When the Mississippi State softball team’s season was put on hold March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Bulldogs harbored hope of an eventual resumption.
But senior second baseman Lindsey Williams had her doubts.
“It was sort of an unknown, but I think deep down I knew that it was over,” Williams told The Dispatch on Thursday.
Soon, she was home in Mobile, Alabama, for good, still trying to take everything in.
“‘This doesn’t feel right,” Williams told her family. “‘I’m supposed to be at class. I’m supposed to be at practice.'”
On a FaceTime call with sophomore catcher Jackie McKenna, who was already back in her home state of Florida, Williams could still only think of the things — and the people — she missed.
Williams tried to process what had been taken from her and her team, which had started its season with a record of 25-3, the best start in Mississippi State history. At that fateful, final March 12 practice, as Williams and the Bulldogs stretched on the outfield grass one last time, they were just over 24 hours away from their Southeastern Conference opener against Kentucky at Nusz Park in Starkville.
“I think I’ll just remember how great this year was,” Williams said. “I think it was gonna be the best year. We were gonna make a run for it.”
Just five days after that final practice, the Southeastern Conference officially canceled competition for the remainder of the season, and March 30, the NCAA Division I Council granted athletes in spring sports a waiver for an extra year of collegiate eligibility to make up for it.
At the team’s end-of-the-year meetings in mid-April, Fa Leilua, Alyssa Loza, Candace Denis and Christian Quinn all accepted that offer, officially choosing to play with the Bulldogs for one more year.
Williams declined it.
“You always want to go back and play, but you always have to think about every outcome and every factor that goes into it,” Williams said. “It doesn’t only affect me; it affects everyone that I’m around and my family.”
2020 proved to be a season of high-water marks for not only the Bulldogs but Williams herself. After finding herself in the starting lineup only four times in her first three years with the team, Williams started 21 games at second base this spring, hitting. 295 and driving in 10 runs. Against Alabama State on Feb. 12, she hit her first career home run; in her final game on March 11 at Southern Miss, she turned a slick double play to end the bottom of the first inning by snaring a liner and stepping on second to force out the baserunner.
“I love defense, so I’m really happy I ended out that way,” Williams said of the play.
As the Bulldogs’ hitting coach, Samantha Ricketts watched Williams’ maturation before Ricketts took over the reins as the team’s head coach this year. To Ricketts, Williams has become proof that young players who stay patient in the face of inconsistent playing time often wind up finding a path to success at Mississippi State.
“We’re gonna tell the Lindsey Williams story to teams for the three years to come,” Ricketts said. “She’s just such a great example in this day and age when players want that immediate gratification, and she really just put her head down and worked and was a great teammate. She led by example. She didn’t complain. She was a good leader. To see how her hard work paid off for her, I think, is just a great story that we can continue to share with other players who continue to come into the program.”
But Williams made the tough decision not to continue that story by forgoing a fifth season with the Bulldogs, pointing to her completed education and her future job opportunities as critical factors.
Graduating from Mississippi State on May 1 with a major in civil engineering, Williams doesn’t need to pursue a master’s degree, which could have kept her in classes in Starkville for at least an extra year. To officially become an engineer, all she needs to do is pass the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) and PE (Principles and Practice of Engineering) examinations.
Consequently, after talking it over with her family in Mobile, Williams decided she didn’t want to spend an extra year in college.
“It’s hard not to go back and play that one last year, especially the way all of this ended,” Williams said. “It all comes to an end eventually, and education is the most important thing, so that’s ultimately what made my decision.”
Williams has lined up a full-time job for herself in her hometown, too. Late in the spring semester, a girl she interned with at the infrastructure consulting firm Volkert, Inc., called Williams to ask if she was interested in some part-time work with the company. Williams agreed, and she’s currently helping out with Volkert; she said a full-time offer will be coming as soon as her college degree officially goes through.
It’s one big reason why Williams made her decision, and it’s why her fellow seniors are excited for her and understanding of why she won’t be returning in 2021.
“As much as we all wanted Lindsey back, we’ve known she’s had a lot lined up for herself and worked really hard to line a lot of job opportunities up for herself and graduate in four years and have a lot of big goals ahead of her,” Denis said.
Quinn, Williams’ roommate in Starkville, had heard Williams talk excitedly about her career every day for nearly two years after Quinn transferred in from Florida Southwestern College. Despite knowing the decision Williams would make, Quinn said it wasn’t easy to process.
“It’s tough not being able to see someone that you’ve become close friends with every day,” Quinn said.
But Williams will still keep in touch with her former Bulldog teammates, saying she was excited that Quinn, Denis, Leilua and Loza will all get one more year with the team.
“They’re still gonna be my senior class, so I’ll definitely be rooting for them every single game,” Williams said.
She plans to make the 3½-hour drive up to Starkville every weekend she can to watch her old squad play at Nusz Park — a sign Williams’ impact on the team will still be felt.
“She’s only down the road from Starkville, so she’s probably gonna be up here a lot more than we imagine,” Quinn said. “It’ll still be good.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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