ORLANDO, FL -- Texas A&M softball senior Rhi Kliesing was selected as the 19th-overall pick by the NPF Diamonds in the 2011 National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) Senior Draft, the organization announced recently.

Kliesing was one of 20 college seniors selected in the four-team draft, including six by the Diamonds. She will join former teammates Megan Gibson and Jami Lobpries on the Orlando-based travel team.

“I’m excited for Rhi to have the opportunity to play in the NPF,” Texas A&M head coach Jo Evans said. “Rhi has been a mainstay in our lineup for the past four years and she has earned the right to play at the next level. She has the maturity and talent to excel in the NPF and I’m sure she will have a great experience playing with her former Aggie teammates.”

In her four years as an Aggie, Kliesing has been honored on the All-Big 12 first team and the Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division I Central All-Region first team. She has also been named Big 12 Player and Pitcher of the Week.

This season the Pearland, Texas, native has amassed a career-high 12 home runs, hitting 32-for-81 for a .395 batting average with 22 runs and 37 RBI. Kliesing has started in all 199 games of her four-year career, compiling a .322 cumulative average from the plate. As a freshman in 2008, the first baseman helped the Aggies to the Women’s College World Series (WCWS), where she tallied three hits for two RBI, including the go-ahead run against Louisiana-Lafayette, and drew two walks.

A&M softball enters Big 12 play Saturday with a single game against Baylor in Waco before hosting the Bears at the Aggie Softball Complex on Sunday. For more information on Aggie softball, log onto AggieAthletics.com.