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Former Gators slugger Pete Alonso on historic HR pace in 2023

If there is one thing that Plant High School in Tampa is known for it’s producing power-hitting lefties that end up playing for the University of Florida.

Senior (and future Gator) Robert Satin recently finished up his senior year with three career home runs, but the names most fans have heard of are none other than Jac Caglianone and Pete Alonso.

Caglianone is in the process of rewriting Florida’s history books as he adds to his program-record 28-home run total throughout the postseason, and Alonso is on his own historic pace with 20 homers through 53 games. Just one year after Aaron Judge took the baseball world by storm, Alonso is flirting with a repeat (or better) year.

While it may sound silly to suggest that New York baseball fans are in store for another 60-homer season, the numbers back it up. He’s hitting a home run every 11.4 plate appearances this season and is averaging just over four plate appearances a game.

Alonso has played 161, 57, 152 and 160 games in each of his four seasons as a pro ball player, which means he likely has 100-105 more games in him this year, assuming he stays healthy. At 4.3 plate appearances per game, he’ll likely step up to the plate between 430 and 452 more times this season.

At his current pace, Alonso would finish the season with 59-60 homers, and that number could go up if he plays a couple of games more than expected. Alonso isn’t much of a contact guy, but the ball goes far when he does connect.

His career .259 average and .348 on-base percentage aren’t great, but he leads all of baseball with 166 home runs and 426 runs batted since joining the Mets in 2019.

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Story originally appeared on Gators Wire