Battery powered

For high school softball teams, it’s rare to have a weapon as good as Gran-bury senior pitcher Kelby Been’s right arm.

It’s rarer, even, to have another arm on the roster that’s just as talented, as the Lady Pirates do in sophomore lefty Ali Cooper. But pairing that strong of a pitching duo with a dynamic, experienced catcher like senior Lani Hickey behind the plate?

You’d be hard pressed to find any team in Class 5A with all of those pieces in its battery.

Granbury (5-1) has played six games in District 5-5A, and the Lady Pirates have given up six runs. Opposing batters go down in waves against Gran-bury, and even when Cooper or Been do allow baserunners, Hickey is on hand to settle her pitchers down and marshal the defense into the correct positions.

“It’s a trio,” GHS head coach Ashley Benson said before the season started. “They know, and they feed off of each other – Lani knows how to talk them, she’s good at calling (pitches), so those three work really well together.”

THE RIGHTY

Been has been playing softball for 13 years, she estimates, and has been pitching for the majority of that time.

“I feel like I’ve always had a knack for it,” she said. “I was kind of the only one who was pitching, so I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll step up and I’ll do that.’

“I loved having that competitive drive and having that control of the game.”

She’s an upspin pitcher, throwing screwballs and risers and jamming batters inside. She’s a popfly pitcher, but she has a reliable and sharp curveball that can strike batters out.

A four-year varsity starter, Been was thrown into the circle early in her high school career.

“My mentality freshman year and sophomore year, I was the only pitcher,” she said. “So coach just threw me out there, and I was like, ‘Okay, I gotta find a way to do it.’

“I stepped in as a freshman in a big position, and that was hard.”

But now, she can share the load with Cooper. Been has been fighting through a torn labrum in her shoulder, and alternating starts with Cooper has “taken a burden off (her) shoulders.”

“It’s great having someone else,” Been said, “and we talk all the time, have fun. It’s good to share some things I learn, and she challenges me to be better.”

Cooper said working with Been creates a sense of security.

“I know if I’m not doing good, she’s always there to back me up,” Cooper said. “I don’t have to worry about anything.”

Hickey and Been have been friends and playing together for years. Hickey said catching Been is “like the back of my hand, second nature.”

“I know what she’s going to throw,” Hickey said, “and if she misses, I know where to go for it.”

Been had intended to walk on to the Sam Houston State softball team, but due to her injury, will instead be a traditional student as SHSU majoring in biology.

THE LEFTY

When Cooper joined the varsity as a freshman in 2018, she was intimidated.

“My freshman year, I was always, ‘Oh, they’re older than me, this is scary,’” she said. “‘These girls are so big and mean, they’re not going to let me do this.’”

But when you show as much talent as Cooper does, and when you perform in big games like she did time and time again in the playoffs last year, all that doubt goes away pretty quickly.

“I think I realized that nobody’s looking at that,” she said. “I think that once you get used to it, you block out everything around you, and your grade doesn’t matter.”

Cooper is a low-ball pitcher, using drop spin to induce ground balls and a devastating changeup to strike batters out. Much like Been, she chose pitching because she liked “the thought of being in control of the game, and being the one who gets to decide what happens and how it’s going down.”

Cooper also bats leadoff for the Lady Pirates, where she reliably gets on base to start rallies and can also hit for power.

“I had never thought of myself as an amazing hitter,” she said. “I just try to make really good contact and stay in a healthy mindset.”

THE CATCHER

Hickey’s beginnings as a catcher in youth softball were unconventional.

“I picked up with this one team,” she said, “and their pitcher threw too fast for the catcher.

“My dad said, ‘She’ll do it.’”

Since then, Hickey has been honing her craft behind the plate. She’s consciously worked to fix her technique behind the plate, from blocking errant balls to framing pitches. Playing with Been for so long has helped.

“It’s lots and lots of chemistry – that’s what holds our team together,” Been said. “She calls a pitch, and I already know what she’s calling.”

And while learning to catch Ali was “a big adjustment,” the two have quickly formed a solid partnership.

“She listens to what I like and what I don’t like,” Cooper said. “She knows if a pitch isn’t working – she knows as soon as I start to throw it.

“And if I start to put pressure on myself or get down on myself, she knows when to call time and calm me down and get my head back into the right mindset.”

Hickey, who will major in nursing at Tarleton State after college, has her fair share of autonomy behind the plate. She calls pitches for Been, and works with GHS assistant Katie Cowan to call pitches for Cooper.

And if there’s anything that needs adjusting on the defensive end, it’s up to Hickey to deliver orders.

“I’ve been told I’m mean a few times,” she said, “but that doesn’t affect me any.

“They get tired of hearing it from their coaches all the time, so coming from a player, I think that’s what helps.”

Hickey comes from a baseball family – her older brothers all played for Granbury – so she says she’s learned to speak up.

“I’m a lot more vocal now,” she said. “I grew up in a baseball family full of boys – you’ve gotta have some kind of stance.”

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