First baseman Alexander Devito first discovered his love for baseball at a young age, when his parents who encouraged him to play little league T-Ball.
Devito followed in his father’s footsteps as a collegiate baseball player. Devito said that his dad was an admirable player but never pursued a professional baseball career.
“I think he had bad grades and he also hurt his arm,” Devito said. “But he always stresses school to me now. I’m not athletic enough to play any other sport, [so] this is probably the only sport that I can play. I’m too slow to play football and not tall enough to play basketball.”
Devito is playing his first semester for Brahmas baseball and is learning to play under coach Bill Picketts.
“It’s really fun,” Devito said. “It’s just that we aren’t winning right now which is the only bad part. But I like it here. I like all the guys and I like coming out everyday. It’s a fun team, but it’s just not going well for us right now”.
Devito played baseball for Chatsworth High School, a school that is renowned for its baseball program. Transitioning from Chatsworth to Pierce was an adjustment for Devito.
“Chatsworth was a lot more structured,” Devito said. “We would practice for like five hours a day. Here we just hit and take ground balls. If you want to get extra work it’s on your own time, kind of like college classes compared to high school classes.”
Former Chatsworth teammate and outfielder Micah Ortiz has played with Devito several years.
“He has definitely matured a lot,” said Ortiz. “He’s grown into a better ball player and he works pretty hard. He has a lot of fun with games now and doesn’t take it too seriously. When things are going bad he doesn’t panic. He stays very composed.”
When it comes to the Majors, Devito believes if the opportunity to further his baseball career presented itself, he would take the chance. Devito’s favorite team is the Texas Rangers because of his favorite player of all time, first baseman and designated hitter, Prince Fielder.
“He just swings really hard. He hits home runs. I don’t know how he does it. He’s 5’11 and 270. He’s a big dude,” Devito said.
Baseball head coach Bill Picketts knew about Devito before he transferred to Pierce from Moorpark from a few Pierce players that were friends of his.
“He came in here and pretty much earned a spot as first baseman and now he is [designated hitting] a little bit more but he’s had a good season so far and has shown a little bit of home run power but it’s nice to have him in the line up. He does everything we ask him to do,” Picketts said.
Although the Brahmas are struggling to get going this season, with composure, Devito does what he can to contribute to the team.
“They all contribute something, but he’s got a good sense of humor and really it’s his power. We don’t have a lot of that. We didn’t have a lot of it last year. He’s already tripled our home run lead from last year. We had one total for the season, he’s got three this year. He does bring that power in the line up which we definitely need,” Picketts said.
