HUNTINGTON, Ind. (FDN) –– Senior outfielder, Adrian Perez’s journey to Huntington sounds like something out of a movie. With many ups and down in his life, he finally landed in the place that he calls his new home.
Perez started playing baseball at a young age in Puerto Rico, where he fell in love with the sport that he hoped would take him to another level.
Once he got to high school, he started playing in Florida.
“That’s when a guy saw me playing and asked if I wanted to stay in the USA,” Perez said.
Perez then took that information back to Puerto Rico to share with his family, but little did he know that he faced even bigger situations in the near future.
“When I made my decision to come to the United States, in that year my mom got cancer,” Perez said.
At that moment, Perez’s mom told him to go and chase his dream, that she will be fine. After getting those words from his mom, Perez made the journey to Iowa Lakes Community College in 2015 to play for the Lakers.
But going into his sophomore year, Perez encountered another curveball.
“I got hurt, I hurt my hamstring on scout day in Iowa Lakes”.
That injury put Perez on the bench and landed him in physical therapy.
Perez then went back to Puerto Rico where he would eventually lose his mom to her 2-year battle with cancer. His mother passed away on December 27, 2016.
Because he was hurt, all the offers for baseball at other colleges around the nation went away except for NAIA.
That is when Thad Frame contacted him.
“All the other NAIA schools just sent me offers, (Thad) was the only one that just wanted to talk to me,” Perez said.
In 2017, Perez and the foresters made it official. Perez inked his destiny as a forester while wearing number 27.
“That number is for my mom, that was the day I lost my biggest fan” quoted Perez.