Published: June 23, 2008 11:34 am      

Oliver crafting grand career

Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



Fultondale’s Cadi “Boo” Oliver has put together a long list of accomplishments since joining the Lady Wildcat varsity. She’s challenged the .500 batting mark twice, hitting .475 and .485 the past two seasons. She has 97 hits, 82 runs scored, 24 doubles, eight triples, and 39 RBIs in 64 career games.

She has a 20-8 record as a starting pitcher. She’s recorded 201 strikeouts in 173 innings of work. She’s twice been named to The North Jefferson News All-North Jefferson Softball team.

In addition, after both the 2007 and 2008 seasons, Oliver was named to the Alabama Sports Writers Association All-State softball team. Oliver has achieved a lot on the softball field already and yet she hasn’t even entered her freshman year of high school.

The accolades she’s garnered over the past two years have taken her by surprise.

“I was a little nervous last year (2007, her seventh grade season) before the season started,” Oliver said. “I had never played with older girls. I wasn’t expecting to play as well as I did last year. I wasn’t expecting to be named All-State.”

Oliver led the Lady Wildcats staff in wins during 2007 with nine, as Fultondale went 16-14 and reached the sub-state playoffs.

When she wasn’t pitching, she played the infield and batted .475 with 11 doubles and scored 45 runs in 30 games.

After the year was over, Oliver’s outstanding season caught the eye of the ASWA and they named her to the Class 2A All-State team. She was one of only three seventh graders named to the six classes of teams in 2007.

Oliver wasn’t satisfied with her average last year and had set the goal to hit over .500 as an eighth grader. In the off season, she put herself through some vigorous workouts, including aerobic exercise tapes and running, in addition to taking extra batting practice at an indoor facility and in her own back yard.

The extra work paid off this spring, as she was hitting as high as .565 midway through the year, before finishing at .485.

On the mound, she won 11 games, and struck out 100 batters in 74 innings.

Her improved pitching numbers were a result of both a physical and mental progression.

“I’ve getting bigger and stronger,” Oliver, who stands 5-foot-2 and weighs around 120 pounds, said. “My body has grown over last year. Plus, I’m a better pitcher. Last year I was just trying for strikeouts, but I’m learning to keep the hitters off balance. I’m using my head as a pitcher now.”

Oliver kept the defending state 2A champions from Oakman off balance during a 3-1 Fultondale win early in April. She allowed only three hits and struck out 11.

“I really didn’t think I could beat them,” she said. “My defense really helped me by making plays and I kept throwing strikes. I was really on that day.”

Oliver’s soft voice and girl-next-door smile mask the fact that she possesses the heart of a tenacious competitor.

Her tenacity was on display during Fultondale’s meeting with No. 3-ranked Addison during the elimination round of a tournament in April.

Sometimes a home run or an extra base hit can turn a game around, but Oliver may well have turned the Addison game around with a single.

With the Lady Wildcats trailing Addison and their ace pitcher Kayla Carden 5-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Oliver came to bat with two outs and no one on base.

After five pitches from Carden, who would herself be named All-State after the season, the count went full at 3-2. Oliver then hung in and fought off pitch after pitch.

Finally, after fouling off 11 straight pitches, she connected for a bloop single on the 17th pitch of the at bat.

The marathon match up between All-Stater’s took it’s toll on Carden. The Addison senior had thrown her fastball exclusively once the count went full.

Oliver’s determined at bat had taken the zip out of Carden’s hard throws and as a result, five of the next six Fultondale batters connected for doubles off the tired pitcher, as the Lady Wildcats rallied for seven runs in their 8-5 win.

For a second straight season, Oliver led the Lady Wildcats in wins, while at the plate, she raised her batting average by 10 points over her first varsity campaign.

Oliver can’t determine whether she’s a more gifted pitcher or hitter.

“I can’t really say,” she responded. “I have my days when I’m a better hitter and other days when I’m a better pitcher. I’m not sure which one I’m better at. I just keep working at both of them.”

Oliver, who uses three pitches, has recently hired a new pitching coach, former University of Alabama player Erin Wright. Wright plans to add to her repertoire with either a screwball or rise ball, before the beginning of the next high school season.

She didn’t add other pitches in the past for fear she might sustain a career-threatening injury while her frame was still developing.

As her young body continues to develop, she’s growing stronger and she’s hitting the ball further than before.

Recently while playing in a travel ball tournament, she connected for two over-the-fence home runs.

Oliver’s quick to point out that the pitching may have had as much to do with the pair of round trippers as her increased strength.

“The pitching in travel ball is faster than what we see in 2A,” she said. “The harder a ball is pitched, the farther it will go when you hit it.”

It’s not just strength has Oliver is developing these days, her speed on the base paths has also improved.

“I used to be really slow,” she says. “But now I’m getting a lot faster.”

Oliver credits her off season workouts with her new-found quickness, which she put to good use this spring.

Oliver’s triples increased from two in her first varsity season to six this year. In addition, her stolen bases increased by more than 10.

Oliver hopes to improve her numbers next year, but she also has a larger long-range goal in mind.

“I want to play softball at Alabama, Auburn or Tennessee. I hope to play at a big division I school,” she said.

Oliver knows it will take much hard work to reach her goal, but she said she won’t back off in her determination to see it through.

“I know some of my friends have quit playing softball, but I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of it,” she said. “Sometimes, when I talk about softball, my mom will ask me if I’m going to burn out on it. But, I’m not going to, because softball is my life.”