Freshman Ryan DiPietro homered on the first pitch he saw as a varsity player in a Class L second-round game at Zipadelli Field.  As Berlin proceeded to win the 1999 state title, seniors started calling him “Hobbs” in honor of Roy Hobbs, renowned in the movie “The Natural” for his prodigious-power hitting.

While DiPietro was a fine hitter and centerfielder during his scholastic career, he excelled as a pitcher.  He set a seven-inning game strikeout record (17), was 7-0 with a .085 ERA with two one-hitters as a junior and 6-2 with a .050 ERA and 94 strikeouts in 57 innings as a senior.  He earned the coaches award for those two years and was captain his senior year. 

DiPietro, a left-hander, was All-State Northwest Conference twice and named to the Hartford Courant, CIAC all-state and New Haven Register first teams.  DiPietro, who graduated in 2002, followed that with seven strikeouts in three innings to be the Senior All-State MVP at Fenway Park.  He also was the Outstanding Pitcher and MVP of the American Legion state tournament, which Berlin won. 

The New York Mets drafted him in the 42^nd round, but he opted to attend Eastern Connecticut State University.  His best pitch, a 12-6 curve, and an above-average fastball helped him to a 29-3 career record with season ERAs of 2.04, 1.04 and 1.66.  He was a Division III All America pitcher in 2004-05 and was the pitcher of year in ’04 when Eastern advanced to the national title game.

He set team records for strikeouts in a game (19), strikeouts in a season (162) and consecutive victories (19).  He ranks second in career strikeouts (336) and starts in a season (15).