Alika Williams

Alexander David Williams (born March 12, 1999) is an American professional baseball shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2023. Amateur career Williams attended Rancho Bernardo High School in San Diego, California, where he played baseball. As a sophomore, he batted .402 with 22 runs batted in (RBIs). For his high school career, he had a .374 batting average. He was selected by the New York Yankees in the 32nd round of the 2017 Major League Baseball draft but did not sign and instead enrolled at Arizona State University to play college baseball. In 2018, as a freshman for the Arizona State Sun Devils, Williams appeared in 55 games (making 54 starts), batting .280 with 20 RBIs. As a sophomore in 2019, he hit .333 with four home runs, 53 RBIs, and nine stolen bases over 57 games. In 2018 and 2019, he played collegiate summer baseball in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Bourne Braves. During the summer of 2019, he also played for the United States collegiate national baseball team. During his junior year in 2020, Williams batted .250 with one home run and eight RBIs over 17 games before the college baseball season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Professional career