Salsgiver was also a pitcher in high school—and a dominating one at that. In his junior season, he went 13-0 for Davison with 122 strikeouts, and was named All-State as a pitcher as well as a hitter. With the recent loss of ace Trey Hendricks leaving Harvard one Ivy starter short, Salsgiver might be needed on the hill as well as at the plate this weekend.
“I hurt my arm a little bit in the fall, and I decided I just wanted to back off on the pitching for awhile and focus on being an everyday player,” Salsgiver says. “I’ve been throwing some bullpen sessions lately though, and Coach Walsh has said he might use me in relief down the stretch.”
Salsgiver started playing baseball at the age of four, when his parents, Wendy and Dennis, encouraged him to start playing T-ball. Since then, he has never stopped playing the game, and his father Dennis has been there for him the whole way.
“My father has definitely been the biggest influence on my life baseball-wise,” Salsgiver says. “For the first 13 or 14 years of my life, my Dad was my coach.”
While Dennis Salsgiver wasn’t the head coach at Davison, he served as an assistant coach and was always there to help Lance correct his swing if something was off.
“Not having my Dad around this year has been a little tough, but [Harvard assistant] coach [Matt] Hyde is really an excellent hitting coach and so I don’t think it’s really affected me,” Salsgiver says. “Plus, my parents have flown out to a number of my games this year, and it’s been great to have them supporting me.”
Salsgiver is one of only three players (along with freshman Zak Farkes and sophomore Ian Wallace) to start every game this season for Harvard, and by his own admission, he has had a couple of mini-slumps.
But along with the Crimson’s other freshmen positional players, Farkes—the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Week—Josh Klimkiewicz and Chris Mackey, Salsgiver is hitting his stride at the plate at exactly the right time for Walsh’s team.
In Harvard’s last three games—a pair of wins over Brown and one over Holy Cross—Salsgiver has gone 8-for-14 with 9 RBI.
“Lance has really started to improve at the plate,” Lentz says. “It is important for all the freshmen to not feel a lot of pressure at the plate, but they all have a lot of talent and Lance now can hit anywhere in our lineup.”
After his huge Monday at Brown, (5-for-8 with 7 RBI), Walsh deposited Salsgiver into the No. 3 spot vacated by Lentz, who moved to the cleanup spot to replace the injured Hendricks. The freshman outfielder may find himself there for the rest of the year.
“Hopefully this year we can step it up and win the Ivy League,” Salsgiver says. “But this freshman class has a lot of talent and I’m really looking forward to the next four years here.”