After winning the Atlantic 10 regular season in 1993, Rutgers baseball defeated both George Washington and Temple in the double-elimination conference playoffs to advance to the title game against West Virginia. The Scarlet Knights would need just one win in two attempts to claim another championship. However, the Mountaineers raced out to a 6-1 lead through five innings.
 
The score stayed that way until the bottom of the ninth with RU having only four hits and sending a starting pitcher to the bullpen to prepare for the possibility of having to turnaround quickly to face WVU again in a winner-take-all game. That's when momentum shifted. Scott Kassan led off by reaching on an error, Brian Donnelly walked and Kevin James knocked in both with a double to cut it to 6-3 and bring hope to the decidedly Rutgers crowd in Boyertown, Pa. Continuing the rally, Brian Stone drew a walk to bring up Doug Alongi as the tying run.
 
Alongi, the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year who joined the program as a walk-on, had struggled in the 1992 playoffs and had used that for motivation all year. Shortstop Bob Windows was also part of that team and looked for atonement. West Virginia brought in closer Mike Marz and he jumped ahead 0-2 in the count against Alongi.
 
"I was fortunate to get a pitch that probably shouldn't have been out over the plate," Alongi recalled. The ball soared over the leftfield wall and knotted the game at six for one of the most dramatic home runs in Rutgers history. Next up, Windows followed with a long ball of his own to make it back-to-back homers, sending the Scarlet Knights to NCAA Regionals with their fifth league tournament crown.
 
"We were an extremely cocky team, so I didn't think any of us feared a rematch, but when it got down to that last inning and we were down five runs, Doug and Bobby came up with huge home runs," second baseman and current head coach Joe Litterio said. "It was a huge moment."
 
For Alongi, the tying homer sticks out as a signature moment in a memorable career that will be punctuated with induction into the Rutgers Hall of Fame on Oct. 19. The Spotswood, N.J., native is one of just two players in Rutgers baseball history to be named first team all-conference three times, one of four to earn a conference player of the year distinction and still holds the program career record with 85 stolen bases.
 
"I had just arrived home with my oldest daughter having picked her up from soccer practice, and when we walked inside we saw a FedEx package on the counter from Rutgers Athletics," Alongi said of learning of the honor. "I of course didn't know the timeframe in which the decisions were made but I typically don't get FedEx packages from Rutgers Athletics. I knew I had been nominated, so I turned to my daughter and said 'hey Tess, I think I may have gotten into the Hall of Fame.' And she said 'Why?' I said, 'well I don't think they send a letter to tell you you didn't get into the Hall of Fame.' So we opened it together and learned of the news. I was happy I got to share that moment with her."
 
"This is a well-deserved honor, being a teammate of his and knowing what he meant to our team," Litterio said. "We had a bunch of kids that were blue-collar, and he was one of those guys that was in the leadoff spot for us and manned the outfield with the best of them. Just all around, he had all the tools. He could run extremely fast, strong arm, sneaky power, could hit for average but have power. Just a solid player."


 
Alongi grew up only 12 miles from the Rutgers Athletic Center and had an older sister who was an engineering graduate. He attended football and basketball games growing up and had an interest in the school right away.
 
"Having grown up so close, I was there as a kid and was very familiar with Rutgers," Alongi said. "I had wanted to go to Rutgers for a lot of reasons, it was local, it was a good school, I was familiar with the area."
 
On the field, Alongi admittedly did not have a strong high school junior season, the year in which evaluations for baseball recruiting took place at the time. But he bounced back and had a successful senior year, earning all-state honors for St. Joseph High School in Metuchen. To gain the attention of head coach Fred Hill, he dropped off press clippings into the baseball office inside the RAC in hopes he would read them. Hill knew of Alongi, but did not have any open scholarships for the next season. Alongi was offered a scholarship to play at La Salle and was seriously ready to head to Philadelphia.
 
