By Will Vandervort.
By Will Vandervort
DURHAM, N.C. – When assistant coach Bradley LeCroy was recruiting Shane Kennedy to Clemson, he knew the talented infielder had some skill.
Kennedy was a junior college All-American in 2012 for Santa Fe College in Orlando, Fla. The 6-foot-2, 190 pound third baseman could do it all. He had power, yet can play with finesse as well, and can run the bases with the best of them.
“When I recruited him, I knew he was very, very athletic and could play multiple positions and could really run,” LeCroy said.
Kennedy stole 21 bases at Santa Fe, but could he translate that to the major college level? He had six steals for North Florida University in 2011 so the potential was there.
“His base running skills are very good,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. “He hustles all the time and runs hard down the first base line. It is always a track meet.”
It’s a track meet Kennedy is winning a lot for the 14th-ranked Tigers. Through 57 games this year, he leads Clemson with 20 steals, including two in Wednesday’s loss to NC State in the ACC Championships at Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, N.C.
Kennedy’s ability to run has surprised his opponents as he has only been thrown out five times in 25 attempts.
“I guess it’s because I have not always shown my (speed) in the past that’s probably why everyone was so surprised here,” Kennedy said. “I have always liked to hustle and get down the line.”
Kennedy, who ranks fourth in the ACC, has played a big role in why Clemson leads the conference with 105 steals.
“He stole 20 or 21 bases in junior college,” LeCroy said. “Now it’s a whole other level than what we have here, but a lot of it is his mentality.”
That mentality has allowed Kennedy to improve in all levels of his game, which started with his swing.
“His swing was a little bit long when he came to us,” LeCroy said. “We have been able to talk to him about staying short and being able to pull the ball the correct way. He can really pull the ball.
“He was just so strong he was getting away with it at the junior college level and this is big-time college baseball where guys can really pitch and have good velocity and they can expose your weaknesses. He had a little bit of a weakness there, but to Shane’s credit, he worked extremely hard at it. We told him what he needed to do, and he got it done.”
It started coming around for the junior in early April at Boston College where he had four hits and three runs batted in in the Tigers three wins.
“It kind of took off from there. It clicked and it kept rolling,” Kennedy said. “That gave me a lot of confidence and I just kept going from there.”
Since then Kennedy is hitting .333 (34-102) with 17 RBIs and ranks second on the squad with a .315 batting average. He is also second on the team in home runs (4) and third in RBIs (33).
“He is an ultracompetitive kid and sometimes we have to reel him back in which is a great problem to have,” LeCroy said. “You hope all nine guys in the lineup are like that. It is one pitch at a time. If you take a pitch and it is a called strike, don’t let it affect you. He has matured over the year and he has continually gotten better all season.”
LeCroy says Kennedy’s ability to lay down a bunt and beat a throw out at first has also helped him raise his batting average 10 to 15 points.
“That’s one thing that he really figured out, too, which has helped his average out tremendously,” Clemson’s batting coach said. “By doing that, now the infielders are playing in. It allows those balls between the shortstop and third baseman and first and second to be able to get through. It has taken his game to another level.”
But it has not come easy for Kennedy. He was hitting just .295 prior to the Boston College series April 5-7, and sometimes was struggling to catch up with ACC pitchers.
“Being this is my first year in the ACC, of course, I have had to make some adjustments as far as pitch selection and things like that,” he said. “The biggest thing for me about a month ago is I really tried to settle myself down.
“I tried not to swing as hard and I let the pitchers be low and do the work for me. I have taken it easy on my swing. I’m swinging about eighty percent and that’s really what is working for me.
“The pitching is a lot different. This is the ACC and it does not get any better than this,” he continued. “The fact that you will get one maybe two pitches, if you are lucky, up at the plate that you are going to hit, you have to be certain of the one you take a swing at. When you do, you can’t miss it. A foul ball isn’t going to do it so that’s the thing I have been big on. If I find a pitch I want to hit, I make contact and put it in fair territory.”
Like everyone else, Kennedy was hoping to make an impact on the team, but he never thought he could make this much of an impact. His .442 slug percentage is second on the squad, while his .412 on base percentage is 20 points higher than anyone else on the team.
“Everybody hopes to, I mean everybody has high hopes for themselves,” the third baseman said. “I really just tried to come out and play my game, whether that’s bunting for base hits, hitting a ball over the fence or stealing a bag. I really have tried to play my game and I have stuck to that.”
And besides being the player LeCroy and Leggett knew he could be offensively, now he is doing it on defense as he has become the Tigers’ regular starter at third base.
“He has been a good player for us and he has developed defensively a lot,” Leggett said. “In the fall, he had a lot to work on, but he has got better that way. He has worked hard at it and has taken a lot of pride in it. He tries to make himself better.”