When Heartland Community College baseball coach Chris Razo began recruiting Sam Antonacci, he liked Antonacci’s hustle, competitiveness and overall ability.
But while Antonacci was starring at shortstop for Springfield Sacred-Heart Griffin High School, could he play that position in college?
Antonacci had what Razo termed “a standard baseball build for a high school kid,” around 6-foot and 175 pounds. Would shortstop at the college level be too demanding?
“I wasn’t sure he was going to stay at shortstop or if he was going to have to move somewhere (another position),” Razo said. “When he got here, he was aware that I had kind of told people that already, and he had clearly worked very hard on defense. He slid right in at shortstop and he was substantially better at short than he was when I recruited him.”
It was a valuable lesson. Never underestimate Sam Antonacci.
Antonacci blossomed into the 2023 NJCAA Division II National Player of the Year by his sophomore season, leading Heartland to a 57-5 record and the national championship. That led to an opportunity at Division I baseball power Coastal Carolina, where after a stellar junior season in 2024, Antonacci was drafted in the fifth round by the Chicago White Sox.
Two years later, fresh off helping Team Italy reach the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic in March, he is in the big leagues with the White Sox, called up last week from Triple-A Charlotte.
Razo was in Chicago for Antonacci’s April 15 debut against Tampa Bay and saw him collect his first major-league hit.
“I was one of the lucky people who got a phone call from him when he got the call that he was getting called up. Just a special moment for him and his family,” Razo said.
“Because of the intangible things he does, he’s going to cause them to start winning more games. That’s what Sam does. The World Baseball Classic was a perfect example. He wasn’t exactly the best hitter there by any means. He only had about three hits the whole time, but people couldn’t stop talking about him and the way he impacts the game. I don’t see that going away anytime soon.”
Antonacci’s high school coach, Nick Naumovich, was unable to make the trip to Chicago. His team had a game.
Still, Antonacci was on the minds of Naumovich and his players.
“Our JV team paused their practice and had the game going over the loud speakers,” Naumovich said. “That was kind of fun, having the whole program pretty much stop to listen to that first at-bat. That was the one where he dinked the hit down the line.”
It drew a cheer at Antonacci’s alma mater, where his father, Bill, was a varsity assistant coach during his son’s time there.
The younger Antonacci made some outstanding defensive plays in the WBC for Team Italy, which defeated Team USA 8-6 in pool play. Listed at 5-11, 193 pounds, he has added nearly 20 pounds of “good weight” since his Heartland days, Razo said.
Antonacci has played left field and second base with the White Sox. He had two hits in 16 at-bats heading into Tuesday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, but in college and at Triple-A has been a quality hitter.
He was batting .313 in 14 games at Charlotte with two home runs, seven runs batted in and five stolen bases. In 2023 at Heartland, he led NJCAA Division II in batting average (.515), RBI (103), runs scored (105), hits (106), doubles (32) and on-base percentage (.618).
The numbers were a product of Antonacci’s work ethic, Razo said.
“It’s not like we ingrained that in him. He just was that kid,” said Heartland’s sixth-year head coach. “He was that kid where there would be times we would tell him, ‘Hey man, you need to take a day off. Just take a day off and hit the reset button.’ Then we’d find out he had driven home to Springfield to hit with his dad. I’m like, ‘Well, there’s no point in telling him to do that anymore. He’s just going to find somewhere else to hit.’”
Antonacci, who hits left-handed and throws right, batted over .500 as a high school senior in 2021, helping Sacred Heart-Griffin to a 33-3 record and a fourth-place state finish.
Still, Division I college recruiters weren’t banging on his door.
“He definitely was under-recruited,” Naumovich said. “The big thing with Sam was from a body standpoint, he’s not a monster of a kid. He’s not 6-5, 230, so he doesn’t jump off the paper initially. His running times weren’t the best his sophomore, junior years, and a lot of people kind of just wrote him off from that.
“I think that was a lot of the fire that really pushed him to continue to work hard and get after it. That’s just how Sam is built. He had a handful of smaller offers to bigger schools, but Heartland was a great move for him.”
Antonacci exemplifies the players Heartland seeks in recruiting, Razo said. That is, "Those fringe guys who are talking to DIs (Division I schools), but maybe aren’t getting the offers they think they should get. Sam is a perfect example of that … just a competitive, angry kid looking for his opportunity.”
Antonacci did not put up big analytical numbers as a high schooler at camps and showcase events, leading Division I coaches to turn their attention elsewhere.
“They kind of looked at it as, ‘This isn’t a kid who jumps off the board at you,’” Razo said. “But it’s hard to measure the intangibles.”
“He’s kind of one of one, just in how he handles himself and goes to work,” Naumovich said.
Those skeptical college coaches couldn’t see that.
They underestimated him, a mistake to be sure.
