ATHLETE OF THE WEEK : Tagliaferri Finds Easy Swings Result in Hard Hits

Considering all the fields, grass and wide-open spaces involved, baseball is sometimes described as a pastoral game. It can seem almost rural, bucolic. Kennedy High’s Gino Tagliaferri would not dispute that point.

In an 11-1 win over Cleveland at Kennedy last Tuesday, the senior shortstop ripped a pair of home runs, including a grand slam, over the fence in left field. At Kennedy, home runs to left land on a street that runs beyond the fence, and assuming there are no windshields to impede the gopher ball’s path, it ricochets into a medium-sized nursery that borders the school to the north.

In Thursday’s 6-1 win at Cleveland, Tagliaferri homered in his first at-bat, again over the fence in left and again into a decidedly rural setting. This, his third blast in 48 hours, landed in a series of farm stalls that run along the north side of the field.

“Somebody in the dugout said it hit a horse right in the . . .” Tagliaferri joked.

It is easy to laugh when you have planted a few seeds of your own, and Tagliaferri has been hitting the long ball for three seasons. As a sophomore designated-hitter, he batted .439 with five home runs and 23 runs batted in. As a junior shortstop, he batted .375 with five home runs and 32 RBIs. He was a Times’ All-Valley selection both seasons.

Last week, he single-handedly outscored Cleveland and was four for six with three home runs and seven RBIs. Entering play this week, he led Valley City Section batters with five home runs.

Opponents won’t believe it, but Tagliaferri swears he has become a singles hitter. Or at least, that is the objective. “I’m using my head,” Tagliaferri said. “No more swinging at bad pitches, their pitches. I swing at the ones I want and try to hit line drives.”

Of course, his reputation is a double-edged sword that can make line drives of any sort a precious commodity. He is expected to hit for average and power, yet he sees few pitches in the strike zone. Rather than face Tagliaferri with a runner in scoring position and first base unoccupied, Cleveland intentionally walked him in Thursday’s game. He had homered in his first at-bat and drilled a 400-foot foul down the left-field line in his second.

“It’s tough when they know about you,” he said. “When you get some hits, you don’t start seeing much to hit after that.”

And when a batter presses, the score card tends to become littered with F-7s. These are not screeching jet planes, these are lazy fly balls to left. Tagliaferri emerged from a slump a month ago when first-year Coach Manny Alvarado convinced him that when it comes to power and the baseball swing, less equals more.

“He really suffered from a case of dinger-itis when the season opened,” Alvarado said. “He had hit a bunch of home runs in winter league and in preseason play, and he was trying to hit everything out.”

The winds of change were in evidence Tuesday against Cleveland. With a stiff breeze blowing toward home plate, Tagliaferri resigned himself to a more compact swing. The net results were balls bouncing over compact cars.

“I knew he was really starting to get the message when he came up to me after the game and said (the home runs) came because he wasn’t even thinking about them,” Alvarado said.

It’s working: Nine of Tagliaferri’s 14 hits are for extra bases. Sometimes, however, he still finds it hard to contain himself at the plate, especially since he readily admits, “I hate pitchers.”

“They’re always the ones who determine whether a game is exciting or boring,” Tagliaferri said. “If they throw a no-hitter, it’s boring all the way until the end, when it gets kind of exciting. If they walk everybody in the house, it’s boring. Either way, all the fielders are just standing around.

“Hitting is not boring.”

Especially when the hits land across the street.