In the final regular season series of the 2023 season for the University of Rhode Island baseball team, then second-year Anthony DePino launched a ball over the left field wall in the bottom of the third inning to take a 9-3 lead over Virginia Commonwealth University.
The homer was the 14th of the season for DePino and the 30th of his career. The blast tied DePino with Mike Le Bel, who played in Keaney Blue from 2009-2013, for the most career home runs in program history.
The second-year slugger was unable to homer in postseason play though, and DePino was forced to sit in a tie for an entire offseason. Like a rollercoaster that gets stuck at the end of the long climb up, DePino, for over nine and a half months, looked forward to racing down the track towards his achievement.
After seven games in the 2024 season, DePino finally connected on a ball against Washington State University and shot it to left field, solidifying himself as the “Home Run King” at URI.
“It was awesome [to break the record],” DePino said. “I knew it was going [over] right off the bat and when I’m going to touch first base I hear Coach [Kevin] Heiss say ‘congrats buddy,’ and it all just felt full circle and it was pretty awesome.”
For DePino, the learning curve for the Division I level was very short. As a first-year, DePino tallied the third-most homers in single season program history with 16. DePino attributed the early success to the preparation throughout his youth athletic career.
“It was always just growing up playing tough competition,” DePino said. “I feel like my coach, Mike Morris, put me in a position where it was like I can be ready for anything.”
Coming out of high school, the man who recruited him, URI Head Coach Raphael Cerrato, also believed in DePino’s athletic ability.
“I knew [Anthony] had a chance [to be a good player],” Cerrato said. “ We knew he had tons of potential, but you don’t know how it’s gonna play out. He had, in high school, some of the best power we’d ever seen from any kid, but is it going to transfer to Division I baseball? We thought at some point it would.”
That point came very early in DePino’s journey. Although the third-year third baseman still strives on developing his game today; he feels that his biggest improvement has been away from the batter’s box.
“I think my defense is something that has been really big for me,” DePino said. “As a freshman I was kind of almost lost out there on the field. Me and Coach [Cerrato] worked over the offseason and we were like ‘we are going to get this right because you can’t be a one dimensional player you have to be able to play both sides of the ball.’”
Cerrato agreed with DePino that his defense has improved drastically but he also sees an even higher ceiling in his batting ability.
“There is so much more in the tank for him as a hitter to be a complete hitter,” Cerrato said. “He obviously has the power and he has been very successful here but there is a lot more in him, which is exciting… He had a goal this year to cut down on the strikeouts and get his walks up and he’s really working hard on that… He’s been great, and there is still a lot of room for improvement.”
DePino’s impact towards his team also goes beyond the boxscore. As he matures as a baseball player at Rhode Island, he is also maturing as a person, according to Cerrato.
“He’s a great kid, phenomenal kid, everyone likes him,” Cerrato said. “He works very hard, he’s very serious about his craft, about being a baseball player, about making good decisions off the field and to be honest just in the last few weeks I’ve seen him become maybe our best leader.”
DePino also has high-lofted goals for the team in which he now serves as a leader. His aspirations surround playing more baseball.
“I want to win an A-10 championship, it’s what we came here to do,” DePino said. “I want to play in a [National Collegiate Athletic Association] regional. It’s just something we have always dreamed of as a team.”
DePino and the rest of the Rams will continue their path towards a possible A-10 title when they take on Saint Louis University this coming week in their A-10 conference opener. First pitch is set for 4 p.m. on Thursday afternoon.