Wolters commits to play baseball at University of Arizona
By FRED KRONER
Blake Wolters took a chance.
The rising Mahomet-Seymour senior had accepted an offer (last October) to play baseball and attend college at Purdue University in another year.
When Wolters decommitted from that scholarship on June 29, he recognized the gamble.
He was giving up a guaranteed offer for one that might or might not be forthcoming.
“I bet on myself,” Wolters said, “and everything lined up perfectly.”
His decision indeed worked out well. On Wednesday – exactly two weeks after he decommitted – Wolters announced his intentions to continue his pitching career at the University of Arizona, which made an offer on Tuesday (July 12).
The Wildcats have four national championships in baseball on their resume, most recently in 2012. Arizona also has four NCAA runner-up finishes, most recently in 2016.
“If you had asked me a year ago if I could be going to Arizona, I wouldn’t have thought so,” Wolters said. “As things progressed, I gained more confidence.”
He has familiarity with the school, located in Tucson, and the campus from visiting his sister Ella, who will be a sophomore at Arizona this fall.
What changed for Wolters since his Mahomet-Seymour season ended was receiving the results of his SAT exam.
He had a perfect score (800) on the math/science portion of the test and his overall score placed him in position to qualify for significant academic aide that would accompany a baseball scholarship.
When he left the test site, he had a good feeling.
“In math, you can double-check your answers,” said Wolters, a straight-A student who was part of Mahomet-Seymour’s Algebra II state championship team on April 30.
Test scores, however, don’t carry the same weight at all colleges. Not all universities are in the same ball park on offering money for academic prowess. Purdue, for example, is on the lower end of the spectrum.
Additionally, the Boilermakers have fewer than 12 scholarships available for baseball. Recruits in the sport receive enough to cover about one-third of the cost to attend a school that is roughly $40,000 per year.
When Wolters’ test scores were posted, it opened up interest from colleges that could reward him with financial assistance for his academic exploits as well as his baseball abilities.
This month, Wolters has heard from universities such as Columbia, Duke, Harvard and South Carolina. One of his coaches had been in contact with Mississippi State.
Ironically, Wolters said there was no pressure when he took the SAT exam.
“At that time, I wasn’t thinking of decommitting,” he said.
Last weekend – with coaches from Arizona in the stands – Wolters made a guest appearance with the Gators Baseball Academy team, in Atlanta, and pitched three scoreless innings, striking out two batters in a wood-bat tournament game against Cane’s Nationals, the nation’s No. 1-ranked 17-and-under team.
The Arizona staff liked what they saw from the 6-foot-4, 200-pound right-hander, and Wolters didn’t need much time to make a decision once an offer was extended.
“They were the front-runners,” he said. “I had a school like Arizona in mind (after decommitting). My dream has always been to pitch in the College World Series and that could be a serious reality.”
The best part is that the financial assistance Wolters will receive from the baseball scholarship combined with the academic aide, means there will be little additional money for the family to pay.
“That’s awesome, especially for my parents to not have to worry about that,” Wolters said.
The University of Arizona web site lists out-of-state tuition at $36,743 annually with another $11,100 for room and board.
Arizona ranks ninth on the all-time NCAA list for wins in baseball (2,955) and is coming off a 39-25 season. The Wildcats’ winning percentage (64.8 percent) ranks 11th on the all-time NCAA charts.
Eight days before Wolters decommitted from Purdue, he attended a Prep Baseball Report Pro-Case showcase in Chicago. He was one of 11 high school pitchers from the Midwest to receive an invitation.
“When we saw the data, his data was unbelievable, well above average for a high school player,” said M-S baseball head coach Nic DiFilippo.
Wolters’ fast ball topped out at 93.6 miles per hour.
“I had never been to a PBR event, and with pro scouts there, it was a little nerve-wracking,” Wolters said, “but it got my name out there a little more.”
DiFilippo shared the PBR results with a person he knows who works for a major league baseball team and had his suspicions confirmed.
“He said he had some legitimate major-league numbers,” DiFilippo said. “It has been amazing to watch his growth.”
That development began skyrocketing rapidly after Wolters’ freshman season at M-S was canceled by COVID-19 in 2020.
“I’ve been lifting since I was in high school,” he said, “but over the quarantine is when I started taking it more seriously.”
He has also worked with a physical therapist/trainer and follows a dedicated pitching routine of throwing five days a week.
“When I came into high school, I wasn’t looking at college sports as a serious option,” said Wolters, who is also a standout on the Bulldogs’ basketball team, “but as I got better, I started seeing it as a possibility.
“The summer after my sophomore year is when I started seeing my potential, and I’ve worked hard to make it a reality.”
As a sophomore at M-S, Wolters compiled a 5-2 record and a 3.06 earned run average.
This spring, as a junior, he was 10-0 with an 0.24 earned run average. He struck out 115 batters in 58 2/3 innings. In his 12 outings for a 27-6 team, Wolters yielded just six total runs, only two of which were earned.
He was a first-team choice on the Class 3A All-State baseball team.
“Now people are talking,” DiFilippo said, “that he could get his name called in the (2023) major league draft (which has 20 rounds).
“You’re talking the elite of the elite, but I think he could.”
Wolters had considered majoring in engineering when he committed to Purdue, but is now looking in the direction of business when he arrives in Arizona next month.
