Othello's Alix Garcia hitting well down south

COOLIDGE, Ariz. — The first thing he did was cut the free flowing locks that hung down to his shoulders in high school. It’s more of a job now and image is important.

Then he made the transition from shortstop to first base. With a starting infield already committed to Division I programs, a guy breaks into the lineup anywhere he can.

It didn’t take Othello native Alix Garcia long to settle into Central Arizona College baseball and a program that won NJCAA national championships in 1976 and 2002. The 6-foot-2, 215-pound freshman is currently ranked sixth among Arizona Community College Conference hitters with a .417 batting average.

It’s early yet, but with 13 RBI, a slugging percentage of .528 hitting out of the four slot and an on-base-percentage of .551, he’s everything Central Arizona coach Anthony Gilich hoped for with his first recruit from the 2016 recruiting class.

“With his athleticism, we put him over at first base to get him into the lineup and he’s made the transition great,” said Gilich, who is in his 10th season at Central Arizona. “The best part about Alix is that he’s a great kid. It’s easy to put him in the lineup because he’s playing so well, but he works really hard and doing all the right things.

“Our job is to move players on to the next level. We already have 14 guys committed to move on. Alix is certainly going to be one of those guys when he’s done playing here. He certainly has the potential to play Division I baseball and potentially professional baseball.”

Without getting too far ahead of the game, Garcia does have 15 hits in 49 plate appearances and scored 13 times in the first 12 games. The Vaqueros staff didn’t make any significant changes to his swing mechanics, he said.

“At this level, the velocity is higher and the breaking stuff is nastier, but I’ve been getting used to it,” said Garcia, who hits fourth in the lineup. “I’ve made a few small mechanical changes, like widening up my stance a little bit. I don’t classify myself as a power hitter or a contact hitter. I can do both, basically I just try to do whatever it takes to score some runs.”

Central Arizona went into the season ranked No. 20 in the NJCAA national preseason rankings and has won more games in the past 10 years than any other program in the country. They have high expectations and it’s a good fit said Gilich, who discovered Garcia through his connection with Club Spokane Dodgers in the Spokane Valley.

“I was alerted to Alix a couple of summers back,” Gilich said. “He played in Arizona with his summer team a couple of times and I had a chance to watch him play. We were attracted to his hitting. He does an excellent job of driving the ball. A lot of guys will pitch to his strengths. They see a big kid step in there in the four hole and they try to pitch him away, which is right into his strength because he hits very well to the opposite field.”

It’s a big transition for a guy born and raised in the Columbia Basin. The baseball is probably the easiest part. Then there’s the college level academics, living away from home for the first time. Then again, it’s 75 degrees right now, so Arizona has its benefits.

“It’s been a pretty easy transition because our team is like family so there’s always somebody to talk to,” Garcia said. “The real challenges are with time management. When I’m not in school, I’ playing baseball or in the weight room. There’s a lot more weight training than I was used to in high school.”

Rodney Harwood is a sports writer at the Columbia Basin Herald and can be reached at rharwood@columbiabasinherald.com