New Catfish assistant to bring enthusiasm, experience to club this summer

Brayden Lackey has spent his entire young life around the game of baseball, with the exception of 2022.

And he didn’t like that.

“I was like a fish out of water,” Lackey said of his venture into a “corporate sales position.”

“I missed putting the (uniform) on,” Lackey said. “I missed putting the (turf cleats) on. I missed throwing (batting practice), hitting ground balls, being around the guys and talking baseball.”

He’ll get to do plenty of that this summer after accepting an assistant coaching position with the Cape Catfish for the 2023 season.

“We had a great conversation,” Catfish General Manager Mark Hogan said of Lackey’s hiring process. “He’s an enthusiastic guy, who brings (coaching) experience. I think that he is going to connect well with the guys.”

Lackey is a native of New Cumberland, Penn. and played baseball at the high school and collegiate levels before entering the coaching realm.

He spent the 2021 summer as an assistant hitting coach with the Johnstown (Penn.) MillRats, who had several of the top players in the Prospect League, including former Tennessee infielder Trey Lipscomb, who was selected in the third round of the 2022 Major League Baseball Draft by the Washington Nationals.

“If you like baseball,” Lackey said, “and you like traveling and seeing different parts of the country, then the Prospect League is awesome. You get to meet a ton of awesome people from a ton of great schools and a ton of cool places.

“It truly is a great experience.”

That “experience” intrigued Hogan during the hiring process.

“He came with a good, strong recommendation from a buddy (in Florida), who has coached down there,” Hogan said of what spurred his interest in Lackey initially. “I was drawn to his experience and his being familiar with the mechanics of the league.

“He knows what he is getting into. He understands the routine of summer baseball.”

Lackey played a multitude of positions throughout his career, but said his expertise lies in teaching the fundamentals of hitting, baserunning, and specifically, defensive play from an infield perspective.

“I think that I have a good feel, a good idea of how to attack some baseballs with some bad intentions,” Lackey said. “I also have a really, really good understanding of how to run the bases and how to use that as a weapon against other teams.”

He has already spoken with new Catfish manager Scott Little, and he is ready to get to Missouri, a state that he has never visited, and begin to learn what Little has absorbed through decades of playing and coaching.

“I can not wait to get out there and listen to him talk,” Lackey said. “I am going to have the biggest set of ears that you have ever seen when that guy starts talking.”

Lackey has a familiarity with the Catfish, having coached in the Prospect League in 2021, when Cape won the league championship.

“I’m aware of the Catfish because we were always checking the standings,” Lackey said. “I knew right away who the Catfish were because they were going to be the guys to play on the other side of the (playoff) bracket.

“Just being a baseball guy, I still followed the league (in 2022).”

Hogan has not only hired Little to manage the club and Lackey to assist him, but also recently added pitching coach Jason Chavez, who currently is an assistant coach with Jackson High School.

The Catfish begin the 2023 season on May 31 at O’Fallon, with their home debut at Capaha Field on June 3 against Jackson (Tenn.) at 7:35 p.m.