![\"BASEBALL](\"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/BASEBALL-PLAYERS.jpg\")
<\/a>Young, eager and ready to live out their dreams \u2014 youth baseball players in Cartagena, Colombia, Carlos Merlano and Darwin Argumedo traveled everyday to practice at the only baseball field in the area.<\/p>\n\u201cThat field is one hour from where we lived,\u201d Argumedo said. \u201cIt was hot everyday. I mean it was crazy hot. But now being here, even if it is cold, we can still practice inside. It\u2019s beautiful. I\u2019m so glad I am playing here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The players\u2019 hard work and dedication led to both players earning the chance to play for Sinclair Community College after competing in the Dayton Classics, a summer baseball program in Dayton. At the Classics, the players were coached by Greg Beamer, who forwarded his interest in the two prospects from Colombia to Sinclair Baseball Coach Steve Dintaman.<\/p>\n
Argumedo earned a scholarship with Sinclair and Merlano earned a spot as a walk-on, whose tuition is paid for by a sponsor back home.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, this has been a great opportunity, because my parents weren\u2019t going to be able to pay for my school and I was probably going to have to be [in the] military,\u201d Merlano said. \u201cBut here at Sinclair I can be what I want to be and I get to play the sport I love. So, I try to see this as an opportunity that God put in my way and I\u2019m trying to make the best out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Merlano is now a relief pitcher, who is seeing his first action with the team this season, as he was red-shirted last season. In four appearances, Merlano has an ERA of 6.14 as he is trying to find his groove as a member of the Pride.<\/p>\n
Merlano said that adjusting to his new life in Ohio without his family was tough and at one point, he didn\u2019t see his family for two years. But thankfully, Argumedo\u2019s family opened up and provided him with a family-like environment during the transition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to say how thankful I am for Darwin\u2019s family,\u201d Merlano said. \u201cI\u2019m just grateful. People shouldn\u2019t [be] taking stuff for granted, because you never know what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe pick each other up,\u201d Argumedo said. \u201cSometimes we just talk about life. We have become like brothers. We love to talk about life and baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Argumedo is the everyday catcher and is in his sophomore season at Sinclair.<\/p>\n
At the start of the season, he said he was starting to feel the pressure and wasn\u2019t playing up to his potential. But now that the conference season has begun, the man behind the plate for Sinclair said he is fully focused and ready to help the team bring home another championship banner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a rough start, but now I\u2019m getting my confidence back,\u201d Argumedo said. \u201cI want to be on the same page as my pitchers. I want to know them like they are my brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 14 starts, Argumedo is batting .278 and is fielding .987. But his most valuable attribute might be his leadership behind the plate, as he knows what to expect of the run through the Ohio Community College Athletic Association.<\/p>\n
He also said that even though it is his last year at Sinclair, he is grateful for the time he has spent at the college.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love Sinclair,\u201d Argumedo said. \u201cI wish it was a four-year school. It\u2019s a blessing to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tartan Pride team finished up a series victory OCCAC rival Owens Community College on March 23 and 24, giving them an early 3-1 lead over what is projected to be their biggest competition in conference this season.<\/p>\n
Both players think Sinclair has the talent to make a run to the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II World Series.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have all the tools to get it done,\u201d Merlano said.<\/p>\n
Argumedo has faith in his team, but thinks it should be taken with precaution.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we can get it done,\u201d Argumedo said. \u201cWe have a pretty good team, but I think we should take it one game at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Young, eager and ready to live out their dreams \u2014 youth baseball players in Cartagena, Colombia, Carlos Merlano and Darwin Argumedo traveled everyday to practice at the only baseball field in the area. \u201cThat field is one hour from where we lived,\u201d Argumedo said. \u201cIt was hot everyday. I mean it was crazy hot. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-2kr","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8957,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8955\/revisions\/8957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}