Swampscott native Louis Olivieri isn’t the average baseball player. During his four years wearing the Swampscott High uniform, Olivieri was known for being one of the quieter guys on the diamond who took pride in helping the Big Blue win. Now he’s carrying those same goals and characteristics at Central Alabama Community College.
“Things are going great,” Olivieri, a catcher studying business at the two-year school, said. “I’m keeping my grades up in the classroom. I’m hitting the ball well, seeing the ball well, catching-wise. I’m staying on top of things.”
Olivieri graduated from Swampscott High in 2017. A two-sport athlete in hockey and baseball, he attended post-graduate Cheshire Academy in Connecticut for one year before heading to Central Alabama. Junior colleges are often used as stepping stones for student-athletes who aspire to reach higher levels. Olivieri hopes that’s the path ahead of him.
“I wasn’t really content with what I had for offers coming out of high school,” Olivieri said. “I thought I could do better. I wanted to come down here and prove myself. It’s nice to be able to come down South and play against top competition in JUCO.
“At first it was kind of a culture shock but I made friends that are from the area,” Olivieri said. “They kind of showed me the ways. They’ve kind of taken me out and shown me what they do for fun. They’ve taken me fishing and mudding, things like that.”
Being further away from home hasn’t been easy but Olivieri checks in with family regularly. His younger brother, Drew, is currently in his junior year on the Big Blue baseball team.
“I always tell Drew to keep his chin up and do his thing,” Olivieri said. “He’s a captain of the baseball team so he has to be a leader. I just tell him to keep doing what he’s doing because he’s on a good track for success.”
Olivieri’s numbers at the plate show he’s also on track for success. Through 36 games he carries a .330 batting average with 15 RBI and 18 runs scored. He hit his first collegiate home run in a 4-3 win at Andrew College Feb. 26.
“The pitching is a lot more consistent at this level,” Olivieri said. “I’m consistently facing 89-94 velocity-wise with pitchers that have a lot more command. Fielding-wise it’s generally the same. I wouldn’t say it’s too much of a difference. The runners get better jumps so you have to be quicker with pop-up times and things like that. With hitting it just goes back to the velocity and the consistency of the pitchers.”
Olivieri has also progressed behind the plate while working on becoming more vocal.
“Louis has improved from the fall,” Central Alabama coach Larry Thomas said. “He struggled a little bit differentiating certain pitchers’ strengths and weaknesses. We try to use a pro-mentality from my days with the White Sox and Rangers. We try to help these guys understand what kind of pitchers they are. Louis is learning that. Coming back next year, he won’t miss a beat. He’ll be able to take a pitcher under his wing. It’s a process and he’s getting better.
“My catcher has to be my vocal leader,” Thomas said. “We’ve made adjustments with Louis. He’s very subtle. We’ve told him he has to be this type of person to get to the next level and we’ve worked at it. He’s gotten a lot better at that.”
Thomas, who’s from Winthrop, can relate to Olivieri’s experiences in adjusting to a different environment. Regardless of where players hail from, they’re bonded by the common objective of improving their craft.
“It’s a different culture,” Thomas said. “When I left Winthrop and after my years at Maine, coming down South I learned that you’re going to embrace it or learn it. If you don’t embrace it, you don’t learn it. It’s different. Everything’s fast paced up North. What I learned is that baseball-wise you’re always seeking knowledge and you’re outside all the time. There’s fields everywhere. There’s plenty of avenues for you to get yourself better.”
The Trojans started the season on the upswing but have hit a rough patch since then. Central Alabama, 22-30 on the season and 13-17 in Alabama Community College Conference play, is currently on an eight-game losing streak. With two regular season games remaining before next week’s ACCC Tournament, now’s the time to turn things around.
“We started strong at the beginning of the year,” Olivieri, who’ll join the North Shore Navigators this summer, said. “Right now we’re kind of in a hole. We have a great group of guys here but we just need to get our act together. Everybody here can play. We’re just making little mistakes. We have to touch up on those and get back to playing how we were playing.”
