CVHS Softball Star Makes College Hall of Fame

Elizabeth Beshear is quick to admit that she is shy and doesn’t get excited about getting awards.

But the former shortstop known as Eli Barnes is about to be honored for accomplishments on the softball field more than a decade earlier.

Beshear, who graduated from CV in 1995, will be inducted in the Central Michigan University Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday.

The event will be held at the Central Michigan University Events Center/McGuirk Arena.

“I’ve always shied away from the awards,” Beshear told Patch from her home in Texas. “It’s truly an honor. Not many players get to see what people think of them years later.”

Beshear was a three-time first-team All-Mid-American Conference selection at Central Michigan playing as an outfielder.

The only year she did not earn honors in her conference was in her junior year, when she volunteered to play catcher after the team's catcher died in an automobile accident.

"Unselfish is the first thing that comes to mind," head coach Margo Jonker said of Beshear said in a news release. "We had a desperate need that year and she volunteered to give it a try in order to help the team."

The change of positions cost Beshear the opportunity to become the fourth player in school history to earn First-Team All-MAC honors all four years of her career.

Longtime CV softball coach also has fond memories of Beshear.

“She always was and is a great person. She came in and we had taken her from the outfield and put her at shortstop,” Berry said. “Then she ended up doing some catching at CV. She was all the way around a team player that was pleasant to be around. She realized the team was more important than she was.”

When she graduated from Central Michigan, Beshear held the school record for games played in a career, as well as Central Michigan’s RBI mark and was tied for the school record in home runs.

“I have two little girls and I hope I can share this with them years later,” said Beshear, who also has a son. “It will be nice to get to go back to my college and see people I haven’t seen in a long time.”

Although she went to college and now lives far from her hometown, Beshear said she tries to keep in touch with friends and family that have remained in the area.

“Growing up in La Crescenta, everyone was tight-knit,” Beshear said.

“When I go home, you go into the grocery store and you run into someone you know. I do miss La Crescenta,” Beshear said.

While Elizabeth Beshear may be shy in her off-the-field life, it is evident that her on-the-field attitude that was not and thus those around her have found a way to pay tribute to her.