LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) announced its 2021 All-America Scholar Athlete honorees, sponsored by Easton. Five members of the Missouri S&T softball team, Marcy McCalla (Staunton, IL/Staunton), Gretchen Roth (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South), Chloe Saltijeral (/North Aurora, Ill.), Elizabeth Viox (Glen Carbon, Ill./Edwardsville) and Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury), were among the more than 8,800 student-athletes recognized across all levels of college softball and the high school ranks.
 
McCalla, who graduated in the spring with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, started 22 of 33 games for S&T in the spring and batted .222 with homerun, six runs batted in and nine runs scored.
 
Roth, the first of four Miner freshman on the list and a Biology Major, appeared in just one game this spring and recorded a 1.000 fielding percentage.
 
Saltijeral, also a freshman majoring in Business & Management Systems, appeared in 18 games in her first season as a Miner and made 15 starts. The North Aurora, Illinois product batted .244 with a double, a homerun, six runs batted in and six runs scored and was a perfect 4-4 on stolen base attempts last season.
 
Viox, a freshman last spring who is majoring in Architectural Engineering, was one of two Miners to start all 38 games last spring, and batted .261 with two doubles, an RBI and scored 17 runs, tied for second most on the club.
 
Wooldridge, the final freshman from S&T on the list and also an Architectural Engineering major, was S&T's number one in the circle last spring, making 19 appearances, 14 of which were starts, and notching eight complete games. She led the staff with four wins and had the team's lone save last season, and struck out 35 batters in 93 1/3 innings of work.
 
The rankings and honors recognize the academic prowess of softball teams across the Association's membership categories. NCAA Division III led the way with 2,375 student-athletes earning a 3.5 grade-point average or higher for 2020-21. NCAA Division I and Division II followed with 1,982 and 1,727 honorees. High School weighted and High School unweighted earned 832 and 679 distinctions. NAIA and two-year programs each amassed 643 and 594 recipients, respectively.