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Just a few hours after signing a deal for this season with a team in Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League, former Arizona southpaw Rio Gomez mastered batters from Taiwan’s neighbor China on Monday in the World Baseball Classic Qualifier at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Gomez, 30, signed a one-year deal with the Fubon Guardians after pitching in Taiwan’s CPBL with the Wei Chuan Dragons last year.
“I’m excited … they gave me an opportunity to be a starter, and for my career, this is what I wanted,” Gomez said. “This is the biggest thing that I need moving forward with international baseball.”
Gomez, son of late ESPN reporter Pedro Gomez, played in 63 games last season with the Dragons, starting twice, and posted a 5-3 record with a 1.17 ERA in 92 1/3 innings. He had 94 strikeouts and only 14 walks.
Gomez when asked what it was like to pitch in Tucson again: “It’s nice. I love it. The only thing that could have made it better is if we were playing at Hi Corbett, but it’s really nice being back here in Tucson and get to feel that feeling again.” https://t.co/25Ij5q0gfq
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) March 4, 2025
In his three innings of work Monday for Colombia, he allowed three hits and one unearned run with six strikeouts and one walk in his country’s 8-1 win.
Colombia, 2-0 in the WBC Tucson Qualifier, plays at 6 p.m. on Tuesday against Germany (1-1) with the opportunity to clinch the No. 1 spot and one of the two bids to the 2026 WBC.
Gomez pitched Monday night a few miles from the ballpark of his playing days at Arizona — Hi Corbett Field — from 2015 to 2017.
“It’s nice. I love it,” he said when asked about pitching in Tucson again. “The only thing that could have made it better is if we were playing at Hi Corbett, but it’s really nice being back here in Tucson and get to feel that feeling again.”
His story is one for Hollywood — cut from his Phoenix Desert Vista High School team as a senior and then walking on to Mesa Community College’s team before doing the same at Arizona. He signed in 2017 with the Boston Red Sox, who drafted him in the 36th round, and played in that organization through the 2023 season when he reached the Triple-A level.
Gomez’s father Pedro predicted Rio would represent Colombia in the WBC when Rio played his last season for Andy Lopez at Arizona in 2017. Rio achieved the feat of being with Colombia in the 2023 WBC at Phoenix and appears on his way to do it again in 2026 with Colombia looking impressive through two games at Kino Stadium.
He is representing Colombia because of his mom Sandi’s ancestry with that country. Sandi was on hand Monday night with family and friends.
He is looking forward to building on last year’s success in Taiwan when he plays for Fubon before he hopefully rejoins Colombia next spring for the WBC.
“I feel very adjusted and accustomed to the life of Taiwan,” he said. “Baseball is baseball, but culturally life is very different over there. I feel adjusted and am excited about going back.”
Gomez, who had 47 pitches on Monday night, worked only three innings because he was on a pitch count imposed by manager Jose Mosquera. Because he remained under 50, Gomez could pitch again this week, if necessary.
“We tried to bring a lefty pitcher (Gomez), and he’s got a sinker, cutter and slider,” Mosquera said. “After the third inning, we set a plan to bring (in a right-handed reliever) because we were facing two straight right-handed batters coming to the plate and we tried to make a matchup.
“We have a solid bullpen and we were just looking from Rio what he’s got.”
Brazil tops Germany; both teams 1-1 in qualifier
Germany pitcher Jaden Agassi, son of tennis legends Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, struggled in his national team debut Monday in Brazil’s 9-7 victory.
Brazil scored four runs off him in just two-thirds of an inning in the fourth.
Lucas Ramirez, son of former big-league star Manny Ramirez, hit a single off Jaden Agassi and later came around to score.
Ramirez added to the lead in the seventh inning with an RBI double, and he eventually came around to score on Leonardo Reginatto’s double – the third consecutive double of the inning. All three came off Christian Pedrol, who was born in Brazil and had pitched for Brazil in the 2022 Qualifier.
The game was played in front of a large contingent of students bussed to the game after an arrangement was made between WBC Tucson Qualifier organizers and the Pima County Superintendent’s office to increase attendance for the Monday and Tuesday’s games at 11 a.m.
Attendance was listed at 2,193.
Schedule
Tuesday
- China vs. Brazil, 11 a.m.
- Germany vs. Colombia, 6 p.m.
Thursday
- No. 2 seed vs. No. 3 seed, 6 p.m. (No. 1 seed already qualifies for the 2026 World Baseball Classic)
Local youth standouts serving as batboys during WBC Qualifier
Miles Anderson, who has been a Little League All-Star standout for Canyon View for a few years, is one of the batboys this week in the WBC Qualifier. He is now a part of the Southern Arizona Baseball Academy (SABA) 14U team along with fellow batboy Blayne Leiber.
The other batboys are Connor O’Shea, Leo Sweeney and Leo Burrell.
In this day and age, they not only run to pick up bats. They meet players near the plate for all the accessories worn these days — gloves, including sliding gloves, and guards, etc.
One of the WBC Tucson Qualifier organizers Blake Eager, executive director of the Southern Arizona Sports, Tourism, and Film Authority, designated the batboys for the event through his background with some of the SABA coaches.
Colombia no longer just a “soccer country”
After Gomez’s departure following three innings Monday night, four relievers (Victor Vargas, Jean Herrera, David Lorduy and Carlos Ocampo) combined six no-hit innings with 11 strikeouts and two walks.
Second baseman Michael Arroyo, one of the Seattle Mariners’ top prospects, doubled off Chinese starter Haizheng Wu in the top of the second, giving Colombia a 2-0 lead. Harold Ramirez had an RBI single. Right fielder Jesus Marriaga was 2 for 4, including a two-run homer in the top of the fourth. He finished with four RBIs.
“The only goal is to make it to the World Baseball Classic 2026, not only for the people that are here but also for the people that are watching, a lot of people back home and a lot of the teammates that couldn’t make it this time,” Marriaga said after the game.
Mosquera joked before the game against China: “It’s the first time we are the team to beat. In the past, they saw us as a joke team — ‘Oh, it’s a soccer country.'”
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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. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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