Maddy Feger said her signing to play softball at Truman State “checked all of my boxes.”

The Mexico senior signed on Nov. 14 at Mexico High School to play for the NCAA Division II college in Kirksville after an all-conference and all-district season as the Lady Bulldogs center fielder. 

Feger, who will major in biology and study in Truman State’s pre-dental program, said she loved the coaches, team atmosphere, proximity to home and academic program. 

Maddy Feger College Signing Photo Gallery

“There’s no place I would rather go to,” Feger said. “It just seemed too good to be true.”

Feger has been playing softball since seven years old but didn’t start thinking about playing college softball until she was 11 years old. She said she began the recruiting process at 14 years old by sending emails and posting to social media. 

By her own admission, Feger was struggling at the plate earlier in her softball career and noticed she didn’t get much response to her recruiting efforts. This led Feger to work harder at the plate, including with some additional tutelage from former Mizzou softball coach and current Ole Miss coach Ehren Earlywine.

“He really motivated me and gave me the confidence that I didn’t have,” Feger said. “That changed a lot of my game. The more that I wanted to be a collegiate level softball player, the work ethic came with it.”

Feger slashed .353/.496/.539 with a team-high 36 runs, 28 walks (compared to 13 strikeouts), 21 stolen bases and four triples. She had 17 RBIs, eight doubles, one home run and a fielding percentage of .961. 

Mexico head coach Hanna Jones said Truman State is a good fit for Feger, and Truman is getting such a good all-around player. Jones said her first impressions of Feger three years ago when she took over as head coach were somebody the team could lean on and is a self-starter, which are good qualities for a college player.

“Maddy is one of those silent leaders,” Jones said. “She’s not as vocal, but she also does a lot of things behind the scenes. She’s really good about picking girls up and is a really good teammate when talking to her outfielders and telling them where they need to be.” 

Jones said Feger figured out her role as the leadoff hitter this season and was “the deciding factor for the rest of the lineup.” Feger saw a lot of pitches and became a better hitter like Jones hoped would happen.

Feger said she thinks her time as the leadoff hitter helped her as well. She had a lot of fun doing it, too.

“Hitting first is refreshing,” Feger said. “As the first batter of the game, I can really set the tone and I don’t have to overthink what the batters did before my at bat. It’s a little nerve-racking because you don’t know what the pitcher is going to throw you and you don’t know the umpire’s strike zone, but it’s a good feeling to be able to set the tone of the game whenever you succeed at the plate for your first at bat.”

Jones said Feger made playing the outfield “look easy” in center field. Feger would make the routine plays and the outstanding ones like when she made a game-saving diving catch in Mexico’s 6-3 district win against Kirksville. She said Feger’s defense was the most valuable to the team because she was confident Feger would catch a ball in her vicinity and would be “money every time.”

“I don’t know what it is, but she just always has a good read on the ball and just makes things look easy,” Jones said. “When we did drills at practice, she always looked smooth with things and always caught on really quick.”

Feger said she is proudest of her hitting after how much it has developed, but she likes how aggressive she has been on defense and her solid instincts while baserunning. That concerns her personally, but she is also proud of her time as a Lady Bulldog.

“The bus rides home, the celebrations after someone hits a home run and team dinners,” Feger said. “I’ll just miss the friendships that we have because we were all close with each other.”