« Baseball 2017

Adam Alcantara

School
UC Irvine
Position
Outfield
Major
Sociology

Classroom

Adam Alcantara is on track to earn his degree in sociology following the spring quarter.

Character

Alcantara is the model of consistency and has been ever since his freshman season, leading by example and through his hard-nosed demeanor on the field. That leadership has blossomed into a captain role as a senior. Alcantara is part of a large family that is a staple at every Anteater baseball game, cheering and supporting each and every player including their own in Alcantara. He is always around the dugout conversing with any teammate and helping anyone in any situation around the diamond.

Community

Prior to the 2016 season, Alcantara and the Anteater baseball team adopted a young boy from Team IMPACT, a national organization that aims to improve the quality of life for children facing life-threatening and chronic illnesses. Gavin Rowe, an avid baseball player and native of Mission Viejo, Calif., is a third-grader and has been undergoing treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia since he was four. Alcantara and the squad signed Gavin in October of 2015 prior to their Halloween practice, and he has been a frequent visitor of Anteater Ballpark for games and scrimmages. Gavin has been making trips between California and Philadelphia where he has undergone extensive treatment for months at a time, but he hopes to return to the diamond soon to root on his ‘Eaters.

Competition

Adam Alcantara broke into a starting role as a junior in the 2016 season starting 46 games and playing 54 overall. He turned it on during conference play hitting .393, the second-highest mark in the conference, to help him earn All-Big West First Team status. His junior season also featured his first two career home runs, including one on the last day of the season and an inside the park job, helping earn the team a walk off victory. Those exploits were enough to earn Adam Big West Field Player of the Week honors to cap the 2016 season. Alcantara finished second on the club with 36 RBI and struck out just 22 times.

Stemming from the end of last season, Alcantara recently completed a 22-game hit streak, which stands as the second longest in program history. His early season highlights in 2017 have lifted his career batting average to .339 as Alcantara has hit at or above .300 in every season. The Alta Loma native has played a total of 124 games for the Anteaters with at least 29 games under his belt in each season and a minimum of 19 starts. Alcantara has one 4-hit game to his name, and has the Anteaters’ most recent 5-RBI game from his sophomore season.