"I was on the waiting list to get into Rutgers, it was July of 1989," Alongi said. "I was sitting at home and my mom asked if I had ever heard back from coach Hill. She said, 'why don't you call him one more time?' So I called the baseball office and shockingly he picked up. I said, 'it appears I'm going to La Salle.' He said he didn't have any scholarships. I reiterated I just wanted a chance to walk-on to the team.  A few days later I got a call back letting me know I was granted admission into Rutgers and was welcomed to walk on to the baseball team."
 
Alongi turned down the La Salle scholarship and opted to take his chances as a walk-on at Rutgers. His speed was instantly noticed as noted in the 1991 media guide. "Alongi may be the fastest Scarlet Knight ever to enter the program." He used that speed to pick up 21 stolen bases that season and earned all-conference accolades as the team won the Atlantic 10 championship.
 
"I was really fortunate to be around a lot of older guys who had done it before and were able to show me the right way to play the game," Alongi said. "Chris McAlindin was our captain in 1991 and he took me under his wing; I learned a tremendous amount from Mac. I learned how to play the game, what being on time meant, what respecting the game, the team and the coaches all meant."
 
Alongi was just getting started. His 1993 campaign merited first team all-conference for the third-straight season and All-America honors. The leadoff hitter set single-season school records with 62 runs, 86 hits, 143 total bases and 39 steals. He became the first Scarlet Knight to pick up a league player of the year award. That season was capped by the home run in the title game to win tournament Most Outstanding Player, as well as a four-hit game in the NCAA Tournament victory over UNC-Charlotte at the Knoxville Regional.
 
"(Alongi) rates right up there with the best kids we've had here," Hill told the Asbury Park Press in 1993. "He's the outstanding player in the Atlantic 10, and he's had an outstanding year and that pretty much sums up what he's meant to us. Offensively and defensively, he's pretty much been our catalyst. When he gets on base, things just seem to go our way."
 
"I was undersized and typically the smallest guy on the team," Alongi said. "I was gifted with speed and could hit a little. Our teams were blue-collar in nature. If I ended a game with a clean uniform, it most likely meant I didn't do much to help the team on that given day."
 
"He was a natural," Glen Gardner, who was just starting his tenure as an assistant coach at the time, said. "He did everything well. He had a knack for stealing bases, he was fast and knew what to do. You didn't have to teach him much. A lot of the hitters should thank him for all the RBIs they had because he was always on base."
 
Rutgers went 103-58-2 during his final three seasons with three regular season titles, two tournament championships and a pair of trips to the NCAA Tournament. The 1993 squad set a new school record with 38 wins.
 
"When I look back on it, it was just getting to travel and step into batter's boxes across the country with guys you knew, guys you were friends with," Alongi reflected. "At the time, I didn't appreciate it as much, but as you get further away from it, you realize how few people get the opportunity to play baseball at Rutgers. So for me, I kind of look back and kick myself wishing I appreciated it a little more and realized how special it was to put on the Rutgers uniform. When you take a step back years later, there were 20,000 plus people on campus and only 20 to 25 of us were on the team. For me, I look back at how fortunate I was to play with the players and coaches that I played with and how cool it was to represent New Jersey."
 
Alongi was drafted by the Chicago Cubs following the 1993 season, which he hit .371 with nine home runs and 45 RBIs in addition to the previously-mentioned school records. A communication major at Rutgers, he now lives in Massachusetts selling software in the high tech industry and has three daughters, Sadie (9), Emma (11) and Tess (13). Alongi still keeps in touch with Litterio, a former teammate, and follows the team closely.
 
"It is so cool for me, as someone who last played in 1993, to look back and see not just a former teammate, but a friend leading the way there," Alongi said. "Coach Hill handed the baton to Joe who is now trying to build a Big Ten program. I have a stronger connection with the University and the program because of Joe. I can talk to him about the team and wish him good luck before big games. So selfishly, it's nice to have that intimacy and connection with the program. I'm very optimistic about what Joe has and continues to build."
 
Alongi looks forward to coming back to campus for Hall of Fame weekend, a place where he grew up.
 
"I'm a Middlesex County guy at heart and always will be. Often times during my playing days, I pinched myself at how fortunate I was to put on a Rutgers jersey and play in front of family and friends."