Adams' Multi-Sport Gem Picot Providing Robust Reminder of Value on Diamond
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
May 11, 2023
ROCHESTER HILLS – In a way, it’s ironic for anyone watching Rochester Adams senior Parker Picot thriving and excelling at his best sport right now during the spring.
The small twist of irony is that a few months ago during the fall, some felt the same thing while he was playing a different sport.
For any observers of high school sports who follow football and not much else, they likely know all about Picot and how much of an all-around force he was for Adams on the gridiron. He was a lockdown defensive back and a dual-threat quarterback who did just about everything for a Highlanders team that advanced to the Division 1 championship game in 2021 and a Regional Final this past November.
People probably watched and wondered where his future in college football would take him, and for good reason given Central Michigan and University of Massachusetts headlined programs that offered him football scholarships.
But if those same observers are wondering why Picot isn’t going to play college football, all they have to do is watch him play baseball for Adams this spring.
If they do, it’s likely a collective “Oh” would be coming out of their mouths.
No doubt, as good as Picot was at football, he is even better at baseball, and will rightfully pursue that sport going forward after signing with Alabama in November.
“I’ve always loved football,” Picot said. “But I enjoy baseball more.”
Entering a Tuesday game against fellow Oakland County power Lake Orion, Picot owned the career school records for home runs (19) and stolen bases (57).
Playing in a tough league and against a formidable nonconference schedule, Picot was batting .339 with six home runs, 23 RBI and 10 stolen bases this spring hitting primarily out of the No. 2 spot in the Adams lineup.
Also a hard-throwing ace pitcher, Picot was 4-0 and had allowed four earned runs in 19 innings pitched going into Tuesday.
“He’s pretty good at everything,” Adams head coach Jeff Hall said. “He’s solid all the way around. He’s a great center fielder and one of the fastest kids in the country. I think in Chicago, he ran some ridiculous 60-yard dash.”
It’s not out of the realm of possibility that there could be something even greater ahead for Picot in baseball that has nothing to do with college.
“We have about five MLB scouts at every game,” Hall said.
Whether his name is called during July’s Major League Baseball draft remains to be seen, but regardless, Picot will go down as one of Adams’ all-time greatest athletes.
All the battles he has had on the baseball and football fields probably were nothing compared to all the battles he had in the backyard growing up with older brother Nick and twin brother Tait, who also was an invaluable two-player player for Adams in football and was batting close to .400 for the baseball team this spring going into Tuesday.
It didn’t matter if it was Wiffle Ball or tackling drills, the competition was intense enough to where maybe the brothers should have charged admission for neighbors to watch.
“They were pretty intense,” Picot said. “We definitely had fun. A lot of my success comes from there. We just went at it. It was brotherly love and brotherly competition. We had fun.”
Parker and Tait Picot obviously dream of leading Adams baseball to its first MHSAA Finals championship in June before Parker begins his college career at Alabama, or even gets drafted high enough to where it becomes tempting to bypass college altogether.
Assuming Picot eventually winds up in Tuscaloosa, there will be no lobbying Alabama football coach Nick Saban or anyone else on his staff for a walk-on spot on the football team.
Picot couldn’t be more in his passion and element going full-steam ahead in baseball from this point forward.
“It’s nice,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about anything else. I can just focus in and grind on baseball.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties
PHOTOS (Top) Rochester Adams’ Parker Picot comes to the dugout during a game against Lake Orion on May 9. (Middle) Picot looks to his third-base coach for signs while at the plate. (Photos by Keith Dunlap.)
Marine City Makes More History, St. Francis Outlasts Historic Opponent
By
Drew Ellis
Special for MHSAA.com
June 12, 2025
EAST LANSING – Winning its first Regional championship in program history was a big accomplishment for the 2025 Marine City baseball team.
Now, the Mariners find themselves one win away from their first Finals championship.
Utilizing aggressive base running and timely hits, Marine City defeated Olivet, 8-5, in a Division 3 Semifinal on Thursday at McLane Stadium.
“It means everything to us,” Marine City coach Ryan Felax said of his team’s first Finals appearance. “Marine City hasn’t won a Regional up until this year, so we’re three games beyond the first time ever. For us to be able to come out here and do what we have done, feeling like we were the underdog since the District Finals, is a special feeling. I can’t even express what it means to the program, what it means for our city, and what it means for the seniors, especially.”
Marine City (26-10) will face Traverse City St. Francis in Saturday’s championship game at 9 a.m. The Mariners believe they are going into the title-deciding contest with nothing to lose.
“We don’t have any pressure on us,” said Marine City senior Daniel VandeVyver, who got the win on the mound Thursday. “We’ve been looked down this whole tournament. There’s no pressure, so we’ve all just been coming out here, playing the game, and having a blast while doing it. We’re coming out with the (wins), so it’s great.”
VandeVyver threw 6.1 innings to earn his eighth win of the season for Marine City. After giving up a pair of runs in the first, the senior would go on to pitch five straight scoreless innings, allowing only three hits during the stretch.
“I came into that second inning with a lot more confidence,” VandeVyver said. “I was working more off-speed pitches and not using as many fastballs. It was working for me.”
