(Editor’s Note: This piece originally ran on December 11, 2019)
Trailing West Islip in the first round of their playoff game, things weren’t looking too promising for the Arrows of Sachem North. While they were one of the top teams in League 2 all 2011, all it takes is running into one hot team in the single-elimination postseason to end a season.
That all changed with a late-inning rally that delivered a 3-2 victory that helped stave off elimination and propel them into the next round of the playoffs.
Once that happened, the team would never look back.
“After that victory, we said to ourselves ‘alright we’re gonna win this thing’, said Alec Sole, as he reminisced on the best season of his life. The Arrows went on a hot-streak from that point on, rattling off consecutive wins against Northport, Pat-Med and Eastport-South Manor to send them into the Suffolk County Class AA Championship game against rival Commack.
With the best pitcher in the county available, they were able to handle business easily with an 8-0 victory to capture their first title in 24 seasons.
“What made it a bit easier facing Commack was that we were familiar with them having played them during the regular season,” he said.
Sole fired a complete game shutout, which was the icing on the cake of his historic season. He wound up compiling a record of 6-2 with an ERA of 1.25. Just as impressively, he batted an insane .505 with 28 RBI. It was no secret that he was named the recipient of the Carl Yastrzemski Award.
They had their season cut short in the Long Island Championship game by Carey, 5-3, but it was a banner year for the Arrows. They had been knocking on the door for a few seasons, having made the postseason each of Sole’s three varsity years. The previous year, they went 15-9 on the season led by seniors Dan D’Orazio and Matt Milone. Additionally, they had to deal with the reigning Class AA New York State Champs in Lindenhurst and perennial powerhouse Connetquot.
Ultimately, it was the presence of Sole along with players like catcher Brendan Garry, infielder Mike Scarlato and pitcher Mike Vitalethat took them over the top.
“It was the pinnacle for us,” said Sole. “The biggest thing was team chemistry. We had been playing together for school and travel ball for years. In previous years, there was just a little bit of a divide. We all gelled very well. So many guys played amazing,” he said.
For some players on the team, it was their last taste of organized baseball but for Sole it was just the beginning.
After spending the past couple years traveling the nation in the summer circuit, he had decided to take his talents to Saint Louis University on a full ride. It was a tough decision for the infielder, who had garnered interest from programs like South Carolina, Michigan and offered a full ride to Stony Brook.
While he noted it was tough to turn down that offer from a team that was soon to make a trip to Omaha, his mind was set on getting away.
Late in his recruiting process, he made a trip to Arizona to play in a tournament. Through a connection with Earl Stroman, he was able to get a spot with the South Florida Bandits.
Sole admittedly performed very poorly in the tournament, which turned off teams like South Carolina and Michigan but the one school that stayed on him was Saint Louis.
“They said ‘we’re still interested–we want you,” he recounted. “Hearing their confidence in me was really cool that they weren’t going to give up at the first sign of failure,” he said. Additionally, they had just won the Atlantic-10 conference (They have since won in ’13 and ’18).
While he was certainly leaning towards choosing Saint Louis he didn’t make his decision right away–in fact, he took a little longer than the coaching staff would’ve liked, because “it’s still tough to leave Long Island.”
In the fall of his junior year, he was playing soccer with his friends when his mother showed up to the field, “dragged me away from my friends and told me you need to pick.” Knowing it was time, he chose to attend Saint Louis.
The decision proved to be a good one. Sole was outstanding during his tenure with the Billikens. He was a two-time first-team All-Conference selection. During his sophomore season, he batted .326 with a .391 OBP and improved on that his junior season with a batting average of .352 with a .419 OBP. He stole 10 bases as well.
Then his dream came true on June 7, 2014 when he was selected in the 18th round of MLB Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays.
After a rough first season in Rookie Ball, he broke out in 2015 with a stellar season. Across three levels, he batted .299 with a .340 OBP. He peaked at Triple-A Durham, but only appeared in two games. Ultimately, that would be his best season in the minors. His 2016 season was a slight step back, as he batted .269 with a .319 OBP before regressing further in 2017 which was his final season in affiliated ball.
He signed with the Long Island Ducks in 2018 and appeared in 22 games before deciding to walk away from professional baseball.
“There’s only 30 organizations in professional baseball and you get stuck with one,” he said. “I just grew tired of being sent up-and-down without explanation. I got tired of not feeling valued,” he said. This sentiment represents the cold, hard truth of professional baseball. Sometimes it’s just not fair and everybody has the lights turned off on them at some point.
“When it didn’t work out in indy ball, I knew that was it,” he said.
For Sole, it came at 25-years-old, but this isn’t a story with a sad ending. Actually, quite the opposite as Sole has since gotten married, had a child and moved to Nashville, TN to begin his finance career with Alliance Bernstein as a Private Client Reporting Analyst.
“Even though I’m not playing baseball I can use that competitiveness that I had in sports and use it in something else and be successful,” he said.
While he no longer plays competitively, he isn’t completely done with sports as he is the shortstop and outfielder on his company softball team.
“I played shortstop at first but they told me to go in the outfield and run everything down,” he joked.
