Jeremy Lopez is the kind of player coaches dream about. He is consistent at the plate and better in the dugout. He always wants to take the ball on the mound, even if his total of losses is rising as the season rolls on. Metaphorically, he’s the kind of player who stands 8 feet tall.
Physically, he barely stands 5 feet tall.
That, naturally, is what makes Lopez so special. The Camden County (N.J.) Tech School-Pennsauken High senior star is precisely 5-foot-1 and 110 pounds. He is one of the smallest players in all of prep baseball nationwide, yet he also has found a way to have a profound impact on his team’s fortunes.
As reported by the Philadelphia inquirer. Lopez was his team’s most consistent hitter as a junior, batting .386. He had 27 hits, scored 23 runs and finished with 14 steals. More impressively, he struck out just three times all season. That’s fewer times than many power hitters strike out in a single game.
Lopez was the team’s go-to man on the mound as well. And while he finished just 4-6, the then-junior had 32 strikeouts in just 58 innings of work.
"He got the ball in every one of our big games," Pennsauken Tech baseball coach Jon Repece told the Inquirer. “I knew he was a special kid the first day he came out. He was this little freshman, and he was helping all the other kids."
Now, Lopez is enjoying his final season on a competitive baseball field. The senior -- who is also the president of the school’s National Honor Society and reportedly earns straight A’s -- also competes in cross country and bowling, pursuits that he could be able to continue in the years ahead.
There’s less optimism about a baseball future for a player who is shorter than most ball boys. Still, that hardly speaks to Lopez’s overall future, with school officials insistent that the senior from hardscrabble East Camden is among the finest students the school has seen.
"Jeremy is a special young man," Pennsauken Tech assistant principal Greg Cappello told the Inquirer. "He's been a leader since he was a freshman. The students look up to him as a role model. He's one of the best we've ever had come through here."
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