He’s in Fat City After Gut Check

Tony Alcantar arrived at Santa Ana College last season with little fanfare.

He was a solid-hitting first baseman who had taken a year off after graduating from Katella High. He was overweight and had not traveled the avenues one normally takes for success.

There were no travel-ball or scout-league teams on his resume, just a couple of all-league selections in high school.

As first basemen go, his type was a dime a dozen: hit for power, not much else.

Not exactly a guy you would expect to break out a year later and become one of the top community college players in one of the top baseball conferences in the country. But that’s exactly what Alcantar did this season, when he was named Orange Empire Conference co-MVP.

Alcantar leads Santa Ana into the first game of a best-of-three Southern California Regional playoff series against Cuesta at 3 p.m. today with a .427 batting average and 63 RBIs. The winner of the series advances to the state championships next weekend in Fresno.

The No. 3 hitter on the top-ranked team in the state, Alcantar did not expect this type of success after batting .299 with 34 RBIs last season.

The key to his turnaround has been commitment. Alcantar knew that if he was to advance past the community college level, he would have to do something to make himself stand out. He hit the gym, the batting cages and the track. He showed up at winter practice weighing 215 pounds--35 pounds lighter than the year before and down 50 pounds from his peak high school playing weight.

“It was something I just told myself I needed to do,” Alcantar said. “I’ve been playing baseball since age 5. I didn’t want to throw all that away. I told myself, ‘You’ve got to get into it if you want to go to the next level,’ and it paid off.”

Alcantar’s success surprised even Santa Ana Coach Don Sneddon, who preaches self-discipline but rarely comes across athletes who take those words to heart.

“I always say that discipline is doing what you are told and self-discipline is doing it without being told,” Sneddon said. “Tony is a self-made player. He’s the kind of guy I use as an example to show other players what hard work can do for you.”

Alcantar’s home run total dropped from 10 last season to six, but he has more than made up for that drop in power by adding a new dimension to his game: speed. He has a team-leading 15 stolen bases and has bunted for hits four times this season.

Not bad for a guy who was an all-league offensive lineman during his high school football days.

“I guess I’m like all-around now,” Alcantar said. “Last year I was big and stuff and just a power hitter; just go up there and hit home runs, you know.”

That wasn’t going to be enough to get Alcantar to a Division I school and he knew it. Five days a week during the heat of the Anaheim summer, Alcantar strapped on his running shoes and ran three miles a day.

Alcantar was not recruited by Santa Ana out of high school. The only school to recruit him was Fullerton College. He enrolled there, but dropped out after only a month, citing “personal issues.”

He continued to work out with his old high school team and Katella Coach Tim McMenamin asked if he missed playing. McMenamin is friends with Santa Ana assistant Don Popovich and arranged a meeting.

When Alcantar showed up at Santa Ana, Sneddon remembered that he was a good hitter, but was wary that Alcantar was just a run-of-the-mill first baseman, and, at 5 feet 11, 250 pounds, an undersized and overweight one at that.

“He always had a little ability to hit, we saw that in high school,” Sneddon said. “But he was a first baseman who can’t run and there are a lot of guys like that in the world. We didn’t think he would be the impact player that he has been.”

Because of his size, Alcantar was known more as a football player in high school, but never considered playing the sport in college. Baseball was his love and not getting recruited was hard for him to accept.

He went through the motions his freshman year at Santa Ana, relying on talent to get through the season. He didn’t make the all-conference team, not even the second team. It was then that he realized the only way to success would be by outworking everyone.

“From not making anything to making co-MVP, I was like, ‘Wow!’ ” said Alcantar, who plans to sign with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. “The highest I hit in high school was .365. The last time I hit .400 was in Little League when I was 12. It’s just a great honor to be co-MVP.

“If I didn’t get myself in shape, this would have been my last year,” he said. “I’d have to hang up the cleats or something. I guess all the hard work I did paid off.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Baseball Playoffs

* What: Community College Regional Baseball Playoffs, 2nd round

* When: Today, 3 p.m.; Saturday, 1 p.m.; Sunday, noon (if necessary).

* Where: Santa Ana College, 1530 W. 17th St., Santa Ana

* Basics: Santa Ana College (37-10) vs. Cuesta (34-10) in a three-game series for a berth in the state championships. Santa Ana is the top-seeded team in Southern California, Cuesta is No. 4. Cuesta defeated Santa Ana, 16-5, in the third game of the season. Santa Ana has outscored opponents, 52-20, in five playoff games.

* Tickets: $5 for adults; $3 for children and senior citizens.

* Parking: Free public parking in lot 11 between the track and baseball field.