Mars standout Bednar decides to hang up cleats
With a 6-2 win against Knoch Monday, the Mars softball team closed the book on its 2022 season. For senior shortstop Danielle Bednar, the game marked a fitting conclusion to her glory days on the diamond.
Not just at Mars. For good. Given her last name, that probably comes as quite a surprise. After all, it would only make sense for the third sibling of Pittsburgh’s most notable baseball family — a career .344 hitter in high school and standout on the Team Pennsylvania travel club — to pursue Division I college softball following her graduation next month. In fact, the senior shortstop was offered a scholarship to play at Saint Francis (Pa.) next season and even committed to the Red Flash in October 2020.
It was an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of her older brothers, David (Lafayette College, Pirates) and Will (Mississippi State, San Francisco Giants) as the next Bednar to carve out a promising college career. Even her father, Andy, was a star pitcher at Cornell back in the day before coaching baseball at Mars for more than 20 years.
From the outside, her commitment to Saint Francis was a sign of her path unfolding according to plan. The sport was all she knew. Danielle used to tag along on countless family trips around the country to watch David’s games as he ascended the minor league ranks, and then again as Will made a name for himself at Mississippi State.
Then, in January 2021, David was traded to the Pirates as part of the Joe Musgrove deal and became a household name for his hometown team’s bullpen. Six months later, Will rose to national prominence after throwing six no-hit innings in the College World Series to lead the Bulldogs to their first national title in school history — earning CWS Most Valuable Player honors.
Needless to say, the Bednar fever was high back home in Pittsburgh and with that came great expectations for Danielle.
“There was a lot of pressure. It was very hard not to feel it,” she told the Post-Gazette. “You had David with Pirates and Will coming off a College World Series. I felt like everybody was looking at me, and the only way I could measure up was to be that Division I athlete and match them. In my head, I just thought I had to play. I got so stuck. Like, did I really love this?”
So, naturally, she confided in her brothers for guidance. And was met with that exact question.
“She kind of hesitated when I asked her,” said Will, now a minor league pitcher in the Giants organization. “I was like, ‘There’s your answer.’ I knew she loves playing, but I don’t think she loved it to the extent that David and I do. We’ve talked about it before. She felt like she was in our shadows a little bit.”
Will then explained to her that by playing a Division I sport in college, she was signing up for a lot of grueling days ahead. Days that caused even him — a star pitcher with bonafide MLB potential — to question if the grind would really be worth it in the end. If Danielle didn’t wholeheartedly love the sport, those adverse instances of doubt would be much more frequent and all the more challenging to withstand.
Echoing Will’s sentiment, David offered reassurance that she wasn’t letting them down by taking a different path. It was OK to be her own person. “You’re going to be super successful in whatever you do so you really can’t go wrong,” he told her. “As long as you’re working hard in whatever you do, you’ll make us proud.”
The words of encouragement were all she needed to hear. In August 2021, Danielle de-committed from Saint Francis to the surprise of everyone outside the Bednar family. It was an extremely difficult decision, a decision that most high school seniors lack the maturity and foresight to make. However, it was ultimately the right decision — not for anyone else, but for herself.
“She decided that softball isn’t going to be her life,” said Mars coach Michele Goodworth. “When you’ve played a sport for nearly your entire life, that is something very difficult to do. She left with grace and on her own terms. She’s walking away knowing that she gave it everything she could.”
“I really respect her decision to do that,” added Will. “When you commit to a school, you almost feel like you’re obligated to go there even if you don’t want to. I’m still extremely proud of her and the success she had and how far she’s come as a softball player. And wherever her path takes her next, we know she’s going to crush it.”
Instead, Danielle will be attending the University of Louisville next fall with plans to study abroad and, as editor in chief of the Mars student newspaper, maybe even pursue broadcast sports journalism. As she walks away from the game,
Bednar’s imprint on the Mars program will be felt for years to come.
In addition to batting north of .340 for her career, she finished with a .522 on-base percentage over three seasons (her sophomore season was canceled because of COVID-19) with 22 RBIs and 35 runs scored. And
while the Planets (7-11, 3-7) struggled this season largely due to inexperience, her influence was critical to the progression of a young team heading into 2023.
“Danielle paved the way for the future,” said Goodworth. “Sometimes your pitcher and catcher are
like your quarterback, but that shortstop is also important. She needed to be a leader out there play after play. She was a good role model who looked out for kids and guided them in the right direction. She left an impact on our program.”
That’s because, in Bednar’s eyes, it was about much more than softball.
“I want to see these girls succeed in all aspects of their life,” Bednar said. “I really tried to take them under my wing as a way to teach them about life, school and whatever else. This was bigger than softball.”
While Danielle’s career may be over, that doesn’t mean she’ll be losing touch with baseball anytime soon. It was almost a year ago to the date when David hit triple digits on a pitch for the first time in his major league career. In the eighth inning of a game against the Reds at PNC Park, his fastball clocked in at 99.6 mph — rounding up to an even 100. His mom had a cake made to celebrate the milestone with the number 100 spelled out in icing. With a hint of sarcasm in her voice, Danielle quickly chimed in: Wait, shouldn’t it say 99.6?
“My job is to make sure their heads don’t get too big,” she said with a laugh. “Someone’s gotta do it.”