UAA Position Players of the Year and one UAA Freshman of the Year. Baggetta’s program excelled as much off the field of play as it did on the diamond, with 31 student-athletes landing Easton/NFCA Scholar Athlete status while representing Emory. Her program produced a trio of College Sports Communicators Academic All-District representatives, while the squad boasted a 100% graduation rate coupled with a 3.61 cumulative GPA during her tenure in Atlanta.
In addition to her wealth of head coaching experience, Baggetta also boasts nearly a decade of prior assistant coaching experience in the Big Ten Conference. Before arriving at Emory, she worked as an assistant coach, and ultimately as an associate head coach with the Iowa Hawkeyes. While in Iowa City, she was tasked with directing the hitters and defensive personnel while simultaneously managing the team’s travel budget and recruiting operations. During her time with the Hawkeyes, Iowa saw 17 student-athletes garner All-Big Ten accolades, nine earn placements on the All-Big Ten Defensive Team and six more appear as NFCA All-Region representatives. Iowa boasted a 100% graduation rate during Baggetta’s tenure and saw 51 student-athletes land Academic All-Big Ten laurels.
Before joining the Hawkeyes, Baggetta spent the first eight seasons of her coaching career at the University of South Carolina as an associate head Coach, assistant coach and volunteer assistant. As a coach with her alma mater, she helped mentor 12 All-SEC selections and assisted the program to the Super Regionals of the 2007 NCAA Tournament in addition to five NCAA Regional berths overall. In the classroom, two Gamecock student-athletes were named Academic All-Americans while 42 more appeared on the SEC Spring Academic Honor Roll.
Baggetta is an NCAA Certified Recruiter and is an active member of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, serving as a member of the Division III Top-25 Committee while at Emory. She is also a member of Women Leaders in College Sports, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing female professionals at every level of intercollegiate athletics.
As a student-athlete with the Gamecocks from 1999 to 2002, she helped lead Carolina to four consecutive NCAA Regional appearances, three SEC East Division championships and the 2000 SEC Tournament title. She was a Second Team All-SEC selection in 2002, also garnering a spot on the SEC All-Tournament Team. Baggetta graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2022 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Sport and Entertainment Management with a minor in business administration.