Before Andrew Montoya made the traveling team for the Morgan Hill-based Dub Baseball Academy in February, his favorite sport was football. However, after a season of playing with the club, culminating with the Cooperstown Village Tournament from July 5 to 9, Montoya’s passion for baseball has grown with each passing day.
“I was excited for the first year of playing traveling ball,” said Montoya, an incoming eighth grader at Spring Grove School who also plays quarterback for the Hollister Vikings junior midgets squad. “I learned a lot and the competition was great, which made things more of a challenge.”
In the invite-only Cooperstown Village Tournament, Montoya made an impact as a pitcher and position player for the Dubs’ 12-and-under team. The 5-foot-4, 97-pound right-hander pitched three innings and had five strikeouts in the team’s 13-2 win on July 7.
Montoya proved to be a force offensively as well, hitting .478 (11-for-23), with six RBIs, eight runs scored and seven stolen bases.
“My favorite part of playing in that tournament was I got to play against teams outside of California,” he said. “The field was also smaller, which made it a challenge.”
Montoya is just like any young male athlete who grows up in Hollister in that he aspires to be a great player at San Benito High. His favorite athletes include pro football players Andrew Luck and Frank Gore and the San Francisco Giants’ Matt Duffy and Brandon Crawford.
Lean but not weak, Montoya said he’s looking forward to lifting weights soon so he can bulk up a little and get stronger. The Vikings start practice for the upcoming season in early August, and this year Montoya has plans of leading his team to the championship game.
“I try to be fast and the farthest I can throw a ball is 40 yards so far,” he said. “I’m kind of good at avoiding tacklers and I’ve sustained some pretty hard hits in the past, but I just got up and went out there again.”
Montoya credits his dad, Frank, for being a positive influence in his life. Montoya plays third base, center field or left field when he’s not pitching, but he prefers playing in the outfield. Montoya possesses tremendous bat speed, which allows him to make contact often.
He counts his proudest achievement as “just being able to start for a traveling team and being able to pass the football far and accurate.” Since Montoya plays two sports year-round, he takes three months off a year—November through January. That’s plenty of time for Montoya to feel like a normal kid again.
Montoya said he’s into video games just like all of his friends—Call of Duty is his favorite—while also being busy on social media, including Instagram and Twitter.
Before the start of the Cooperstown Village Tournament, Montoya and his family visited Manhattan. Since New York City is known as one of the world’s premier destinations when it comes to all things food, Montoya couldn’t wait to try something new.
Montoya’s favorite food was cheesecake—“It was my first time eating it because it just didn’t look that good before,” he said—and he also loved walking around the city visiting sites such as Times Square, the World Trade Center and Grand Central Station.
