Fast Company
Brownsburg senior looks forward to softball career at Southern Indiana
By Mike Beas
The player expected to lead Brownsburg softball this spring is one letter removed from the most appropriate surname possible.
Senior center fielder Mackenzie Bedrick is the Bulldogs’ bedrock.
(Photo by Eric Pritchett)
Bedrick bats left-handed and throws right-handed, using her speed in both instances to benefit coach Keith Brown’s squad the past three seasons. She can lay down the perfect bunt and be three-quarters of the way to first base before the ball is fielded.
Defensively, Bedrick covers ground like few others.
“When you look at Mackenzie physically, she’s not intimidating,” said Brown, whose season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “But she has that work ethic and has one speed, which is all out all of the time. Fundamentally, she just has all of the instincts as a softball player and as an athlete.”
In 2019, the Bulldogs advanced all the way to the championship game of the Bedford North Lawrence Semistate before losing, 6-1, to eventual Class 4A state titlist Center Grove. Bedrick, who hits leadoff, finished the season with a scalding .531 batting average, her 51 base hits and 43 runs scored leading the team with room to spare.
Academically, Bedrick excels with a 4.2 grade-point average. She plans to major in nursing and play softball at Southern Indiana, a Division II program.
Bedrick participated in a Q&A with the ICON:
Q: Being right-handed, how difficult was it to not only learn to hit left-handed, but also become comfortable bunting?
A: When I practiced when I was younger, I was always a left-handed hitter. I learned to bunt when I was around 10 years old. It was hard at first because it was hard to get the bat steady. It’s more nerves, and you have to learn how to hold the bat strong because it’s really easy to pop the ball up.
Q: You’ve represented Brownsburg High School as an Athletic Ambassador the past two years. Why is that important to you?
A: It’s a lot about helping the community. We go to all the elementary schools and talk to third graders, teaching them about character traits. It’s important because a lot of those kids look up to you.
Q: Since the start of the 2015 season, Southern Indiana softball owns a record of 211-94. Besides the obvious winning tradition, what else attracted you to the school?
A: The coach is super nice, and I thought the campus was very beautiful when I visited. I committed the summer before my junior year.
Q: It looks like there will be three former Brownsburg players on the Screaming Eagles roster next season. How fun will it be to reconnect with Elissa Brown and Anna Carroll?
