Baseball: Decatur Heritage's Tyler Olive thankful to be playing

May 12—Last Thursday in a playoff win for Decatur Heritage, Tyler Olive ripped a line drive to left field that split the outfielders and rolled to the fence.

Two runs scored and Olive raced to second with a standup double. He stood on the bag and pumped his fist in excitement.

There was plenty to be excited about, but it wasn't all about the hit that put the Eagles up by seven in an eventual 11-1 playoff win over Westbrook Christian.

Part of it was Olive just being thankful to be playing baseball. Last fall, it looked like his high school athletic career was over after suffering a major shoulder injury playing football.

"I'm thankful every day to be playing baseball," Olive said. "It didn't seem possible a few months ago."

Last August in Decatur Heritage's football season opener, Olive was trying to make a block on a kickoff. He ended up tearing the labrum in his right shoulder. It's a painful injury.

The only solution to repairing the shoulder was surgery. Olive knows about surgery to repair damage from playing sports. He's already had four surgeries — three on one knee and one on the other.

"The doctors said if I could tough it out that I could play the rest of the football season," Olive said. "If I did that I couldn't play baseball and I love playing baseball."

So Olive continued to play linebacker for Decatur Heritage. At the end of the regular season he opted for the surgery. That gave him four months before the first baseball game. There was a lot of rehab.

"Swinging the bat came back quicker than being able to throw the ball," Olive said.

Returning to his old position at third was out of the question. First base was a good fit. The position was open due to graduation. That's one position where a team can hide a fielder with a weak arm.

"It's so different from playing third," Olive said. "You can't lay out for a ground ball like you can at third. You definitely have more throws to you at first than you do at third.

"It was rough at first. In our first game of the season a ball got away down the line. I went to chase it, but I had to let the right fielder throw it in. I couldn't."

The arm strength has returned and Olive can make the throw to third, if needed. He's become part of an infield group that is playing at a high level at the right time. The rest of the infield is senior Charlie Moores at second, senior Tyler Founds at shortstop and junior Bo Solley at third base.

Last week in the two-game sweep of Westbrook Christian, Olive had 17 putouts in 13 innings at first base.

"Our infield has really developed into a really dependable group," Decatur Heritage coach Steve Meek said. "You need an infield that's going to make all the routine plays and occasionally a great play, if you want to go far in the playoffs and we have that."

Opponents have scored just nine runs in six playoff games vs. Decatur Heritage. Only three have been unearned.

Meanwhile, Olive's bat has become a big weapon in the batting order at the No. 7 spot. He's 5-of-18 in the playoffs with a double, triple, home run and seven RBIs.

"I'm really enjoying this baseball season," Olive said. "There's nothing like playing on a really good team with your best friends."

david.elwell@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2395. Twitter @DD_DavidElwell.