Correspondent file photo / Robert Hayes Youngstown State senior catcher Kennedy Dean celebrates as she rounds the bases after hitting a home run against Detroit Mercy on March 21 at YSU Softball Complex.

YOUNGSTOWN — During her freshman season at Youngstown State in 2023, there was a time when Kennedy Dean thought she might not be cut out to play Division I softball.

A Winfield, W.Va., native, Dean first arrived in Youngstown as a well-regarded hitting prospect from the Mountain State after being named the 2022 West Virginia Hitter of the Year during her senior year of high school.

At first, she had trouble adjusting to softball at the college level. She appeared in 27 games her freshman season, batting 0.095.

“This isn’t what I thought it was going to be,” Dean said. “My freshman year, I was not very good at all. I failed a ton.”

Despite the struggles, Dean stuck with it. Her parents helped her to push through, and she developed into a starter during her sophomore and junior seasons, averaging about .270.

However, just like YSU, Dean has experienced a resurgence this spring, reaching a new level as a senior. She leads the Penguins in most major hitting categories, including batting average (.373), hits (53), doubles (14), home runs (12) and RBIs (65), as she’s helped lead YSU to the regular season Horizon League championship.

“It’s such a crazy jump from my freshman to senior year,” Dean said. “I think I just had to kind of reinvent myself a little bit as a softball player.

“My freshman year definitely gives me perspective this year and makes me thankful that I’m hitting above .300. [My parents] didn’t let me quit, and I just came back and fought and turned it around. It gives me perspective this year to remember where I came from, remember that it wasn’t always like this, and the work that it took for me to get here and be able to produce for this team.”

Just as YSU has set new program records offensively this season, so has Dean.

Her 65 RBIs are a single-season record, and she continues to add to her mark each game. She broke Nikki Saibene’s record of 49 with a grand slam on April 14 against Mercyhurst.

Dean is also just the fourth player in program history to hit at least 12 home runs in a season. The fifth player, fellow senior Emma Gilkerson, hit her 11th and 12th home runs on Friday in the Penguins’ win at Oakland. Both still have a chance to break Cali Mikovich’s record of 13, which was set in 2016.

“Coach [Brian] Campbell actually just put up some graphics in the locker room with all of our previous players of the year, first-team Horizon League, and I know those girls. I know their names, and I know what they’ve done for this program,” Dean said. “So the fact that I am matching their stats or beating them, it’s just surreal. To be able to break those records, it’s just so surreal that I’m competing at the same level as those girls. It’s definitely an honor to be able to break their records and see their names on that wall in our locker room and know that I’m right up there with them.”

Campbell said Dean also deserves to be up on those locker room graphics alongside some of YSU’s hall of farmers and other program greats.

“Sometimes it’s a learning process and they go through the program. But to be able to step up and be able to attribute and do some of the stuff that she was capable of doing this year, it’s just exciting to see that. And it’s not over, obviously, by any means,” Campbell said. “You remember those things as a coach. [A player] that puts the time in and continues to work, and when that time comes, it just makes you excited as a coach to see the progress and excited for those players to shine because it’s well deserved.”

Dean credits her growth and explosiveness at the plate this season to first-year assistant coach Erin Pond, who joined Campbell’s staff prior to the season after the softball program at Cleveland State was cut.

Dean said Pond helped reshape and transform the swings of many players on the team. As a result, the Penguins are on track to break single-season team records for batting average, runs, hits and RBIs.

“It just goes back to Coach Pond and her being able to instill that confidence back into me and remind me of how great a hitter I am, and just bring me back to the player I was, originally,” Dean said. “So I can’t thank her enough for everything that she’s done for me, and I can’t thank Youngstown enough. It’s been my home for four years, and I definitely want to leave it all out on this field for this community.”