(Photo: Alli Cline)
While generally not attracting a lot of attention to herself because of a naturally reserved personality, Bethany Kemp understands what an ASU softball team with just four seniors needs from her.
“Leadership, because I’ve been through it, and can be there for the younger class to help them along the way,” Kemp said.
As a high school prospect coming out Santa Clarita, California in 2011, Kemp was drawn to Arizona State by the family values that the school preached and the close proximity to home that the university offered.
“I always wanted to go to a Pac-12 school.” Kemp said. “It felt like family…I knew I wanted to go here. It was pretty much instant.”
Kemp has lived in the valley for three years and is going into her fourth as a senior, with newfound motivation to end her colligate career with a bang. She, along with the other three Sun Devil seniors, are looking to avoid becoming the first senior class in four years to leave the program empty handed, without winning a national title.
“As a whole team, especially our class, we want to prove something,” Kemp said. “We want something to show for our time here. It’s definitely our top goal.”
As a junior in 2013, Kemp started 43 games at first base while hitting .331 with nine homeruns.
This year, she anchors the middle of the order for an ASU lineup that boasts All-Pac-12 sluggers like Amber Freeman and Haley Steele. She currently leads the team in homers with four, a surprising start to the season considering last year’s output and the talent that she is surrounded by.
“Something that’s changed over the years is my mental game,” Kemp said, regarding her early 2015 success. “It’s helping me stay in the moment, stay focused and block out the outside stuff.”
In a lineup as talented as this one, it can be very easy to be overlooked.
Even with two outs in the bottom of the seventh of a tie game with runners in scoring position.
In a strategic move by No.4 ranked Oklahoma Sunday, the Sooners elected to walk both Steele and Freeman to face Kemp with the bases loaded and two outs.
“You would walk them to get to me?” Kemp said, recalling the at-bat. “I was a little angry…I think the extra anger may have helped it get out.”
And get out it did. Kemp crushed the first pitch she saw over the left field fence, winning the game for her team and improving Arizona State’s record to 8-4.
It hasn’t been a perfect start for Kemp and her team, but she seems to think Arizona State is on track to make an Oklahoma City appearance this June.
“It’s still very early in the season, but I think that last game showed us what we’re capable of.” Kemp said. “I think that if we keep playing for each other, no one can stop us.”
As we inch closer to conference play, the urgency for Arizona State to get into a groove and start to figure out who they are as a team becomes ever more apparent.
Sure Freeman and Steele are the headliners now, but it’s unassuming veterans like Bethany Kemp, who are willing to stay out of the spotlight and make major contributions, that separate the great teams from the giant pool of good ones.
You can reach the author by email at tstrachan@asu.edu
