Salter has enjoyed making new friends this year at St. Mary's

By KEITH DUNLAP
Of The Oakland Press

ORCHARD LAKE — You couldn't blame Orchard Lake St. Mary's baseball player Blaise Salter for stepping onto the field (or gym with this spring weather) back in March when practice started and wondering “What in the world is going on here and where am I?”

He didn't ask those questions, but he easily could've.

Last season, St. Mary's was a senior-laden team with standouts such as Korey Hall, Devan Ahart, Theo Piccirilli and James Edwards, all of whom like Salter were named to the Division 2 all-state team (Hall was also named to the Dream Team).

Salter grew up playing baseball with and against those kids and spent a good portion of his life developing a bond with them.

But they all graduated after last year to go their separate ways, while Salter had one more year of high school baseball left.

Thus you can understand why it was such a strange sight when the season started.

Not only were all his friends gone, but it was everyone else on the team looking up to him as a captain instead of him looking up to the others.

“At the beginning of the year, it was tough,” Salter said. “I played with James Edwards and Devan Ahart ever since I was seven years old. Coming into the season it was kind of tough. I had a couple of good friends on the team, but other than that, I didn't know who was going to be on the team. But I think we're starting to come around now.”

Entering a doubleheader against Detroit U-D Jesuit on Saturday, St. Mary's was in contention for a spot in the upcoming Catholic League playoffs, so Salter is correct that the Eaglets have managed to stay competitive even with the loss of all those all-state seniors.

The biggest reason is because the other all-stater last year from St. Mary's, Salter, is back and leading both on and off the field.

For those who don't know about Salter, he's a 6-foot-5, 225-pound catcher who's both physically intimidating at the plate and a stellar all-around defensive catcher.

He's batting almost .500 with four home runs as the team's No. 3 hitter and is nearly impossible to run on if you're an opposing baserunner. If that wasn't enough, he handles the pitching staff wonderfully and is a brick wall behind the plate with how he blocks balls.

Of course, one look at Salter's physical dimensions produces the typical question around the football-mad St. Mary's campus.

“I get asked why I don't play football because I'm so tall and have the build of a football player,” Salter said. “But baseball has always been my sport. I love baseball. It's my favorite sport to watch and my favorite sport to play. I've just always felt right on the baseball field.”

Salter said he actually did play football his freshman and sophomore years, but decided to just focus on hardball after that. One of the things he likes about being a catcher is that it offers similarities to playing quarterback in football, a position he played during his days in youth football.

“I think it's fun because you're in on every play,” Salter said. “I love being the leader of a (defense). I was always a quarterback when I was younger in football. I like to lead everything, tell people where to throw it and how to do it.”

Salter actually is the grandson of former Detroit Tigers catcher Bill Freehan, so he's had some terrific advice growing up learning the nuances of the position.

“He was a taller catcher and I'm a taller catcher,” Salter said. “He's taught me drills how to stay low and how to develop a good relationship with your pitcher and your whole team.”

When Freehan was the coach at Michigan in the mid 1990's, Salter was a batboy for the Wolverines and was often around the U-M program.

Naturally, when it came time to pick a college to play baseball for, Salter chose..... Michigan State.

Yes, he grew up adoring the Wolverines as a batboy. But business is business as it relates to sifting through college scholarship offers.

“A lot of people always ask me how my grandpa feels about this, going to his rival school,” Salter said. “My grandpa doesn't care. He enjoys everything that I do. He's not going to look down on me going to Michigan State. He loves me and is going to follow me and support me wherever I go in life. I felt more comfortable at Michigan State. Michigan didn't really show as much interest as Michigan State did.”

First-year St. Mary's head coach Matt Petry also played at Michigan, so that's led to some good-natured trash talk this year at practices.

“There's really not much I can say now because Michigan State is having a good season and Michigan is struggling right now,” Petry said. “He wins right now, but we'll see in the future once he gets up to State.”

Regardless of where he plays in the future, Petry has obviously been thrilled to have one of the state's top catchers around this year to ease his transition into the coaching ranks, and is even happier to know St. Mary's can make a run in the state tournament with a player like Salter around for opponents to deal with.

“Along with the other senior, Steve Morse, it's been nice to have both of them around,” Petry said. “They've made the transition easy, especially with a lot of new guys. It's nice having those two around from a leadership aspect and as a baseball player aspect.”

Indeed, while sad he had to see old friends go after last year, Salter has enjoyed making some new friends this spring.

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