Casey Smith has the perfect first name for a baseball player. Whether you remember the colorful Casey Stengel or know the poem, “Casey at the Bat,” it’s a name that goes well with line drives and base hits.
And hits were something that the Lake Highlands junior had plenty of this season (38).
Although Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak wasn’t in jeopardy, Smith did manage to hit safely in every Wildcats game this season. That’s something no one in school history has done before – not even Casey’s older brother Kirby, who was the district’s player of the year in 1991.
If you add two games from last season, Smith has hit in 28 consecutive games for the Wildcats.
“I started to feel a little pressure late in the year,” says the junior. “It takes a little luck too. Several times this year I needed a hit in my last at-bat to keep the streak going. I remember a little dribbler against Plano that hit the third base bag.”
As a sophomore, the sturdy Smith played first base and batted a respectable .312 for the Wildcats – especially since he started the season mired in an 0-for-20 slump. This year, under the watchful eye of coach Jay Higgins, the 5-10, 190-pound Houston native made the big move to catcher, a position he is still mastering.
“I think that my catching improved considerably over the course of the season, but I still have a long way to go,” says Smith. “Hitting comes more natural to me than defense so it’s something I really plan to work on for next year, particularly cutting down on passed balls.”
Although Smith says that the team’s fourth-place finish in 1993 season was a big disappointment, he easily exceeded his personal goal of batting .400. His .507 season average and .500 district mark was good enough to place second in the batting race to Newman Smith’s Mike Torti.
Smith also contributed three home runs, 20 runs batted in, eight stolen bases, and received first team all-district honors along with being voted the team MVP.
Smith credits his rapid improvement in the sport to Higgins, Tim Cousins from Oklahoma, and most of all to his older brothers, Kirby and Corey, who both starred for Lake Highlands a few years ago. The dream of a college scholarship is beginning to dance around inside his head, but this summer he’ll spend equal time playing summer baseball and lifting weights for his fall duty as middle linebacker for the Wildcats’ football team.
The versatile athlete started on defense this year until he blew his knee out against arch-rival Plano. He returned to the lineup against Nacogdoches in the playoffs, and is penciled in as a starter in coach Mike Zoffuto’s lineup.
“I love playing both sports,” says Smith, who also sports a 92 grade point average. “I enjoy playing football in football season and vice-versa but I realize that my future lies in baseball. That’s why I switched to catcher. Coach Higgins sometimes kids me though about my football mentality when I try to run over somebody.”
The senior-to-be describes himself as extremely competitive and not one who takes losing very easily. “Face it,” he says with a touch of pride, “You have to be a little crazy to play middle linebacker and also be a catcher. I guess I qualify, because I’ll do almost anything to win.”
