USM is no stranger to talented baseball players. Over the years, the Huskies have even sent players to compete at the next level. This year is no different. Senior outfielder Anthony D’Alfonso (Westbrook) is looking to join the likes of Vinnie Degifico and Tip Fairchild as USM players to make a noise at the professional level.
Raised in nearby Westbrook, D’Alfonso grew up playing baseball, but was not always the best at what is now considered a lifestyle for him.
In seventh grade he was cut from his middle school baseball team – an event that sparked the start of a promising baseball career for the Huskies cleanup hitter.
D’Alfonso got better and better through his late middle school and high school years.
The imposing 6-foot-4-inch, 265-pounder grew into his body and began putting up numbers that were catching people’s eyes in the greater Portland area.
After leading his Westbrook High team to a Western Maine Class A championship in 2005, the kid that they call “Dally” took his abilities to Southern Maine Community College (SMCC) where he played for the Seawolves for two years before transferring to USM and joining the Huskies ball club in the fall of 2007.
This was just the change D’Alfonso needed.
“I think going from SMCC to USM has really helped me improve and become a better all around player,” D’Alfonso says. “At SMCC I was playing extremely well but I felt like I needed to go somewhere that faced better competition. Here I’m learning more, playing with better players, being coached by some of the best coaches in the nation, and facing better pitching that I think is really preparing me for my future as a baseball player.”
Southern Maine’s rich baseball tradition was also a factor that D’Alfonso believes contributed to his development as a player.
Growing up and playing in the always competitive greater Portland area was the perfect environment to hone his baseball skills.
The slugger collided with some great teams and even better players including the perennial powerhouse Deering High school and such players as Ryan Flaherty, the former Vanderbilt shortstop and 41st pick in last June’s MLB draft.
Other notable players that D’Alfonso competed against in his high school days are Ryan Reid, minor league pitcher in the Tampa Bay Rays organization, infielder Ryan Piacentini of Trinity College, USM’s own shortstop Chris Burleson, and USM outfielder Ryan Pike of Thornton Academy. But D’Alfonso himself is a bit of a local legend, once belting four home runs in a single American Legion game.
Nevertheless, the high level of competition and baseball-centered atmosphere fueled D’Alfonso’s will to get better.
The senior is coming off an incredible year in 2008, when he garnered third team All-American honors after hitting .393 with 15 homers and 62 RBI’s.
He is looking to carry that tenacious hitting and defensive play over to this year as he was picked as a second team preseason All-American.
Currently D’Alfonso is batting .415 with 19 RBI’s and two home runs and is always looking to improve with hard work at practice and in the weight room.
Much of D’Alfonso’s success at the plate comes from his approach and how he handles himself when he steps in the batter’s box.
“My approach really depends on who’s on base or the certain situation I’m hitting in, but overall when I get up to the plate is that it’s a battle between me and the pitcher,” D’Alfonso says. “I need to win that battle to help my team win the game because I hate losing. I zone out when I’m at bat and my goal is to always hit it hard and right at the pitchers cap.”
This extremely competitive nature is a perfect characteristic to channel to his fellow Huskies in their bid for a third National Championship.
During each of the last two springs, there has been speculation that D’Alfonso would be selected in the draft. But last year when his name wasn’t called, he was left without any options.
Enter opportunity.
Just 35 miles from his hometown of Westbrook sat the perfect opportunity: the Sanford Mainers of the New England College Baseball League, a premier wooden bat league geared toward mostly Division I baseball players.
He and junior pitcher Mark Schmidt (Gorham) were picked up after the team had already played 14 regular season games.
The slugger used his toughness at the plate to make an immediate contribution for the Mainers, who eventually won them the NECBL Championship.
By the end of the season D’Alfonso had made the All-Star team and led the team in batting average after hitting .426, and RBI with 20.
D’Alfonso’s manager Joe Brown had high praise for the lefty when he told the Portland Press Herald that Anthony was among the top 10 players he had coached in his 10 years at the helm – no small praise considering the talent pool in the NECBL.
Brown went onto say that if D’Alfonso didn’t play professionally somewhere “then I don’t know where the scouts are.”
D’Alfonso praises the experiences that he had playing in Sanford, noting that players are treated as though they’re major leaguers, with die-hard fans going to every game.
He also commented that he was playing with some of the top prospects in the country. D’Alfonso believes that this experience has prepared him for the rest of his baseball career.
D’Alfonso has always held his family in a special place, and their support has been invaluable in ascent of the baseball ladder.
His parents are huge supporters and make it to every game they can. On the past two Arizona spring trips, his mother and grandmother traveled cross-country in an RV to watch Anthony and the team tear it up.
At home games and games around New England you’ll see Mr. D’Alfonso and his brothers cheering him on from behind the back stop.
But D’Alfonso’s family isn’t the only one supporting him. His teammates are quick to tell you what sort of player he has become.
“Anthony is one of the best pure hitters I have ever played with and definitely has the fastest hands that I’ve ever played with. He has remarkable hand eye coordination,” junior first-basemen Collin Henry says of his teammate. “He really gives the team energy with his laid back, kind of joking style when were off the field but when we get on the field it’s all business for the guy and he’ll do anything to help the team succeed.”
D’Alfonso’s hard work ethic was put to the test when he suffered a knee injury during an intramural basketball game just a month before winter practice began.
After surgery he was in the rehab room and gym everyday trying to get better so he would be ready for the season opener in Long Island.
“I was in rehab with him every day and he was doing everything he could to get himself as close to 100 percent as possible before our season started,” Henry added. “I still don’t think he is 100 percent but I can tell you it will be soon if he keeps up the hard work.”
As far as playing at the next level for D’Alfonso, there is a likely possibility he will do so.
Scouts have been talking to the power hitter dating back to his days at SMCC and he is currently being looked at by the Cincinnati Reds and the Seattle Mariners.
And so D’Alfonso will likely have to end his reign on the southern Maine baseball scene when the pros come knocking.
But, no matter where he goes, D’Alfonso will likely be taking a big part of the area with him.