Tennessee Fury 95 catcher Cassi Pickett puts on gear during practice at Tyner Recreation Complex. The Fury will be playing in an upcoming Amateur Softball Association national tournament.Listen to Baylor softball coach Kelli Smith and Heritage baseball coach Eric Beagles talk about the catchers on their teams this past spring and the words they’re saying are similar.
Composure, instincts, leadership. Those are just a few of the immeasurables the Lady Raiders’ Cassi Pickett and the Generals’ Hunter White possess, their coaches say. Combine them with their measurables and it’s easy to see why they are among the elite in an abundant school year for softball and baseball catchers in the Chattanooga and Northwest Georgia areas.
Pickett currently shares catching duties with Northwest Whitfield’s Bayli Cruse on the Tennessee Fury ’95 16-under team – one of 11 locally-based teams that qualified for Amateur Softball Association national tournaments.
Pickett is about to be a junior at Baylor, which she transferred to from Marion County. That would mean big adjustments had to be made, going from a small-town public school to a large private school in the city. But she knew she could find her haven on a ballfield.
Smith said when Pickett came in as a freshman, she let her help with the middle school team. It didn’t take talking for long before the coach began to figure out she may have a prodigy in her program.