Nick Saelens, a senior at Lincoln, committed to Pacific University for baseball in the fall of 2023.
Saelens played on his first baseball team when he was three years old after asking his parents to sign him up for one. He remembers also wanting to play on his brother’s tee ball team.
“I’ve always had a bat and ball in my hands; it’s really been forever for me,” Saelens reminisced. “I knew from the time I was in preschool that I wanted to play baseball in the highest levels I could.”
Saelens played for Lincoln in the spring for four years. He has also played for the Little League, Rijo Athletics, and Elevate Northwest club teams. He has always played infield and started pitching when he was thirteen.
Saelens has a rigorous training schedule. During summer ball season, he has practices and games pretty much every day until showcase season starts in August, which is a time for players to push themselves and their playing in hopes of being recruited.
“Your coaches are a huge part of this ‘cause they’re the first person the college goes to ask, like, how are his grades, how is he as a kid, how hard does he work?” Saelens said. “Those are the most important connections.”
After showcase season came to an end in September, he would play scrimmage games during the fall season until the start of the off season in October which consisted of a lot of work in the weight room and practicing as much as possible.
When college coaches started talking to him at the end of his junior year after watching him play, Saelens was drawn to Pacific University’s academics and baseball culture. Early on, the school’s coaches started the conversation with him about what he was looking for academically as well as athletically. They connected him to professors and worked with him to figure out how he would work in their system and baseball program.
With over forty percent of Pacific University’s student body being varsity athletes, the school knows their target audience. They make it easy for students to study health sciences, the area that Saelens has always wanted to go into. He will major in kinesiology, the study of the body, and looks forward to accessing all sorts of labs, professors, and interactive parts that make it easy to be a student athlete and study what he’s doing on the field.
“I’m going to a program that I know has a great culture,” Saelens said. “I don’t know where I’ll be on the field, but [I want to] be the teammate, the hard worker and support that the team needs, whether that’s in the middle of the field directing stuff or if that’s being a supportive voice from the dugout.”
Saelens is appreciative of the information that he learned from asking coaches about their programs during the recruitment process.
“The more questions you ask, the better fit they know you are for their program because […] they’re looking for certain athletes to fill roles in their team.”
He notes that college coaches appreciate emails from high school athletes who are interested in their programs.
“The coaches and people I’ve been able to learn from {are my favorite part of baseball}, they got the best in the business here,” Saelens said. “If you’re trying to be serious about your sport, learn as much as you can, find the best coaches you can.”
Saelens is sure to impress as he turns his childhood dream of playing college baseball into a reality.
