It did not take long for Sonny DiChiara to win the hearts of Auburn baseball fans. A larger than life presence with a burly 6-foot-1, 263-pound physique, DiChiara got off to a torrid start with the bat in nonconference play, and by the time Auburn opened SEC play against Ole Miss, DiChiara was already a local folk hero.

Every DiChiara at-bat feels like an event — because of his fearsome righthanded bat, but also because he has college baseball’s most infectious walk-off song. Every time he walks up to the plate to Louis Prima’s “C’é La Luna Mezz’o Mare,” the Auburn fans start clapping along to the beat, waiting to see what fireworks he will provide in the impending at-bat.

“I just told the other guys, I’m like, ‘Sonny just comes in here first year and he beats you with the walk-up song. He already owns the joint,’” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said during that Ole Miss series. “Credit to him. He’s just got a big human personality, and it’s just great. … He has a persona that touches everybody in the park. It’s just natural, it’s infectious, and [his personality has] already come out immediately in [his] first year. Credit to the style that you play, and then just being lovable. He’s got the walk-up song that has already taken over our park. This is the first SEC weekend, but that’s how big his personality is.”

Of course, DiChiara is used to the impact his musical choice has upon a ballpark. It might be a new experience at Plainsman Park this year, but it’s not new to DiChiara.

“I had it in high school, my first game of varsity, that was what I had,” he said. “There’s not really a rhyme or reason to it, but I just liked it and the crowd started clapping to it the first game I had it, so i just stuck with it. The fans have definitely played a huge part in our success. Walking around campus, I’ll get a couple people saying ‘hey’ to me or whatnot. But it’s awesome getting to play in front of 4,500 people or whatever every game.”

DiChiara was already an established power hitter well before his first season at Auburn this spring. He spent his first three seasons at Samford, smashing 21 homers as a freshman and 18 more last year, while hitting .293 in 2019, .328 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, and .273 last year. But the SoCon is an offensive league, and there is unquestionably a big step up to the caliber of pitching DiChiara has faced in the SEC — but the big first baseman has not only made that adjustment smoothly, he’s become better than ever.

DiChiara leads all of Division I with a 1.457 OPS, slashing an absurd .448/.601/.856 with 12 homers, 15 doubles and 38 RBIs. He always drew his share of walks, but this year he is controlling the strike zone at a rare level (especially for a power hitter), with 45 walks against just 24 strikeouts. 

“The SoCon was a great baseball conference, but I think one of the major differences is the consistency in velocity,” DiChiara said. “In the SoCon, they’ve got four or five guys that can run it up there, but after that it falls off. So having the consistency in velocity, not having to change from 95 to a guy throwing 80, has helped me. When you see better velocity with a hard slider, it’s easier to react to it.”

Thompson said he had high hopes for DiChiara when the Tigers signed him to replace departed first baseman Tyler Miller, who hit 16 homers last year. But he admitted that DiChiara’s incredible consistency has even exceeded his expectations.

“We brought him in and thought he would be good and needed him to be good, because we brought him in to replace a good player at first base. We got every bit of that and more, which is a pleasant surprise,” Thompson said. “I just think he’s in the middle of the field and he don’t come off of it. That’s a credit to him, and of course probably a credit to [hitting coach] Gabe Gross, but that has absolutely grown from the at-bats we’ve seen in the past competing against him. He doesn’t come off pitches, he has such a plan. He can hit a home run the other way, he can pull a ball to left, but it just seems like he stays in the middle of the field and that’s improved his batting average.”

That up-the-middle approach is central to DiChiara’s identity as a hitter.

“Ever since I can remember playing, and really in high school is when I started taking that left-center to right-center approach, not being the hook guy or the flare guy,” DiChiara said. “Whenever I feel like I’m struggling or not hitting the ball like i usually am, I’m yanking the ball to left or hitting flares to right. So I’m just focusing on staying through the middle.

“When I got here, I just kind of talked with Gabe about my approach, he really seemed to like everything. He said that was the type of player he was too. Over here we just emphasize two-strike hitting and not giving away an at-bat, that’s been a huge emphasis.”

Another big key has been DiChiara’s growth as a defender at first base, allowing Auburn to keep the DH spot free for other players and maximize the lineup’s offensive potential.

“It’s made our team better having him play first base every day,” Thompson said. “Nobody wants to put a liability on the field, especially the infield. His defense has grown a ton, and his ability to keep staying in the middle of the field for as many at-bats. But I’m equally as tickled to death with how he’s better around the bag, catching the routine balls he’s supposed to. Tyler definitely had more range, and most first basemen have more range, but for the range that Sonny does have he’s taken care of the game. He’s a good target, and he’s been able to help our infielders.”

Off the field, DiChiara has a mild-mannered, friendly personality, and it seems clear he would rather talk about his team and the Auburn fans than himself. So while DiChiara’s numbers and his presence might feel Paul Bunyan-sized, his head is certainly not.

“I just think it’s fun loving, it’s easy. There is a level of confidence there,” Thompson said of DiChiara’s clubhouse persona. “I think he’s a lovable type teammate, and he’s got a good rhythm with everybody. There’s no friction with him. At this point there’s been no, like, ‘Hey I got this, I’m the best player, this is my team.’ I think that makes the players love him even more, I think he considers himself just a piece and a player on this team. Not one time has he made it about himself. He likes being on the team, he likes being on the field. He hasn’t tried to make himself the biggest piece, even if he is.

“Over the years there’s always a crowd favorite, you don’t know who it’s going to be. But Sonny absolutely, from day one, it was instant, magical, and his personality, he didn’t force it. It’s not only held up, it seems like it’s continuing to grow. I think even opponents as we go around the league, they like Sonny. They’re over at first base smiling with Sonny. He’s an amazing young man. He’s hard to root against.”

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