Dust spurts up beneath his cleats as he gets to the plate, sweat dripping from his forehead. He drops into his stance bat ready, here comes the pitch. Home run for freshman Oliver Pelon.

“I started at a very young age of around three,” Oliver said. “I started playing T-ball when I was a very little kid, and it took off from there.”

Oliver has had influences all around him, since he was born, to start him playing the sport he loves today. 

“My dad played baseball for a very long time,” Oliver said, “and he played in college at Aquinas, and he inspired my brother and me to play baseball.”

Ever since starting, Oliver has played for a couple of teams. He has played in various travel divisions, and he has worked his way through team after team every year to get to where he is today. With all the work being put in to make a better team every year, Oliver has started to excel and get better at a rapid rate. He continues to improve his skills and is always learning from his mistakes to get to the best of his abilities while he is out there playing. 

“I play for a couple of teams,” Oliver said. “I play for the Ada Lions and a USA Gameday team. I like the Ada Lions team better because I’m really close with all the kids on the team, and I’ve been friends with them for a while. Last year was definitely my peak year where I got a lot better. [I] improved my hitting, my fielding, I cut down on a lot of my errors, and got a lot [of] bigger hits.”

Oliver has also gained a lot socially. With every team, Oliver is finding himself closer to individuals he had never met and even closer to the ones he has known.

Oliver has experienced that a lot through every team he has been on, and with all this motivation from teammates, Oliver is trying to take on high school baseball this year with hopes to make JV and excel his freshman year and make varsity his sophomore year. 

“A lot of my friends play baseball,” Oliver said, “and that’s how I have found a majority of my friends [is] through baseball, especially the ones outside of school. I am planning on playing high school baseball. I probably couldn’t make varsity this year, but maybe [junior varsity]. I’m hoping I could make varsity next year, though, as a sophomore.”

Oliver also has a few landing spots for himself after high school if he gets offers to play D1 baseball. Every athlete has the ambition to make it to D1 and play at their dream schools to prove everyone wrong. Oliver hopes that with the next four years of high school and all the club seasons between high school and the off-season work, he could potentially get a D1 offer and make it to his dream school.

“I really like Vanderbilt and Arkansas,” Oliver said. “I like Vanderbilt just because it’s a great facility with a great baseball team, and I like Arkansas because that’s one of my dad’s favorite colleges for baseball.”

Oliver has been learning life lessons ever since he was a kid and they just keep coming every year. Baseball is setting Oliver up for success in the future, and because of how much time he has put into the game, he is starting to see more and more improvements every year on and off the baseball field.

“It taught me how to be a team player,”  Oliver said, “and how to keep my head in the game and if I make a mistake, [how] to get rid of it and get it out of my head. Definitely when a friend or a teammate makes an error, you go up to him and tell him to forget about it and be stronger the next play.”