Norwich — Blaise Salter is a Detroit native who played for Michigan State.

His Detroit Tigers roots go further than that, though. Salter's grandfather, Bill Freehan, played his entire 15-year major league career as a catcher for the Tigers, being named an 11-time all-star and winning five Gold Gloves and the 1968 World Series championship. Freehan followed as an instructor in the organization.

Salter, therefore, grew up with a steady stream of Tigers in his life.

“Around the field, around the house,” Salter said.

Salter, taken 31st in the 2015 Major League Baseball Draft, is now the 6-foot-5, 245-pound cleanup hitter for the Connecticut Tigers, selected by the same franchise he's rooted for all his life.

Salter homered in the first inning Wednesday, helping lift Connecticut to a 7-5 victory over the Brooklyn Cyclones in the Tigers' home-opener before 4,107 fans at Dodd Stadium. It is Salter's first season in the New York-Penn League.

His mom and dad, Kelley and John, were in Norwich to see their son finish 2-for-4 with three RBI, helping spark a 13-hit attack for the Tigers (4-2) and giving right-handed starter Ryan Castellanos his first victory of the season.

“Every day it's awesome, coming in and seeing the Old English 'D' on the door,” Salter said of the Tigers logo. “Growing up in Detroit, it's what every kid dreams of.”

Salter hit an 0-2 pitch for the home run, fouling off one slider before getting another one.

“I was trying to just battle. He left a pitch up,” Salter said. “… That was exciting.”

The first inning ignited the Tigers, who added a run in the second inning and three in the third to lead 6-0.

Cole Bauml, Mario Sanjur and Junnell Ledezma had three straight hits to lead off the second and Keaton Jones followed with a ground ball to shortstop to score Bauml, making it 3-0. Bauml and Sanjur added back-to-back doubles in the third to drive in three more runs.

The Tigers scored their final run in the sixth on an RBI chopper up the middle by Salter, which pushed the lead to 7-2 at the time.

Bauml finished with three hits and Castellanos (1-1) allowed just two hits over six innings to earn the victory. He gave up two runs, one earned, striking out two, walking one and lowering his earned run average to 2.70. Taylor Hicks and Adenson Verastegui each contributed a scoreless inning of relief.

Brooklyn threatened in the ninth off reliever Yordy Cabrera, getting the winning run to the plate with two outs, but Cabrera induced a comebacker from Nick Sergakis for the final out. The Cyclones scored three in the ninth on three hits and two errors.

The Tigers made four errors in all.

“We kicked the ball a little bit,” Tigers third-year manager Mike Rabelo said. “Alan Trammell (special assistant to the Detroit organization and former Tigers shortstop) is in town. We're going to be on the clay early (Thursday). We're going to grind 'em out.”

The Tigers were coming off a 5-1 loss Tuesday in Vermont and arrived home between 3:30 and 4 a.m. In general, Rabelo said he was pleased with a 3-2 road trip, which brought Connecticut back to Dodd Stadium for the first of a three-game series against the Cyclones (2-4).

The Tigers will play Brooklyn on Thursday and Friday beginning at 7:05 p.m., before beginning a three-game series at Aberdeen.

v.fulkerson@theday.com