Billy Alvino Suits Up with Tigers Again

At Sachem High School East, the varsity baseball team has been working out twice a week during the winter months. In the dimly lit back gym lined with safety nets and red padded walls, balls ricochet hard off the aluminum skeletons of pitching screens. Players and coaches chat, some kids laugh, others focus on their craft.

Then a loud crack wakens the dull monotony of the hustle and bustle from the others throwing and hitting. The ball flies off this one bat like a bug leaping before being swatted. The air around his wooden sword makes way as his perfected swing crushes through the zone and belts balls to the back of the net some 50 feet away. The person throwing batting practice dodges one line drive that nailed his protective cage. Some of the young players peek over and watch. They look embarrassed to be staring, but still curious to see how a professional takes hacks. Their eyes fixed on the Detroit Tigers logo emblazoned on his shirt and shorts.

It was just five years ago that Billy Alvino practiced with his varsity team at East. Fingered to be the face of Sachem baseball from the time he was an eighth grader, Alvino gradually became one of the best players on the Long Island baseball scene. From leading Sachem East to a Long Island title and appearance in the New York State championship to playing high caliber Division I baseball at High Point University in North Carolina, and then signing a contract with the Tigers, Alvino has endured a great deal since walking the halls of the Farmingville school.

At 2 years old, Alvino was introduced to the game by his stepfather Mike Alvino. They both share the same last name because Billy opted to change his original surname of Aguiar during his sophomore year of college to Alvino because of the close relationship with Mike and lack their of with his biological father.

"He was the one who put the bat in my hands and put me on the right path to becoming a man," he says. "He has a very important role in my life."

In the backyard of their Holtsville home – which proudly sports a Tigers flag today –, Alvino would spend hours swinging a Wiffle Ball bat and often took over 100 pitches from Mike each day, even as a young as 3. If his parents hadn't broken his concentration from swinging to call him in for dinner, he said he would go all day.

"I'd try to get everyone involved in the backyard," says Alvino, even persuading his grandparents to throw him pitches when they could.

By the time he was 6, Alvino starting playing catcher. Mike had caught a little when he played softball, his aunt Lori-Anne Alvino caught for the softball team at Sachem and his uncle Danny Alvino was projected to play pro ball out of a city high school before blowing out his knee. So for Alvino to squat behind the plate, it was a perfect fit. The same goes for his sister Sam, who is a softball catcher at Sachem East now.

As for fundamentals, Alvino was working on proper technique at an early age.

"Even as young as nine years old, he was working on going to the opposite way and staying on the ball," says Billy Neubauer, a teammate of Alvino's since they were 8-years old and a member of the 2005 Long Island championship team at East. "I think this helped him out tremendously in the future as he became such a well-balanced and patient hitter."

Quickly he built a reputation as "the kid to watch" on the diamond. Whether from his early days playing travel ball, or his first games as a school ball player at Sagamore Junior High, he was a marked man. He admits he never thought about being "the guy," rather, he focused on what really mattered, playing and winning.

"During the game you don't think about any of that stuff on the field," he says. "The baseball field is your escape from reality. When things were being said, I tried to play the game for what it was. I tried to carry myself in a professional manner."

That he did. In a matter of fact way, he had no choice. Playing for Bill Batewell was both a privilege and a chore. By the time Alvino reached the varsity as a freshman at Sachem High School, Batewell had long been a coaching legend, leading the Flaming Arrows to countless playoff appearances, hundreds of wins and respectable baseball stature unlike many programs around. He admits he wanted Alvino on varsity as an eighth grader, but many felt it was better for his development to play junior varsity that year, then move up to the big club the following season.

By that point, it was understood that Sachem would be splitting for the 2004-05 school year, thus giving Alvino the chance to play three seasons with Batewell, who had the sage like standing of converting his players from boys to men on the diamond.

To many, "he's kind of an intimidating man," Alvino says. "He looks like a big guy but he's well hearted. He gave me that chance to play varsity as a young player. He instilled confidence in me from day one with open arms. The way he carries himself on a baseball field day in and day out always stuck with me. If we're winning by five runs he has the same demeanor as if we're losing by five runs."

