Piatt's OT: Wolters continues to grow in pros

MAHOMET — Just a little more than a year ago, Mahomet-Seymour baseball coach Nic DiFilippo had a front-row seat to watch the best pitcher to ever come through the program.

“It was fun. It was enjoyable,” DiFilippo said. “It was almost comical at times to see the other team excited just to hit a foul ball. That was a lot of fun for us, and it’s fun to be a fan of his today.”

Today, 2023 M-S graduate Blake Wolters is living out a childhood dream, pitching for the Class A Columbia Fireflies after being selected by the Kansas City Royals in the second round of the MLB draft in July 2023.

DiFilippo has watched nearly every game of his former player on the MLB App, and he finally got the chance to see Wolters pitch as a professional in person on June 21. It wasn’t from the dugout, but any of Segra Park’s 9,000 seats in Columbia, S.C., would have given DiFilippo the best view.

“Anytime you get to see one of your kids having success and pitching at that type of level, it’s just awesome,” DiFilippo said. “To know I was an itty bitty part of his journey just makes it so much sweeter. You helped him with little bits, and now he’s doing his thing, and we get to sit there and watch Blake have success.”

Wolters pitched 4 2/3 innings that day, allowing zero earned runs and striking out four batters in a 10-2 loss.

DiFilippo talks to Wolters on a weekly basis, but he took this opportunity to snap a couple pictures with him on the field before catching a flight back home.

It was a postseason gift of sorts for DiFilippo, who wrapped up a historic year at M-S just a couple weeks prior by winning his first Class 3A sectional championship in his 18th year for the Bulldogs’ first sectional title since 2000. A long time coming for a coach who’s won more than 350 games in his career. And ironic that it came in what many believed would be a rebuilding year for the Bulldogs, the year after Wolters graduated.

But Wolters did have a hand in the Bulldogs’ success last spring. As indirect as it may have been, Wolters became the standard, and his teammates watched his every move.

“Not to compare ourselves to Blake, but how does a professional go about his business?” DiFilippo said. “He went about his business in a professional manner, and he had umpteen million eyes on him. I don’t want to keep saying ‘OK, guys, how did Blake do it,’ but how do you do it when you’ve got a million people watching? You just do your thing.”

DiFilippo added Wolters is a once-in-a-generation talent, and it’s not like M-S is a hotbed for pro-ready ballplayers. That said, there are plenty of guys in the program with the goal of playing at the next level. So DiFilippo constantly asks about his players’ composure, their preparation and just how they handle themselves overall. And the highest level at which they saw all that came from their former teammate.

“They saw Blake’s workout routine and his stretching routine. They saw 30 scouts following him around like he was a puppy dog,” DiFilippo said. “I talk about it until I’m blue in the face, and when they see their peer do it and have so much success, I don’t have to get on them so much about doing some of those little things.”

In short, they further became students of the game, the same way DiFilippo continued to learn by picking the brains of all the scouts he’s talked with during the last year.

And it’s the same way Wolters continues to learn as a professional pitcher. Sure, he signed a contract and put on a minor league jersey, but he’s still only 19 years old.

Not to take anything away from the talent around Mahomet, but this isn’t high school baseball anymore. Every hitter Wolters faces from here on out is the Blake Wolters of their hometown.

The pride of Mahomet has taken the challenge in stride and is holding his own, sporting a 2-3 record with a 4.20 ERA, 46 strikeouts and 25 walks in 55 2/3 innings through his first 14 starts.

The Fireflies resume their season on Friday and when Wolters takes to the mound again, he’ll have a familiar set of eyes keeping tabs on him back in his hometown.

“He’s learning how to pitch around those guys and how to battle, and he’s doing an absolutely fantastic job,” DiFilippo said. “His coaches are helping him grow in a way that we’re just excited to be able to sit back and watch.”