HADLEY, Mass. -- Bates softball's Kat McKay is the NESCAC Co-Coach of the Year and two Bobcats earned All-NESCAC honors, as announced Thursday by the New England Small College Athletic Conference.

McKay is the first Bates softball coach in the 23-year history of the NESCAC as a competitive conference to earn Coach of the Year. She shares the honor this season with Colby's Terren Allen after leading the Bobcats to the NESCAC semifinals in her first year at the helm of the program. Bates entered the conference tournament as the seventh seed before upending defending champion and second seeded Amherst 1-0 in the quarterfinals for the first win in the NESCAC tournament in program history. The Bobcats were the only NESCAC team to beat national powerhouse Tufts during the regular season and Bates finished the year with 16 wins overall, tied for the fourth most victories in the 48-year history of Bates softball. 

Senior outfielder Cassidy Musco (Walpole, Mass.) earns First Team All-NESCAC honors after leading the Bobcats in batting average (.403) and OPS (.920) this year. The speedy center fielder tallied the third-most hits in one season in program history (48) and led the team in eight offensive categories. Batting in the lead-off spot all year, she only struck out nine times in 119 at bats and was one of two players to start all 34 games for the Bobcats. Musco recorded 16 multi-hit games in 2023, including in back-to-back contests against Tufts where she went 2-3 at the plate in each game. Musco is the program's first First Team All-NESCAC selection since Kirsten Pelletier '20 in 2019 and the first position player to earn First Team All-NESCAC honors for Bates since Stacia Saniuk '09 in 2009.

First-year pitcher and infielder Madison Hollis (McMinnville, Tenn.) is a Second Team All-NESCAC selection after posting a 2.28 ERA in 95 innings pitched for Bates. She won six games in the circle, with her signature win coming on April 29 when Hollis threw a complete game shutout against No. 8 nationally ranked Tufts. Hollis also performed well at the plate, hitting .306 on the season and driving in 16 runs. She was named the NESCAC Pitcher of the Week on April 10 after tossing five innings of one-run ball in a 13-1 mercy rule win over Bowdoin, and tossing a complete game shutout against Wesleyan, striking out eight in seven innings. Hollis is the first Bates rookie to earn All-NESCAC honors since Caroline Bass '21 in 2018 and the first rookie pitcher in program history to land on the all-conference teams. She joins Pelletier and Krissie Whiting '03 as the only Bates pitchers to earn All-NESCAC honors.