ARCEO SWINGING FOR A CHANCE AT USA

By Robert Balajadia

Matt Arceo with his mother Beverly and father Jerry Arceo outside the USA Baseball training facility. (courtesy photo)

Not many athletes get to wear a USA team jersey across their chest which makes what athletes like Guam and USA National rugby star Zach Pangelinan have done seem almost impossible given the nature of how Guam athletes fair in the mainland.

And out of 288 players who tried out for the U16 USA baseball development team over the past week, Guam’s got another shot to represent big behind 15-year-old Matt Arceo, who had as good an outing as one might hope for when playing in front of the Team USA staff.

Arceo’s chance at making the team by the numbers is only at 0.034%, but his chances after the evaluation games had to have risen his stock dramatically.

Arceo completed three games at the evaluation, which went into nine innings with wood bats and pitchers throwing no more than two innings.

The concept of the evaluation was to showcase the players in their primary and secondary positions with the actual games outcome an afterthought.

Arceo ran a solid 3.91 and 3.95 in the 30-yard dash while going 2-of-3 at bat, proving he could hit balls as fast as 87mph in the first game. When Arceo was tested at the mound, he struck out two of the three batters he faced in the bottom of the 9th inning.

By the third game, Arceo put on another strong outing at the mound striking out two of the seven batters he faced, giving up only one hit.

Majority of those trying out were at least 16 years of age while hitting pitching speeds of 90mph!

The final selections for the team will be on September 10.

For more on Matt Arceo and brother Shane, check out the piece by GSPN CEO Patrick Lujan about the Arceo brothers and how they are making a name for themselves in mainland baseball.

Matt Arceo at the batting cage with the USA staff evaluating his swing. (courtesy photo)