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Photo courtesy of Matthew Shannon, AU Athletics.
Alabama’s Peyton Wilson (8), a sophomore from Hoover, makes contact during an at-bat in a game against South Carolina at the SEC baseball tournament in May at the Hoover Met. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo courtesy of Matthew Shannon, AU Athletics.
Sonny DiChiara during Auburn Fall Ball in September at Plainsman Park.
The Hoover High School baseball program has regularly produced college players in recent years, with two recent alums making big moves over the summer.
Peyton Wilson, a 2019 Hoover graduate, played two years at the University of Alabama before being selected in the second round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Kansas City Royals in July.
Wilson was with his family the night he was selected by the Royals with the 66th overall pick.
“It was surreal,” Wilson said. “It was good to have all my people there with me.”
After being drafted, Wilson was sent to the Arizona Complex League and played a dozen games there before finishing the year with Low-A Columbia Fireflies in South Carolina.
Wilson was eligible for the draft after two years at Alabama due to being 21 years old. In his second year, he started all 58 games and earned second-team All-SEC honors due to his play. He hit for a .290 batting average with nine home runs and 31 runs batted in, including a 13-game hitting streak. He also recorded a team-high 46 runs.
Wilson said he had little to no interest from professional scouts following his high school days, so his meteoric rise in a short time is due in large part to playing college ball.
“If I didn’t go there for two years, I wouldn’t be in pro ball. You grow up a lot [in college]. You learn a lot about yourself as a player and person,” he said.
This offseason, Wilson is looking forward to the opportunity to hone his skills, getting stronger and fine-tuning his swing. His initial experience — albeit a small sample size — of minor league ball taught him what to expect, and he’s looking forward to the 2022 campaign and hopefully continuing to rise through the Royals organization.
One of Wilson’s teammates on Hoover’s 2017 state championship team was Sonny DiChiara, a slugging first baseman who transferred to Auburn over the summer.
DiChiara starred for three years at Samford and helped the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament in 2021. As a freshman, he belted 21 home runs and this past spring, he hit 18 homers to lead the Southern Conference. Last season, he started all 56 games, finishing with 46 RBIs. But once coach Casey Dunn left Samford to take the job at UAB, DiChiara found his new home at Auburn.
“It’s a good change,” DiChiara said. “It’s a lot different when you go from a mid-major to a big SEC school like this. I’m fitting in, and it’s going as well as I thought it would.”
DiChiara has two years of eligibility remaining, but another big season at Auburn like he’s had at Samford and the MLB draft could become a realistic option for him. Either way, there is still plenty for him to work on with his game.
“Each year, it’s learning how to mold your swing and learning what other teams are going to try to get you out with,” he said.
DiChiara joins Garrett Farquhar, a 2017 Hoover graduate, at Auburn. Farquhar is now a graduate student and hit .375 last spring for the Tigers. Brock Guffey, the top pitcher on the Bucs’ title team, is beginning his senior season at Alabama as well. Those three headline a couple dozen former Bucs currently playing in the college ranks.
