Cavenaugh turns big season at SRU into chance to play at Coastal Carolina
When Maddie Cavenaugh was a senior at South Fayette, she had two offers to play college softball.
Slippery Rock and Indiana (Pa.).
In one year, Cavenaugh proved to NCAA Division I programs that they swung and missed when they didn’t recruit her.
Cavenaugh had an outstanding freshman season at Slippery Rock where she was a second-team Division II All-American.
Now she’ll get the chance to achieve her goal of playing at the Division I level.
After entering the transfer portal, Cavenaugh had plenty of Division I suitors and last week she committed to play at Coastal Carolina.
“The goal was always to play at the highest level, but I didn’t have the opportunity out of high school,” Cavenaugh said. “When I committed to Slippery Rock, I just felt like I always knew that someday I was destined to play Division I softball. I had people tell me that too all the time. I was a late bloomer in terms of hitting. I really didn’t figure it out until my junior year and a lot of girls are committed to Division I schools by then.”
Cavenaugh certainly proved she could hit at the college level this year. She hit .440 in 47 games with 10 doubles, four triples and a dozen homers. She drove in 48 runs and walked 31 times, while striking out only 23 times.
In one year, she made a mark on the Slippery Rock record books. She’s 14th all-time in program history in home runs and 13th in stolen bases with 21. It was a season that garnered her the PSAC West Athlete of the Year award.
“I’ve always had an inner confidence in myself that I could play at a very high level,” Cavenaugh said. “As the season progressed (at Slippery Rock) I was like ‘wow this is going really well.’ Never could I have imagined that I would’ve had all of these accolades, but it was a really fun experience.”
In the era of the transfer portal there’s more upward mobility for college athletes at the Division II or even Division III level.
After talking it over with her parents Cavenaugh decided to enter the portal and had plenty of suitors right away.
“When the portal opened I waited until the last moment to enter,” Cavenaugh said. “It’s a big leap. There’s always that chance that you enter the portal and nothing comes of it, but as soon as I went in I had some D1 coaches reach out to me. That was really exciting.
“It was honestly stressful, but a good kind of stress. I really hadn’t experienced having a lot of coaches reaching out to me and wanting to talk on the phone. It was tough to narrow schools down, but I was able to get it down to what I felt like was a good fit with location and whether or not they were a competitive team.”
Coastal Carolina made its way to the top of the list. Cavenaugh had some other visits with schools scheduled, but after she went to Coastal Carolina, she realized quickly it was the right fit.
“It’s an amazing opportunity,” Cavenaugh said. “It’s right near the beach and I’m a big beach lover. I was excited to get down there and see what the campus had to offer. As soon as I got there, the coaches were just awesome. It was great to get to know them and see what their program was about. When I talked to the coaches about the culture, they look for character as well as being an elite softball player. I like the way they conduct the environment of the team.”
Cavenaugh will study Health Science at Coastal Carolina.
Now that she has the opportunity she’s always dreamed of, Cavenaugh plans to make the most of it.
“I just need to put my head down and go to work, so I can reap the benefits of playing at a higher level,” Cavenaugh said. “I’m super excited to go down there and have a new experience and play some good ball.”