The senior was also a key piece to the offense, finishing with three hits and three RBI.
“Danny VandeVyver is a special player,” Felax said of his senior. “He’s been doing this for me for four years. He’s a special pitcher. He’s a special kid. When he stays out of his own head, he can do pretty much anything.”
Olivet (22-7) got out to the 2-0 start in the first inning thanks to five singles in six batters, but the Eagles would strand the bases loaded as they looked to establish a larger advantage.
“We had bases loaded in the first inning and should have gotten more out of that,” Olivet coach Mike Whitley said. “We didn’t get as many as we should.”
Marine City answered in the top of the second, utilizing stolen bases and bunts to set up a sacrifice fly from freshman Tucker Volkman. VandeVyver than had an RBI single to even up the score at 2-2.
In the fifth inning, the Mariners broke the game open with four runs. The go-ahead run came when junior Dakota Droptiny was unable to get a bunt down, so he had to take a swing with two strikes. Droptiny proceeded to hit an RBI double to put Marine City up 3-2.
“Hey, I’ll take it,” Felax said. “He’s just a kid that doesn’t rattle.”
Lukus DeSmyther followed with an RBI single, then VandeVyver had a two-run double to make it 6-2 for Marine City.
The Mariners tacked on two more runs in the top of the eighth inning thanks to an error by Olivet and a double steal. All together, Marine City had 10 stolen bases in the win.
“You have to give (Marine City) credit. They are a heck of a team,” Whitley said. “They played a little small ball on us, which you don’t see in this area a whole lot. We just didn’t take care of business when we had the opportunity.”
Olivet made a late push in the bottom of the seventh inning, scoring three runs thanks to an RBI double from freshman Andrew Rigelman and a two-run single from senior Lucas LaPaugh.
The tying run reached the plate before the Mariners recorded the final out.
“They just battled every day for me, and I think that showed in the seventh inning,” Whitley said. “Who knows, one more hit, it might have been a different ball game.”
Lalo Aguirre finished with four hits and two runs for Olivet, while Trip Burkett had two hits and an RBI.
Droptiny finished with two hits, two runs and an RBI, while Paul Muscat stole three bases for the Mariners.
Traverse City St. Francis 4, Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett 3
In order to play for its first Finals championship since 1990, Traverse City St. Francis had to overcome the one baseball program with more championship game appearances than anyone else.
The Gladiators took advantage of some early Liggett errors to establish a 4-1 lead. From there, they held on behind the pitching of junior Sam Wildfong for a 4-3 victory in the first Division 3 Semifinal on Thursday.
“It was a great, great high school baseball game. Ligget is a great, great program. We felt like we had to knock the giant off to get to the Finals,” Traverse City St. Francis coach Tom Passinault said. “It feels great, because we have a lot of respect for their program. Our guys really battled today.”
Liggett, which has appeared in 10 Finals, defeated St. Francis 12-0 in the 2021 Division 3 championship game, the last Finals appearance for the Gladiators.
St. Francis (30-8-1) struck first, taking advantage of a few Knights miscues. An error put runners on the corners for the Gladiators, and then Wildfong scored on a wild pitch to make it 1-0.
A two-run single from junior Tyler Thompson in the second inning extended the St. Francis lead to 3-1.
Junior Matthew Kane opened the bottom of the fourth inning with a double to left field. He then scored two batters later when freshman Colton Peterson laid down a squeeze bunt to put the Gladiators up 4-1.
“We had our best bunter at the plate. Colton Peterson is so calm and cool, and Matt is a great base runner, so it was just a perfect combination for us,” Passinault said of the play.
With the three-run lead, Passinault believed that Wildfong would be able to pitch his team to victory.
“In games where we got up a few runs and we had Sam pitching, we felt pretty good about our chances,” Passinault said. “Sam is a gym rat in the baseball sense. He’s 365 baseball. He is always ready. He’s the guy you want in that moment.”
Liggett was able to get the Gladiators’ lead down to one as it manufactured one run each in the fourth and fifth innings. However, the Knights stranded a pair in the sixth inning who could have changed the game.
“We put the ball in play all game; that wasn’t the issue. We just couldn’t get them around,” Liggett coach Jay Ricci said. “We started to make that happen later in the game, but we just couldn’t get that last run across the plate.”
Wildfong found another gear in the seventh inning, striking out the first two batters before getting a ground out to end the game. The junior finished with three strikeouts for the contest, allowing one earned run over seven innings.
“I treated it like any other inning. I was just having fun with my friends out there,” Wildfong said of the seventh. “The fastball was really working that last inning, and it was really fun to dial in and locate it well.”
Thompson finished with a pair of hits to go with his two RBI. Liggett was led by Ravi Hines, who had a single and an RBI. Reliever Joey Harris pitched three scoreless innings to keep the Knights in the game when down 4-1.
“He did great, and we were real confident he would come in and shut the door,” Ricci said of Harris. “That was expected. Joey Harris has done a great job all year for us.”
PHOTOS (Top) Marine City's Michael Blunden signals "safe" during his team's Semifinal win over Olivet. (Middle) St. Francis pitcher Sam Wildfong makes his move toward the plate.