From B-teamer to the A-list, Barrington's Delaurentis finishes on top
Barrington's Anthony Delaurentis went from a B-team high school baseball player to the best in the area, as signified by his choice to captain the Daily Herald's Northwest all-area team.
Delaurentis becomes the third Barrington student-athlete to captain an all-area team this school year, following senior Scotty Miller (football) and junior Rapolas Ivanauskas (basketball).
Barrington coach Pat Wire said Delaurentis has done nothing but work hard in his career to gain the accolades he has received.
“He is a quiet, yet confident young man,” Wire said. “He is a guy who believes in his ability and then goes out and proves it each and every day.”
Delaurentis was two-year starting pitcher for the Broncos. This year year, he was 6-2, striking out 49 while compiling a 1.83 ERA. He also was inserted into the batting order this year and played second base for Barrington.
That's quite a journey from the start of his high school baseball career, which was with the Barrington freshman B team three years ago.
“I really didn't agree with me being put on the B team in the first place,” Delauerentis said. “I just had to make the best of it. I tried to make it a lot of fun and I had a few good friends on the team.
“I pitched really well my freshman year, but no one seemed to notice. So sophomore year, I just thought I would do the same thing on the mound that I did my freshman year and I became one of the team's top pitchers.”
Delaurentis played that summer for the Barrington American Legion team coached by Wire, and that opportunity made a big difference.
“He tried out as a freshman B-player” Wire said. “He worked hard and was driven. He really impressed me the way he pitched against Top Tier. After that, we knew we had something special.”
Delaurentis became the Broncos No. 2 starter in his junior year, behind Wyatt Trautwein. And when Trautwein went down late in the season, Delaurentis stepped in to take over the No. 1 role. He had an outstanding game in the regionals, but the Broncos were eliminated.
After a successful season as a junior, Delaurentis set his sights on another aspect of the game: hitting.
“The past couple of years I never got that much of an opportunity,” Delaurentis said. “I got DH'd for all of last year when I pitched. So I wanted to change that. I wanted to be able to play all the time.”
Delaurentis brought that same quite confidence to the batter's box this year.
As a pitcher the first three seasons at Barrington, Delaurentis never saw a ball pitched to him. But he changed that this season.
“Last summer I was hitting on my travel team and I was doing very well,” he said. “And it continued at tryouts my senior season here. I was hitting the ball real well and it carried over into the season as well.”
“We put him a JV game and he almost hit for the cycle,” Wire said. “From there, we couldn't get him out of the batting order.”
But all of this didn't come to Delaurentis without suffering the biggest curveball of his life.
Just after his freshman year, Delaurentis' father Solly, was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident. It left Anthony Delaurentis understandably fractured.
“It was a huge impact on me,” Delaurentis said. “All through my life, my dad and I would play catch. He would be at all my games. And that was taken away from me, so it was big thing to get over.”
But Delaurentis had baseball to focus on, and it helped him get through the struggles.
“I knew every day that he was watching and looking down on me when I played,” Delauerentis said. “Obviously with time it is getting better. But it is still tough, especially when things like this happen to me.”
Delaurentis also helped pick up some of the responsibility in keeping an eye on twin sisters Natalie and Rianna, who will be both juniors at Barrington next year, and helping his mother Sharyn.
“I just needed to step up and help out,” Delaurentis said. “That's what family is all about.”
Wire is impressed with how well Delauerentis has been able to overcome the adversities dealt to him.
“Though all the trials and adversity he had gone through, he has been able to push through it,” Wire said. “He has been able to channel that energy to become the best baseball player he could be.”
Unlike most players of the year, Delauerentis will not be playing his sport in college. He will attend Indiana University and major in business.
“I thought about walking on,” Delaurentis said. “But I want to concentrate on college and getting into their business school.”
If they took one look at how his baseball career went, the people in Bloomington, Ind., should have a spot all picked out for Delaurentis.