Pima baseball coach Ken Jacome, a Tucsonan who starred at Rincon and has coached at Arizona, knows the type of talent this area can produce.
Jacome, going into his second season with the Aztecs in 2019-20, is welcoming three players from Southern Arizona as transfers, including Arizona signees Ian Mejia (Sahuarita grad) and Marcel Bachelier (Nogales).Former CDO standout Alex Bustamante, who played last season as a freshman at New Mexico Military Institute is also transferring to the Aztecs’ program. All three of them have signed to attend Pima.
Mejia, a 35th round selection by the New York Mets in 2018, was a freshman right-hander in 2019 for Jay Johnson at Arizona who did not play. He is 3-1 with a 4.11 ERA with 24 strikeouts and 19 walks in 35 innings in the Alaska College Baseball League this summer at Anchorage.
Bachelier, an outfielder who also did not play for the Wildcats as a freshman, is breaking from an Arizona tradition is in his family. His grandfather and uncle, also named Marcel, as well as his great-uncle Luis Bachelier, played baseball for the Wildcats.
Bachelier is playing for the Danville (Ill.) Dans of the Prospect League and is batting .273 with a home run and six RBIs.
Bustamante completed a successful experience in the Sun Belt College Baseball League (also known as the Kino Baseball League) on Thursday night, helping the Aztecs (a team comprised mostly of players from Pima) to a championship.
He went 4 for 4 with two runs and two RBIs against the BNL Rockets.
Bustamante played pitcher and in the infield for New Mexico Military Institute. He batted .289 with four doubles and an RBI. A right-hander, he pitched 11 innings posting a 8.18 ERA.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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