Despite high honors, Arizona softball's Kennedy, Biehl not letting up

After all, this is Arizona.

The juniors still carry that approach with them today, even though both earned high honors as sophomores — Kennedy a gold glover and Biehl the Pac-12’s co-Defensive Player of the Year.

For these two, their connection runs deep. The work ethic, mental approach, classmates and playing for the same travel team (Lady Magic Munoz).

Yet, their journeys as Wildcats took slightly different paths.

Kennedy was penciled into left field in the lineup card seemingly right away, while Biehl was definitely in the mix, but as, what Arizona coach Caitlin Lowe likes to call, “Swiss Army knife.”

Biehl roamed around the outfield and the infield before she landed at shortstop midway through her freshman year and has been there ever since. She even practiced catching, just in case she was needed there.

“We’re different in the sense that she moved around everywhere, just like total package utility, right there,” Kennedy said of Biehl. “I guess similar would just be in the sense that we came in with the same mindset. We're here to work and we're here to work every day. To this day, we work every day at practice for our spots, not just like giving anything away.”

Their hard work continues to pay off.

For Kennedy, when asked what’s next after winning a gold glove as a sophomore and becoming a Top 40 player in each preseason Top 100 list whether it’s Softball America (No. 34) or D1 Softball (No. 17) or even USA Softball’s Player of the Year watch list, she shrugged and said, “It's just taking it day by day, pitch by pitch.”

Her approach is the same whether she’s raking in league honors or national honors. As a freshman, she made the All-Pac 12 first team and freshman team. She hit .356, had a .630 slugging percentage, drove in 35 runs and had nine stolen bases. She had a .985 fielding percentage with only one error.

As a sophomore, she had no errors in the field for a perfect fielding percentage. In both seasons, she made spectacular catches — even robbing opponents of home runs. In the batters’ box, she raised her average to .396, slugging percentage to .677, and drove in 32 runs. Once again, she was on Pac-12’s first team, added all-defensive team honors. In addition, she claimed NFCA’s All-West first team and third-team All-American.

Lowe has seen Kennedy’s small improvements day by day each season.

“She is very focused on details,” Lowe said. “I think that's the biggest thing with her is when I'm hitting side fungo in the outfield, nobody's watching except for me and her other outfielders. She's working on her feet and how quick they are, making sure she's in line every single time. She's precise. She's like that offensively, as well.

“She knows what it takes to be great. She knows that the little things matter, and she's going to be excellent at doing the little things correctly, and that's something that spreads to the rest of our team, as well.”

One of the drills that Kennedy said really helps her fellow outfield group get to balls that seem just out of reach and make those incredible catches is pushing themselves a little further each time.

“All of us outfielders are testing during practice to see ‘OK, we just got to this ball, let’s move a little fit farther and see if we can still get to that ball,’” Kennedy said. “Once you get there, ‘OK, let’s move a little bit farther, a little bit farther.’”

Settling in

When Biehl became a Wildcat, she knew that she would have to earn her spot. It was all part of the process that she signed up for. She was going to work hard and “Be whatever they needed me to be.”

“I was going to be the best role player and team player I could, and it all worked out for me,” Biehl said.

She watched Jessie Harper come in and play first base her freshman year before moving over to shortstop. She also watched Blaise Biringer play at second base and a little in the outfield before settling into her spot at third. Both of those players turned out to be invaluable to the Wildcats. Biehl was hoping she was next.

Biehl said she just figured it out and “found the joy in it and trying new things, exploring new places on the field.”

As a rookie, Biehl was on the Pac-12’s all-freshman team, playing 17 games in the outfield, 14 at first base, six at third base and nine at shortstop, starting in 40 of 49 games she played in. Biehl played in six of nine positions in the field.

“She is such a great defender,” Lowe said. “She's an incredible outfielder, as you learned freshman year. Sad to have her go into the infield but that's where she shines the brightest on our team.”

Once Biehl took over at shortstop, her natural position, that was it. There was no turning back.

“Having this solidified spot, definitely a lot of pressure was off my back of having to fight for a spot because I earned it at some point,” Biehl said. “Also just having a rhythm of, ‘OK, shortstop is where I am, short is where I was practicing.’ I'm not worrying about all these different things and not messing up at first base, where I've never played before. I think it just allowed me to be myself and be where my feet are and do my thing versus trying to do other things I'm not familiar with.”

Actually, she didn’t mess up too much as a freshman, putting up a .979 fielding percentage with only three errors. That was playing in a new-to-her position for the majority of the season.

In her sophomore season that led to her defensive honor, she had a .974 fielding percentage with five errors in more attempts and 111 assists.

It didn't occur to Biehl that she was in contention to be a top defensive player in the league, as well as the nation. She just has a passion for defense and puts in the extra work, including taking extra ground ball reps with UA assistant Lauren Lappin.

Lowe added that she thought multiple Wildcats could have earned a gold glove award last year. Biehl was one who was on her list.

“It's exciting to be able to pencil her in there and just know that you're going to get consistency every single day, not just in games, but in the day-to-day process. Practice fields, in the weight room, you're getting the same Tayler every single time,” Lowe said.