Megan Davison hasn’t always held up her end of the bargain.
Coming out of Derby High School, Davison was recruited to Emporia State by former coach Stacy Geimerhardt. She knew her role was simple.
“I think she (Geimerhardt) was just looking for a contact hitter,” Davison said, “who could put the ball in play.”
Forty-nine times in her career, Davison has failed to put the ball in play in a big way.
That’s because the ESU third baseman — the one who didn’t hit a single home run over the fence in four years of high school — hasn’t been able to keep her hits in the playing field since coming to Emporia.
“I’ve always hit the ball hard,” Davison said, “but I’d never really got a hold of one like I have these past couple years.”
Now, the senior is just three swings away from history.
With her 49 career home runs, Davison needs just three more to break the conference record set by Truman’s Elizabeth Economon.
Not too bad for a converted third baseman who believed she would make her mark with liners instead of dingers.
“She’s got a ton of power,” current ESU softball coach Kristi Bredbenner said, “and when she hits the ball solid, the capabilities she has of putting a ball out of play and beyond their reach is just unbelieveable.”
So what exactly has changed for Davison, the one who claimed only a single inside-the-park home run during her days at Derby?
For one, she’s gotten a lot stronger.
After lifting weights in high school under the supervision of football coaches, Davison started a softball-based training program at ESU — one that focused on strength in her arms and legs.
The results have been drastic.
After hitting six home runs as a freshman and 11 as a sophomore, Davison blasted an MIAA single-season record 23 homers as a junior.
This season, she leads the team with nine home runs, 39 RBI and also a .407 average.
“I never go up there thinking I’m swinging for the fences,” Davison said. “I just work for a base hit and do anything I can to help the team. If it’s a home run, it’s a home run.”
Davison also has received advice from one of the best power hitters in MIAA history.
That would be Bredbenner, who actually was the MIAA leader in home runs with 33 when her career ended at Truman in 2001.
The coach has changed Davison’s stance over the last two years for better balance and also to help get her full body into the swing.
“In high school, I think you’re a different person than you are in college,” Bredbenner said. “You really learn what it takes to be a great hitter. I think that’s her strength, is that she’s worked hard at it and she’s improved every year.”
Davison — nicknamed “Doc” because of her initials, M.D. — only added to her legacy in ESU’s April 12 game against Washburn.
On a cold, windy day, the senior hit what she would later call “probably the hardest one I’ve ever hit.”
Against WU’s Kelly Swygert, Davison cleared the 12-foot outfield fence easily — one located 225 feet away.
Not only that, the towering shot landed three-fourths the way up the hill beyond the wall, nearly hitting a privacy fence behind it.
Bredbenner called it “the biggest bomb I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“She got all of that,” Bredbenner said. “Three feet off the bat, you knew that ball was out of here by a mile.”
It’s a scene that Davison never would have imagined four years ago.
The same hitter who was surprised after she hit her first home run is now on the verge of attaining a feat no other MIAA softball player has.
“When I first got here, none of these records that I have accomplished in these four years — none of that would have ever went through my mind,” Davison said.
After all, her role was simple: just put the ball in play.
Davison smiles.
She never was very good at keeping her end of the bargain.