DUBOIS — It’s all about opportunity for Alessandro Marotto.

The Karns City graduate is a freshman engineering major at Penn State-DuBois and will be part of a history-making baseball team there as well.

Marotto is listed as an outfielder-infielder on the Lions’ roster. He may see some pitching duty as well as PSU-DuBois fields a baseball team for the first time in 21 years.

“This is being viewed as an opportunity to enhance enrollment, to add another attraction for prospective students,” coach Tom Calliari said. “We’ve been working on assembling a roster for the past year.

“A number of kids came here figuring they can get in on the ground floor and be a regular player for four years.”

Count Marotto among that group.

He hit approximately .500 with 17 RBI during his senior season at Karns City. He is one of the faster players on the Lions’ roster and delivered a clutch pinch-hit single in a win over Clarion last fall.

Marotto also won the Lift-A-Thon, a weight lifting competition among the players.

“We had a stringent 14-week conditioning program and decided to culminate it with a lifting competition,” Calliari said. “Factoring in the players’ own weight with how they did in dead-lift, squat and bench, Alessandro won the whole thing.”

He’s winning over the coaching staff , too.

“My versatility should help get me on the field,” Marotto said. “They like me as an outfielder, but I can help out in the infield, too, and may pitch a couple of innings.

“I’ll do whatever they want me to do. I just want to play.”

Calliari said Marotto “can do some things on the bases” with his speed. His legs may earn him a starting outfield spot.

“During fall ball, we had each player take the position he wanted to play,” the coach said. “Alessandro went to third base and did well there. But we noticed his speed and sent him to the outfield. He can run down a lot of balls.”

Marotto had a 3.75 grade point average at Karns City and plans to major in engineering.

“That’s why I wanted to join the Penn State program,” he said. “Their engineering program is one of the best.”

In terms of baseball, all he wants to do is win.

Calliari brought in eight transfers from other schools to help mentor the freshmen on the team. The Lions will play at Showers Field, a new $3 million facility it will share with DuBois High School and area leagues.

PSU-DuBois will play in the PSUAC, an established Division III league.

“But we won’t be your typical first-year program,” Calliari promised. “We’ve compiled a lot of talent here. We have an attractive ballpark and our goal is to win this conference and get to the World Series.”

Marotto is on board with that.

“We did pretty well in the fall,” he said. “There are transfers here from Bowling Green, Pitt-Johnstown, Shippensburg, Pitt-Greensburg ... they’ve done a great job of acclimating the rest of us to college baseball.

“My goal is to get to the World Series and win it before I’m done here.”