Softball

Anna Zoia-Buescher will be joining the Santa Rosa Junior College Softball coaching staff for her second year, specializing in outfield, baserunning, offense, and strength and conditioning. She brings an abundance of knowledge and experience to the coaching staff after having had a successful high school, junior college, and DII college softball career.

Zoia-Buescher walked on to play NCAA Division II softball at Sonoma State University for Head Coach Jennifer Bridges in 2022. In her debut she recorded a .396 BA, .443 OBP, and .527 SLG% with 67 H, 33 R, 20 RBI’s, and 13 SB to receive an All-CCAA First Team selection, an NFCA and D2CCA First Team All-West Region selection, and Sonoma State’s Female Newcomer of the Year award. She was also named CCAA Player of the Week in April of the 2022 season after leading the team to a four-game sweep of Cal State East Bay. She played a significant role in leading her team to win that year’s CCAA Conference Tournament Championship, and a trip to the NCAAD2 Western Regionals.

Come 2023, Zoia-Buescher earned a scholarship to continue playing at SSU. This was the year of her historic season as she recorded a career high .466 BA (led the conference), .516 OBP, and .620 SLG% with 76 H, 45 R, 22 RBI’s, and 23 SB. Her success on the field and in the classroom earned her an accumulation of recognition; NFCA and D2CCA Second-Team All-American, D2CCA West Region Player of the Year, NFCA and D2CCA First-Team All-West region selection, CCAA Player of the Year/ MVP, All-CCAA First-Team selection, Sonoma State’s Female Athlete of the Year, and broke and set the new school batting average record. This year she was placed on both the CCAA Preseason and DII Player of the Year watchlists. She earned CCAA Player of the Week twice in 2023; once in February after her staggering performance against Saint Martin’s and Academy of Art, and once in April after leading the team to a two game sweep of Montana State Billings and taking the series over Cal State East Bay. This is the first year that Sonoma State Softball has ever won the regular season conference title in program history. Academically, she maintained a 3.8 GPA for the school year and was acknowledged as an NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete.

Deciding to take her fifth year with the Seawolves, Anna capped off her collegiate career with a .348 BA, .421 OBP, and .441 SLG% with 56 H, 34 R, 14 RBI’s, and 30 SB (led the conference) to receive her third and final pair of All-CCAA First Team and NFCA and D2CCA First Team All-West Region selections. Although this team didn’t make it to the Western Regionals, they won yet another regular season conference title being only the second in program history, in back to back years. Off the field, she maintained a 4.0 GPA for the school year and was acknowledged, once again, as an NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete.

Prior to transferring to Sonoma State, she began her college softball career at Santa Rosa Junior College in the Fall of 2018. She joined as a redshirt her first year with the Bear Cubs due to shoulder surgery in 2019. During her freshman year in 2020, she recorded a .635 BA with 12 RBI’s, 31 R, and 10 SB over the course of nineteen games until COVID-19 put a halt on the season. As community colleges were able to compete come 2021, she posted a .536 BA with 15 RBI’s, 33 R, and 12 SB over the course of twenty-five games. This year she was named as an NFCA CAL JC First Team All-American. Due to the NCAA ruling to grant JC athletes their eligibility back, she pursued her collegiate career at SSU having all four years to use. 

The Santa Rosa local graduated from Montgomery High School in 2018, after playing four years of varsity softball. In those four years she earned herself four, First-Team All-NBL selections, earning MVP in her senior year in 2018. She split her time playing outfield and pitching, finishing high school with a career batting average of .543, and OBP of .636.

Anna recently graduated cum laude from Sonoma State University in May of 2024 with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Economics and a minor in Business Administration, after maintaining a 3.5 GPA throughout her entire six years of undergraduate coursework. Although she owns one more year of eligibility, she chose to join Head Coach Madison Green and the rest of the coaching staff, to give back to her old program in her hometown.