Oak Harbor catcher Butzin won't ever let you see it hurts

What happens when a person is smacked in the face?

Typically, they stumble backward with a wince, gather themselves, potentially voice their displeasure and generally exude incredulous bewilderment. Oak Harbor catcher Brayden Butzin takes aluminum swings to his head, foul balls to his shoulders and foul tips to his fingers.

The junior eats all of it, remains staunch and stoic, and while he might not quite smile, he loves every second.

“Injuries are an unfortunate part of football and baseball,” he said. “Pain – it’s not supposed to happen – but when it does happen, you have to embrace it. During the game I try to keep it to myself. I don’t want anybody to know.

"A ball off my arm or my hand, I can’t let it affect me. I don’t let anybody know my pain.”

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That means he doesn’t complain about crouching countless times over several hours, even during a busy schedule with games.

“My knees get tired throughout the week catching every game since I was 10,” he said. “My knees get sore and start to hurt. I don’t let anybody know.”

He knows all his teammates look to him. He’s always looking at them as well.

“We can see everything going on,” he said of catchers. “We get the ball every play, and we have to remind everyone their (responsibilities) each play. I enjoy doing that. People forget, I’m there to remind them seeing everything.

“If I’m down, everybody can feel that. Your teammates can feel the energy go down if I go down on a foul tip.”

He’s extremely unlikely to go down, even if it hurts. A lot.

“You can’t show weakness, to teammates, to anybody watching,” he said. “You can’t let them see that you don’t have the ability to play there. You get beat up every game. You can show people you’re tough back there.

“You’re not going to come out. A foul ball off your arm, a block off your arm. Everyone can feel the presence of your attitude.”

What does that mean?

“If I’m down, everybody can feel that,” he said. “I have experience for three years on varsity, everyone can look up to me.”

He’s more inclined now to lead with purpose.

“I’m better, I can lead and people can look up to me,” he said. “We only have three seniors. We need more leadership than that. A catcher has to have leadership behind the plate.”

Butzin knows he’s part of his pitchers success behind the plate.

“My job is to get as many pitches as I can framing, control the running game and control blocking,” he said. “Frame the ball to help the pitcher get as many outs as he can.”

Butzin is batting .431 with a .540 on-base percentage, 16 runs, eight doubles and six stolen bases. He drove in a team-high 19 runs.

“Everybody is doing their job at the plate; executing bunts, swiping bags and putting the ball in play,” he said.

Center fielder Cooper Schultz bats leadoff, third baseman Tim Marquette leads the team with a .489 average and shortstop Mike LaLonde drove in 17 runs. Outfielder Jaxson Overmyer and second baseman Karson Lash find ways to help.

Butzin swatted a home run in consecutive Oak Harbor (10-6, 4-5) victories over Otsego and Fostoria in the Northern Buckeye Conference.

“I had a slow start but the guys were always there to pick me up,” he said. “I’m thankful they got me in a groove. They were as excited as me. I was just trying to put the ball in play, I wasn’t trying to put it over the fence.

“But it was a cool experience, I’ve never done (back-to-back) before.”

LaLonde suffered hard-luck one-run setbacks to Eastwood (3-2) and Lake (1-0), both in extra innings. Freshman Nolan Bickelhaupt is another pitcher.

“Against Lake, his stuff was great,” Butzin said. “Michael has been phenomenal on the mound. He’s faced the top teams in our league. We just couldn’t execute the win.”

Oak Harbor shifted from the Sandusky Bay Conference Bay Division to the NBC this season.

“The goal was to stun everyone,” Butzin said. “That didn’t happen. We can still show up and show them who the Oak Harbor Rockets are. We proved we can stack up with Eastwood and Lake, two of the top programs in the state.

“We showed we can hang with anybody.”

Oak Harbor coach Nick Lance, who graduated from Fremont Ross, continued his career as a catcher at Toledo. Butzin wants to play baseball in college.

“That’s very significant, he’s taught me different styles and techniques," Butzin said. "The best ways to go about receiving, throwing. He’s made me a smarter baseball player, knowing situations. The staff has done a fantastic job.

"He’s going to get us where we want to be. (Assistant) AJ Cecil with the pitchers.”

Oak Harbor lost in a district final last season.

“We have to focus on the league, one game at a time and hopefully we advance to that district championship again,” Butzin said. “We want to run it back.”

Not surprising, Butzin plays football as well. You’d think a blocker and receiver would also like football collisions.

“The physical side,” he said. “I want to be involved in every play. Hit, hit people. Tackle. Take it out on the football field and hit as hard as I can. I like hitting people, it’s like blocking a baseball.”

Or being smacked. With a bat.

mhorn@gannett.com

419-307-4892

X: @MatthewHornNH

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: OHSAA Oak Harbor Rockets baseball Brayden Butzin