Photo by: Mississippi State Athletics
Madisyn Kennedy Enjoys Exploring Her Range
May 11, 2020 | Softball, HailStateBEAT
by Brian Ogden, Assistant Director/Communications
STARKVILLE – It wasn't a planned trip. The team was just stopping by the canyon for a few pictures and a chance to see the local sights, but five hours later Madisyn Kennedy and her travel ball teammates were standing at the top of a mountain.
The group from Birmingham, Alabama, were in Colorado for a tournament. When they reached El Dorado Canyon, Kennedy and her teammates just started walking.
"We hiked like eight miles, and we didn't know we were going on a hike until we got there," she said. "But it was the best time of my life."
To prove how unplanned the spontaneous excursion was, Kennedy pointed out that they were unprepared and forgot to bring water, so they stopped along the way to drink from a stream.
Mississippi State's freshman shortstop said she just loves to be outside and get away. She's taken up photography, but even that hobby is more of an excuse to get back into the outdoors. Her lens tends to alternate focus between the people she's with and the natural beauty surrounding them.
"Nature, obviously, is really pretty," she explained. "Taking pictures of things that nobody else really sees, that's my favorite. With people in pictures, I love the moments, being able to go back and remember a moment once you see that picture later on. That is what makes the best picture to me."
Kennedy used to be a mountains person because that landscape made the prettiest photographs, but she's started to consider the beach more as the weather warms up. She misses being by the ocean.
With the 2020 softball season canceled, she's had plenty of time to return to her favorite hiking spot. The Kennedy family makes frequent trips to Chewacla State Park outside of Auburn, Alabama. They follow a different trail each time to see something new. Even Cooper, the family dog, joins in.
"He's pretty good off the leash if there's not a lot of people around," Kennedy said. "He knows. He doesn't ever get too far away. He gets to a certain distance and then stops like, 'Oh, where are my people at?'"
The trek in Colorado remains Kennedy's longest at eight miles, but the family caravan has gone as far as four miles. They stop along the way to sit in the splash of the local waterfall, and usually make it back to their car two or three hours later.
Turning her attention back to softball, Kennedy considered what a team hike might look like. She's fairly confident Chloe Malau'ulu or Paige Cook would wander the farthest. Cook may even stray too far from the trail and get lost. Finding a teammate to single out as the least-likely hiker was more difficult because she feels like most of the Bulldogs are pretty adventurous.
Jackie McKenna gets the nod there.
Her fun-loving teammates have become one of her favorite things about playing the sport she loves.
"Being with people and playing with people that I love to be around, it just makes it so much fun and a more enjoyable game to play," Kennedy said. "The people that we have now, that we're all surrounded with, they're easy to be around and easy to play with because they're such enjoyable people."
Lately she's found another hobby that mirrors some aspects of her play on the field.
"I started cooking, and I realized how much I loved it," she said. "I knew I always loved it before all of this happened, but now that I have the time to do it, my skills have been sharpened. It's great."
Kennedy isn't much for recipes. She might start with an idea she found on Pinterest, like the almond milk she made the other day, but for the most part she'd rather figure it out on her own.
"If there's anything in the fridge, I kind of just throw stuff together and see how it turns out," she said. "I love creating things from nothing. I started out using recipes, and then I was like I'm just going to experiment with things and see how they taste. That way is so much better."
Her family tends to agree. Kennedy admits she used to struggle in the kitchen, but her family breakfasts have gotten much better reviews lately. She excels when she's left to react, solve a puzzle on her own and be creative. It's the same process she goes through on the field.
Whenever a ball is hit her way she reacts more than she thinks. If she has enough time to think about the play, it was probably a little too easy.
"Most of the time, I don't really think because that's probably when I would say I'm hopefully best – playing freely and not thinking," Kennedy said. "I just let whatever happens happen."
Playing freely has led to an impressive highlight reel of plays ranging all across the infield. She earned the starting job in the middle of the diamond before anyone had ever seen her play a game collegiately.
From her first practice in Starkville, Kennedy was impressing teammates, coaches and staff with her range and polished defensive work, but she didn't think much of it.
"Little freshman me at the beginning was really nervous," she said. "At this point, I was like, 'No one has completely seen everything that I could do, so you know what, I'm just going to go all out and see what happens.' I really wasn't paying attention to if I impressed anybody or if I surprised them. I just wanted to play and was happy to be out there, just experiencing everything for the first time."
One of her most-surprising plays of the year came in one of the tightest situations the Bulldogs found themselves in in 2020. In a scoreless ballgame against Southeast Missouri, the Redhawks had put runners on first and second and were attempting to bunt them over coupled with a double steal.
When the third basemen broke for the plate to field the bunt, it looked like the base was surely stolen. All-American catcher Mia Davidson let the throw fly anyway. Kennedy was there. While breaking for third, she snagged a throw that was slightly behind her and applied the tag just in time.
"I've always enjoyed defense a lot more than anything else," she said. "I guess that would be because it's a place for me to be creative. I don't want to say do things that nobody else does, but it is my own little space where I can be free."
Kennedy would prefer to take ground balls over batting practice every day. She likes to test her range – to the left, to the right, and even coming in. She loves making plays on the run, no matter which way she's heading.
It's similar to her hikes. She wants to be moving. Where she's going isn't as important.
"You're eventually going to get somewhere," she said. "That's my philosophy on pretty much everything."
And when she gets there, the result will probably be something no one else has seen or noticed before.
