Jesus Monserratt wants to play baseball

In Northside’s most recent triumph – a 3-2 walk-off win against those Warner Robins Demons – it was Monserratt actually sliding to the plate to scoring that deciding run on Derek Byrne’s squeeze bunt. To tie game, the senior shortstop doubled off Warner Robins’ Caden Johnston to drive in Bryan Dyson, the Eagles’ No. 9 batter.
“Coach (Chris) Harrelson took me aside and (said) the outfield was so shifted to left, there was only one person on the right side, so try to hit one up the middle to right field,” said Monserratt. “It got a pitch on the outside corner. I drove it to centerfield, and it just rolled to the fence.

“Luckily we had Dyson at first, one of the fastest guys on the team. On the throw to home, I went to third. DB drag bunted, and we scored the winning run. A big win for us. We needed it because of a big loss to Jones County (on March 29).

“We always want to beat (Warner Robins). Big rival game.”
For a moment, however, it didn’t look like Monserratt would be available for any late-inning heroics. He successfully stole second base in the third inning but was slow to get up.
“The ball hit me in my stomach,” said Monserratt. “It just knocked the breath out of me. I just had to get up, and I was good to go.”

Monserratt has experienced injury in baseball, and yes, it was during a stolen-base attempt by the other team. He lost most of a summer season early in his high school career. He said he was running to get a catcher’s throw alongside the stealer, and as he made the catch the runner hit his wrist.
It would be a big understatement to say that Jesus Monserratt grew up in a baseball family. He and his twin sister Nicole were born after father Pablo’s playing career ended.

“I’ve learned everything from my dad … since I was 2 years old,” said Jesus. “I love him for it. And I’m still learning stuff about the game.”
Pablo wanted his son to fly, but not around the base paths.

“He was like, ‘If you ever want to stop playing baseball, you can stop,’” said Jesus. “When I was younger, he didn’t want me to play baseball because he knew how hard it was. He wanted me to be a pilot, but I was like, ‘Nah, I want to play baseball.’
“That was his dream. He always wanted to be a pilot, so he was like ‘I want you to be one.’”

The Monserratt family was basically forced out of Venezuela by the Vargas flood in December 1999.
“(Dad) knew the United States real well,” said Jesus. “We moved to Florida first. I was 3. We moved (to Warner Robins) when I was in sixth grade at Thomson Middle School. We’ve been here ever since.”

The most difficult adjustment to life in the States was learning the English language.
“My parents didn’t want me to forget Spanish, so we always spoke Spanish at the house,” said Monserratt. “They made me learn in kindergarten. Now I’m bi-lingual. I thank them for that, too.”

The family has not returned to their homeland, and one of the main reasons Jesus cited was the former president Hugo Chavez.
“I would like to see how it is,” he said. “Just to see my old country.”

The stories the young Monserratt prefers to here is when his father was a roommate with former Mariners designated hitter Edgar Martinez and played alongside former Mariners and Cleveland Indians shortstop Omar Vizquel.

“He knows a good bit of guys,” said Jesus. “I’ve only met Ivan Rodriguez person to person and Tony Perez.”
His favorite player: New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. No, they haven’t met either.
“He plays hard, gives 100 percent,” said Jesus. “Even when he’s injured. A .300 average hitter every year. No matter what people say about him, like he’s too old to play, he always talks with his bat and does the job.”

Monserratt also learned that baseball is baseball whether it’s in North or South America.
“The hardest thing to learn about baseball is probably hitting,” he said. “Sometimes you are on fire, and sometimes you get in that slump where you feel I can’t get a hit even if I try to buy a hit. You have to keep working on hitting. You always have to hit, always.

“Playing in the field’s always been my favorite thing. I love taking extra fungos. It comes pretty easy to me.
“From my freshman year to know, I’ve learned to hit the curveball better and learned to see the off speed pitches. I could always hit a fastball but had trouble with those off speed pitches. I tried to work with my dad going the other way.

“I love stealing bases. I steal them on the pitcher, not the catcher. When I think he’s going to the plate, I take off a little before he goes and get a really good jump.”

There’s plenty of support from the females of the Monserratt family. Mara, the mother, loves watching the son play and take photos of the games. Nicole is a team manager so she could watch all the Eagle games, too.
Outside of baseball, Monserratt found interest in mathematics and physics. If he does not follow his father into professional baseball, he said he would like to be an engineer. He will attend Gordon College in Barnesville, which he said has a pre-engineering program.

“I would probably like to go D-1 after (two years at) Gordon,” said Monserratt, though he doesn’t have a school of preference.
“Coach Harrelson and coach (Mark) Estes have been the biggest help. In the weight room, coach Estes has pushed me to my max ever since I was a freshman. He’s always in my face making me do the very best I can. Coach Harrelson has helped me by calling coaches and teaching me the game. I love them both to death.”

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