Softball | August 24, 2026

On Borden's Plaque: A four-time All-Ivy League selection, she graduated with virtually every pitching record in program history. She helped lead Penn to its two winningest seasons in program history, including a school record 33 victories in 2012. Four of the program's five Ivy League South Division titles came during her illustrious career, as well as its only NCAA Championship appearance in 2013. She holds the program's career records for starts (103), complete games (79), wins (64), strikeouts (643), innings pitched (680.2) and is second in ERA (2.30). She also set the program record for strikeouts (193) and wins (24) in a season. As a freshman, threw the first perfect game in program history and added a no-hitter in 2013, and was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 2012.  

By Marc Narducci

Alexis Borden C'15 loved playing softball. She enjoyed her time as a dominant pitcher at Penn and has so many great memories, but please don't ask her to recite her statistics or the many school records that she holds.

"I was more worried about winning the championship," she said. "The personal numbers game wasn't part of the game for me, and I am not able to recite (any of the statistics)."

There are plenty to recite, which is why she has been named as a member of the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame Class XIV. The class will be inducted on Friday, Sept. 25 in a ceremony at The Inn at Penn.

Borden, known to her friends as AC for her name Alexis Capri, was a four-time All-Ivy selection, earning first-team honors as a freshman and sophomore and second-team as a junior and senior.

What she is most proud of is the team accomplishments. She helped lead Penn to the two winningest seasons in school history. As a freshman in 2012, Penn set the school record during a 33-17 campaign. Then the next year, Penn went 30-20 and earned the program's lone NCAA appearance.

In addition, Penn won the Ivy League South Division all four of Borden's seasons. Back then, the South winner would play the North in a best-of-three series to determine the Ivy League champion. The Ivy League currently plays a four-team double-elimination tournament to determine the champion.

In 2013, South Division champion Penn beat North winner Dartmouth, 2-games-to-1 in their Ivy League championship series. The deciding game was a 3-2 Quakers win at Penn Park. Borden pitched a complete game, allowing eight hits, striking out eight and walking two.

That earned Penn its NCAA berth and after a 16-0 opening loss to Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, Penn stood tall in defeat, falling 3-2 to Arizona, in eight innings.

"I think we were very star-struck and shell-shocked because nobody expected a team from the Ivy League to be able to compete and hang in there, evidenced by that first game, and I was definitely humbled and we were excited and proud we made it that far," Borden said.

She was especially proud of how the Quakers competed in next game against Arizona.

"The second game, after that rough first game, we had nothing to lose," she said. "We decided to just go out there and have fun and take advantage of the experience."

Against Arizona in 7.1 innings, Borden allowed just three hits and two earned runs.

"Our team played so well that game and it was fun to be part of it and watch as a pitcher, the team making great plays," she said. "Our first baseman (Georgia Guttadauro W'14) made some crazy catch, a Top 10 ESPN play."

The biggest surprise for Borden was how quickly she made an impact at Penn. As a freshman in 2012 she was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year.

That season she was 24-6 with a 1.88 ERA. In 196.2 innings, she struck out 193.

It was a season that caught Borden clearly off-guard.

"What freshman thinks they will play at all," she said. "It was shocking, and a very nice surprise."

One person who wasn't surprised by Borden's immediate success was her college coach Leslie King.

"As soon as she committed to us, everybody knew she would be great," said King, who retired as Penn's softball coach prior to the 2023 season with 354 career wins in 19 years. "We were very high on her."

Borden justified the high expectations of her head coach.

"To get a pitcher of her caliber was a huge bonus to our program," King said. "It gave us the ability to compete immediately."

Perfect performance

An all-time memorable game during Borden's freshman year in 2012 was the first perfect game in program history, a 4-0 win over Cornell in a South Division playoff. Both Penn and Cornell finished 15-5 in the South Division and had a one-game playoff to determine who would play Harvard in the Ivy League championship series.  

"I remember the perfect game ended with a line drive to left field and Sydney Turchin C'15 caught it," she said.

Turchin made the catch in foul territory to end the game.

"The best thing about the game was that we won the South Division," Borden said.

Borden, so focused on winning, wasn't aware until late in the game that she had a perfect game going. At first, she was wondering why teammates weren't talking to her in the dugout. Softball players, like many athletes, are superstitious sorts, and her teammates didn't want to mention anything about the perfect game.

Late in the game, Borden knew what was up.

"They pretty much left me along and in the last inning I finally figured out why," she said laughing.

In the game, Borden had pin-point control.

"AC only had one three-ball count the entire game which is incredible," King said. "She was pounding the strike zone, the ball was moving, and she was hitting her spots and getting ahead of hitters."

Strong softball background

One thing that helped Borden is that she hails from Yorba Linda, California in Orange County, a hotbed for softball. She competed for Esperanza High School.

"It kept me humble playing high school softball because everybody was so good," she said.

Another great Penn player from Southern California was Lauren Li W'16, a year behind Borden. Li was a two-way standout. Her freshman year was the 2013 NCAA season, and she was the main backup pitcher behind Borden, with a 6-2 record and two saves in 22 appearances, including 10 starts.

After having just 17 at-bats that season, she began being a much bigger part of the offense. Li played every position at Penn except catcher, although third base was her top spot, and she was a unanimous first-team All-Ivy League selection during her junior and senior seasons.

She also remains a close friend of Borden, having recently been in her wedding party, and Li had great appreciation for their three years together at Penn.

"I hit it off with her and being Southern California natives and far from home, I felt this kinship and what struck me about being her teammate was how disciplined she was," Li said. "It felt like every decision AC made, that she was doing it for the best of the team."

What really impressed Li immediately about Borden was her incredible work ethic.

"She had talent, but she worked hard on top of that," Li said. "She always wanted to continue honing her craft."

Besides being good friends, Li says she was so fortunate to be college teammates with Borden for most of her career.

"There were some moments when I was on the team and realized I was lucky to get three years with her and I realized she was such a special player and I was grateful to be her teammate and see this every day," said Li. "That level of pitching you don't see all the time and was really grateful to be on her side."

She also got to experience Borden's pitching prowess first-hand during years of batting practice.

Li said that facing a pitcher of Borden's caliber in practice obviously helped her in the games. Her best offensive season was as a junior when she hit .376 with four home runs, and she finished with a .299 career batting average.

"She threw extremely hard and part of us in batting practice would hope that we wouldn't get hit by a pitch," Li said laughing. "There were teammates who hoped to just make contact."

Memorable season

Not surprisingly, Borden said the season she truly cherishes was the year Penn qualified for the NCAA tournament in 2013.

During that season, Borden was 17-12 with a 3.48 ERA.

"I was super proud of that team in 2013, that team had so much grit and heart and it was so much fun to play with," Borden said. "That is the most fun team that I ever played with."

It was more than just the wins that made the team special.

"It was very much a team effort, the chants and cheers and everybody was so much fun to be around, and it made the game so much fun," she said. "There were the secret hand-shakes, the toe taps and cheers and that year was the most fun I had playing."

Among other school career records Borden amassed that still stand are 643 career strikeouts, 103 career starts and 79 complete games. She also owns the single-season record for wins with 24. Her career ERA of 2.30 is second all-time.  Borden also threw a no-hitter as a sophomore against Lafayette.

A biology major at Penn, she is now Dr. Alexis Borden DO, Obstetrics/Gynecology.

"At the end of the day it was such a good experience for me to go to Penn, 2,200 miles from home. "The city is gorgeous with so much history and to go to an Ivy League school and get an education and have such a great time playing softball, it was such a great time."