STARKVILLE – It wasn't a planned trip. The team was just stopping by the canyon for a few pictures and a chance to see the local sights, but five hours later Madisyn Kennedy and her travel ball teammates were standing at the top of a mountain.
The group from Birmingham, Alabama, were in Colorado for a tournament. When they reached El Dorado Canyon, Kennedy and her teammates just started walking.
"We hiked like eight miles, and we didn't know we were going on a hike until we got there," she said. "But it was the best time of my life."
To prove how unplanned the spontaneous excursion was, Kennedy pointed out that they were unprepared and forgot to bring water, so they stopped along the way to drink from a stream.
Mississippi State's freshman shortstop said she just loves to be outside and get away. She's taken up photography, but even that hobby is more of an excuse to get back into the outdoors. Her lens tends to alternate focus between the people she's with and the natural beauty surrounding them.
"Nature, obviously, is really pretty," she explained. "Taking pictures of things that nobody else really sees, that's my favorite. With people in pictures, I love the moments, being able to go back and remember a moment once you see that picture later on. That is what makes the best picture to me."
Kennedy used to be a mountains person because that landscape made the prettiest photographs, but she's started to consider the beach more as the weather warms up. She misses being by the ocean.
With the 2020 softball season canceled, she's had plenty of time to return to her favorite hiking spot. The Kennedy family makes frequent trips to Chewacla State Park outside of Auburn, Alabama. They follow a different trail each time to see something new. Even Cooper, the family dog, joins in.
"He's pretty good off the leash if there's not a lot of people around," Kennedy said. "He knows. He doesn't ever get too far away. He gets to a certain distance and then stops like, 'Oh, where are my people at?'"
The trek in Colorado remains Kennedy's longest at eight miles, but the family caravan has gone as far as four miles. They stop along the way to sit in the splash of the local waterfall, and usually make it back to their car two or three hours later.
Turning her attention back to softball, Kennedy considered what a team hike might look like. She's fairly confident Chloe Malau'ulu or Paige Cook would wander the farthest. Cook may even stray too far from the trail and get lost. Finding a teammate to single out as the least-likely hiker was more difficult because she feels like most of the Bulldogs are pretty adventurous.
Jackie McKenna gets the nod there.
Her fun-loving teammates have become one of her favorite things about playing the sport she loves.
"Being with people and playing with people that I love to be around, it just makes it so much fun and a more enjoyable game to play," Kennedy said. "The people that we have now, that we're all surrounded with, they're easy to be around and easy to play with because they're such enjoyable people."
Lately she's found another hobby that mirrors some aspects of her play on the field.
"I started cooking, and I realized how much I loved it," she said. "I knew I always loved it before all of this happened, but now that I have the time to do it, my skills have been sharpened. It's great."
Kennedy isn't much for recipes. She might start with an idea she found on Pinterest, like the almond milk she made the other day, but for the most part she'd rather figure it out on her own.
"If there's anything in the fridge, I kind of just throw stuff together and see how it turns out," she said. "I love creating things from nothing. I started out using recipes, and then I was like I'm just going to experiment with things and see how they taste. That way is so much better."
Her family tends to agree. Kennedy admits she used to struggle in the kitchen, but her family breakfasts have gotten much better reviews lately. She excels when she's left to react, solve a puzzle on her own and be creative. It's the same process she goes through on the field.
Whenever a ball is hit her way she reacts more than she thinks. If she has enough time to think about the play, it was probably a little too easy.
"Most of the time, I don't really think because that's probably when I would say I'm hopefully best – playing freely and not thinking," Kennedy said. "I just let whatever happens happen."
Playing freely has led to an impressive highlight reel of plays ranging all across the infield. She earned the starting job in the middle of the diamond before anyone had ever seen her play a game collegiately.
From her first practice in Starkville, Kennedy was impressing teammates, coaches and staff with her range and polished defensive work, but she didn't think much of it.
"Little freshman me at the beginning was really nervous," she said. "At this point, I was like, 'No one has completely seen everything that I could do, so you know what, I'm just going to go all out and see what happens.' I really wasn't paying attention to if I impressed anybody or if I surprised them. I just wanted to play and was happy to be out there, just experiencing everything for the first time."
One of her most-surprising plays of the year came in one of the tightest situations the Bulldogs found themselves in in 2020. In a scoreless ballgame against Southeast Missouri, the Redhawks had put runners on first and second and were attempting to bunt them over coupled with a double steal.
When the third basemen broke for the plate to field the bunt, it looked like the base was surely stolen. All-American catcher Mia Davidson let the throw fly anyway. Kennedy was there. While breaking for third, she snagged a throw that was slightly behind her and applied the tag just in time.
"I've always enjoyed defense a lot more than anything else," she said. "I guess that would be because it's a place for me to be creative. I don't want to say do things that nobody else does, but it is my own little space where I can be free."
Kennedy would prefer to take ground balls over batting practice every day. She likes to test her range – to the left, to the right, and even coming in. She loves making plays on the run, no matter which way she's heading.
It's similar to her hikes. She wants to be moving. Where she's going isn't as important.
"You're eventually going to get somewhere," she said. "That's my philosophy on pretty much everything."
And when she gets there, the result will probably be something no one else has seen or noticed before.
Players Mentioned
3B/UTL
/ Softball
C/INF
/ Softball
SS/3B
/ Softball
OF
/ Softball
C/3B
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