Batewell comes from the same old school training of thought as longtime Sachem coaches Fred Fusaro, Jack Mahoney and Joe Murphy. After the split, which many feel took the heart out of Sachem, Batewell stopped coaching in the district.

"Billy did a tremendously affective job for us," says Batewell, who is the head coach at Bellport High School now. "We had some other catchers in the program at the time that were good, but we put all our eggs in Billy's ability to call games and get it done for us."

The split for Alvino meant the arrival of a brand new situation, one ripe with a new building five miles away from Lake Ronkonkoma in Farmingville, new uniforms, a new field and a new head coach. While students were mending to their new surroundings, getting used to attending classes without many of their friends who were forced to stay at North, the athletes learned to gel quickly with one another.

"I looked around and said this is going to be tough," Alvino recalls. "Chemistry wise we just clicked right away. That was the biggest thing. We got a long so well."

The bond translated to wins on the field. As early as the first series of the regular season, Sachem East was challenged. Having never beat Smithtown in his varsity career, Alvino and his teammates knew something needed to change. Billy Neubauer led the season off with a homerun in the program's inaugural at-bat; East swept the series and never looked back.

In a season of firsts, one constant remained – Alvino was perfecting his swing and college coaches had taken serious notice by then. From an early age, he was taught by Mike Alvino to put the ball in play and see what happens.

Fortunately, "it started clicking a little more as I got older," he says. "My approach was more solidified in my mind. With two strikes put the ball in play and try to put pressure on the infield."

East did the unthinkable by season's end, beating East Meadow in the Long Island championship and advancing to the New York State title where eventually the Flaming Arrows ran out of luck.

In the Suffolk County semi-finals game against Copiague, Alvino stepped in to pitch in a relief stint and close the game for Sachem. Yes, you read that correctly. It had been discussed earlier in the season that Alvino would play third and possibly pitch if the team needed it.

He said, "Give me the ball, I want the ball, put the team on my shoulders whether we win or lose," Neubauer recalls. "It didn't matter to anyone that he hadn't pitched in a while since he was so determined to get the last few outs and wanted to put the team on his shoulders, which he certainly did."

Sachem won the game, 4-2, and Alvino was a hero on the mound, striking out the side, including Dave Collado, who beat out Alvino for that year's Carl Yastrzemski Award – given to Suffolk County's best player each season. In the Long Island championship, Alvino hit a key homerun to left field against East Meadow, adding to the old adage that big players play their best under pressure.

Perhaps more than big hits and heroic actions on the diamond, Alvino will be remembered for his thoughtful presence off the field. Whether it was being a leader for youngsters like guiding then sophomore pitcher Ryan Michelson to a career best 9-2 record on the mound, or cleaning the team bus on his hands and knees after East arrived back from its upstate journey, Alvino was a model ball player and continues to be.

"We got back at three in the morning," East head coach Kevin Schnupp recalls. "We had a double-header all day, ate a late dinner at Outback and I asked the guys to go on the bus and help the bus driver clean up a little. I looked back and he's on his hands and knees picking up sunflower seeds one by one."

On the radar of college coaches from Hawaii to Texas and everything in between, Alvino had one goal when choosing to play Division I baseball – to start during his freshman season. He put his dream schools like Clemson and Florida State aside and opted to play at High Point – a school in a prime location for major league scouts, close to ACC powers Duke and North Carolina and far enough south to escape the cold spring weather of Long Island.

Things picked up where they left off in high school for Alvino. Comfortable in his southern surroundings, he was an offensive threat right away. He finished his freshman season with a .290 average, three home runs and 29 RBI. That moderate success was all he needed to propel his confidence during the rest of his college career. In four years, he had a .316 average, nine homers and 145 in 204 games. He ranks third all-time in school history with 238 hits.

His senior year he hit .400 and started all 53 games. People around the country noticed when he was a semifinalist for the Johnny Bench Award, given to the nation's top college catcher. He was named All-Big South and recorded 84 hits that year, the second most in a single season in school history.

