Cacy Williams is part of the 2024 Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame induction class. The class will be inducted on Sun., Jan. 28.

The 2014 softball season at Wichita State started with low expectations everywhere except within Wilkins Stadium.

Missouri Valley Conference coaches voted the Shockers, coming off a 19-33 record, eighth. What those coaches didn't know was that a recruiting class of eight freshmen and two transfers would provide coach Kristi Bredbenner the final pieces to turn the program around.

They also didn't know a transfer from NCAA Division II Emporia State would turn into the conference's best hitter.

First baseman Cacy Williams, a member of the 2024 class of the Wichita State Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame, earned MVC Most Valuable Player honors in 2014 and 2016 to lead the Shockers to two conference titles and the 2016 NCAA regionals.

"It was more than just a softball," said teammate Brittany Fortner, an All-MVC outfielder three times. "The impact she had on that program as a person goes far beyond any stats. Good character. Lead by example. She pushed her teammates."

The 2014 turnaround season launched the current era of success that put the Shockers into the NCAA regionals in 2016, 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Williams and other members of that 2014 team changed attitudes and work ethics to push the Shockers out of their streak of five losing seasons.

"A lot of us in that class had not lost," Williams said. "We were like 'We're not losing. That's not what we're here to do.'"

Williams, a lefty, hit fourth in her first game as a Shocker in 2014. She tripled to drive in a run in her first at-bat and that scene played out frequently over her three seasons. She gave the Shockers an imposing figure with plenty of power.

For her career, Williams hit .360 with 39 home runs, 135 runs batted in and 35 doubles. Her batting average ranks fifth on WSU's career list and she is second with a .673 career slugging percentage. Her home run total ranked first at WSU when her career ended and is now tied for third.

"She exemplified what it meant to be a Shocker," Bredbenner said. "Gritty. Really passionate and loved the game. She and Brittany Fortner, I would throw buckets and buckets and buckets of BP to them every day."

Williams, from Platte City, Mo., hit .424 in 2014 with 16 home runs and 14 doubles to earn MVC Newcomer of the Year and MVP honors. The Shockers went 34-23, 21-6 in the MVC, and won the program's first regular-season conference title.

In 2015, Williams hit .292 with nine home runs and 16 doubles. In 2016, she led WSU to another MVC title and their first NCAA regional since 2005. She hit .365 with 14 home runs to earn All-Midwest Region honors for a second time.

"When I think back to Cacy as a hitter, she was very clutch," Fortner said. "It wasn't even a question. Someone got on base. She drove them in."

Bredbenner recruited Williams to Emporia State, where she redshirted one season with an injury. In 2013, she hit .376 with 10 home runs for the Hornets. Bredbenner left Emporia State for WSU in June of 2011, before Williams' freshman year.

Williams rejoined Bredbenner for the 2014 season at Wichita State. Bredbenner and assistant coach Samantha Ricketts, now coach at Mississippi State, simplified her batting stance. Coaches diagnosed her as a visual learner and took her through several stances and a lot of hours in the batting cage.

"It's really when I fell back in love with the game," Williams said. "Kristi has a knack for figuring out what every athlete needs. They just let me be myself. I was super-aggressive. That really changed everything."

Williams, with a year of NCAA Division II experience, needed no adjustment time to Wichita State.

"Cacy was a really big missing link that we needed," Bredbenner said. "We had a really great class of freshmen that I thought was going to turn us around. We needed some veterans to step in and help. Even though she was a sophomore, she played like a veteran."

Williams, who lives in Kansas City and works for a company that organizes softball exposure camps, enjoys returning to campus for games. The rise of softball and planned improvements to Wilkins Stadium remind her of how her teams changed the program.

"The updates they're doing to the field and indoor hitting facility is just incredible," she said. "I'm so glad for all the student-athletes that are there now."