Woodland’s Alfiere to pitch at Quinnipiac

0
109
Woodland senior Katie Alfiere signed a national letter of intent to play softball at Quinnipiac University last Friday at Woodland.
Woodland senior Katie Alfiere signs a national letter of intent to play softball at Quinnipiac University.

BEACON FALLS — Hawks senior softball star Katie Alfiere signed last Friday at Woodland her national letter of intent to play at Division I Quinnipiac University, making her the second member of her family to play at the highest collegiate level.

“I chose Quinnipiac because I really liked the school,” Alfiere said. “It’s really scenic and beautiful. Academically, it’s a very strong school, and the softball program is doing well. It’s the place I fit in best.”

Her brother, Eric, is a sophomore on the University of Connecticut’s track and field team.

Alfiere split time as starting pitcher over the last two seasons at Woodland, helping the Hawks advance to the Class M semifinals this spring. It has been Alfiere’s performances on her summer softball squads over the past few years, however, that attracted the attention of a number of major college coaches.

The 17-year-old Alfiere began taking pitching lessons with Norm Pariseau when she was in sixth grade, and in eighth grade started practicing pitching every day.

“It started to get serious then,” Alfiere explained. “I was determined to become a dominant pitcher.”

After playing for the Beacon Falls Bullets travel team until 2007, Alfiere tried out for and made the highly successful Xtreme Chaos club, of which she been a member for the last two years.

“I wanted to play at a more competitive level,” Alfiere said. “I wanted to get more exposure because Chaos travels more than the Bullets did.”

Over the past two summers, Alfiere pitched at a number of college showcases, at which she garnered offers from several college teams. Sure, a 66-mile-per-hour fastball didn’t hurt her cause.

“By junior year, it was a goal of mine to start attracting college coaches,” Alfiere said. “I wanted to be the fastest pitcher at the showcases and stand out from the rest.”

Alfiere will certainly help the Bobcats, who last season finished sixth in the Northeast Conference with an 18-30 overall record. She plans to major in sports medicine at Quinnipiac, which has about 6,000 undergraduates at its main campus in Hamden.