"Him being a four-year starter really kept our team level headed and focused on the task at hand," says High Point head coach Craig Cozart, who was only with the team for Alvino's senior season. "He's one of the best leader's I've coached. He's a very solid catcher."

Cozart, who was a pitching coach before becoming a manager, said Alvino can grab borderline pitches and make then strikes, not to mention he  "went 20 games before a ball got by him."

For Alvino, beating fourth ranked UNC at home was his best moment and possibly one of the experiences the program has ever endured at High Point. In the eighth inning, Alvino hit a double to left center field to drive in two runs and put the Panthers ahead for good.

"It was the first time High Point beat the University of North Carolina in baseball since 1976," Cozart recalls. "He was really clutch down the stretch for us."

An extraordinarily odd number of Long Island baseball products were selected by major league organizations in the 2009 draft. One after another players were picked from high schools and colleges around the country. Patchogue-Medford's Marcus Stroman went to the Washington Nationals. Ward Melville's Steven Matz was a second round pick of the New York Mets. SUNY Old Westbury and Massapequa product Rob Whitenack went to the Chicago Cubs. The names and teams rolled on like a flurry of good fortune. Alvino was at home in a patient state, trying to stay busy with working out and relaxing, but by day's end his destiny was at first a false reality.

It wasn't from a lack of communication with teams. He heard some bites from the St. Louis Cardinals after his junior year at High Point. The Cardinals expressed interest again the following year, as did Seattle and Kansas City, who went as far as telling him they would take him.

"I sent the paperwork in," says Alvino. "You're hearing all these things, you put good numbers up and stuff like that. It was a hard day to sit there. You get a little discouraged, but then I said what's next? I still had a love for the game"

Neil Summers, a family friend and former scout for the Blue Jays and Reds, suggested that Alvino reach out to every team. He threw up a prayer and sent packages out to everyone, hoping for a chance.

"Neil told me it happens, that guys get looked over," Alvino says.

A day after the packages were received, he got three offers to sign. The Tigers, Blue Jays and an Italian ball club all made contact, but since the Tigers called first, Alvino was loyal and gave them his John Hancock on a contract. "I went from being down to up pretty quick," he says. "My goal was to just get my foot in the door, give it a shot and see what I can do."

So it was down to sunny Lakeland, Florida where the Gulf Coast League Tigers – a rookie ball team – play. He stayed a week with that team before being promoted to the Lakeland Tigers, a High A team. In 12 games with the GCL Tigers, he hit .176 and in 34 games with Lakeland he hit .268 with two doubles and three RBI.

Aside from being semi star struck being near Carols Guillen in the clubhouse at Lakeland, and around Johnny Damon and Dontrelle Willis this year at spring training, the rest of his experience has been a grind with travel and non-stop playing.

"I got used to eating at Chili's and Applebee's on the road," he jokes.

On the diamond, Alvino says hitting is like facing a "Friday night guy" every time, meaning every pitcher in his respective high school or colleges was the best pitcher.

"You're facing a guy with two or three pitches that he can throw every time with command," Alvino says.

This year Alvino went to Lakeland in late February, two weeks before he was scheduled to start spring training. Hoping to get a leg up on his teammates, he is anxious to learn and get into a smooth rhythm for an entire season of pro ball. He spent his off-season working out at All Pro in Bellport and training with Mike Mitchell at Prospect Plus. He ran around his Holtsville neighborhood proudly sporting his Tigers' gear, and did the same at East when he helped teach the next generation of Sachem sluggers how to play the game.

One cold snowy February night at East, players waited outside the side entrance to the school. As minutes passed and more snow stuck to their bat bags and the brims of their Sachem baseball hats, most wondered what they were doing at school on a Tuesday night during a week of vacation in February. Then Billy Alvino walked up the steps smiling, waiving a key to the door and asking how everyone was. His Tigers warm-up shirt gave them all the answer.

Alvino is just like any other person who loves baseball, he'll tell you, but he's living the dream.