Ex-Wildcat Rio Gomez handles elements in sharp start for Colombia in WBC qualifier

Rio Gomez was ready to deliver for Colombia in the Tucson World Baseball Classic qualifier, even though he had relatively little real-world preparation.

When the former Arizona Wildcat took the bump for his mother’s home country Monday night, it marked the first time he had faced batters in 2025. It was also the first time he had pitched in cleats on a dirt mound.

“All my bullpens leading up have been indoors on turf,” Gomez said. “So kind of just thrown into the fire.”

Gomez had no trouble handling the heat — or the cold on a chilly night at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium. He allowed one unearned run in three sharp innings to earn the win as Colombia defeated China 8-1.

The victory put the Colombians in a strong position to punch their ticket to the 2026 WBC entering their final pool-play game against Germany. Colombia was the only unbeaten team entering that contest Tuesday night and had allowed only one run in two games.

Gomez pitched for Colombia in the 2023 WBC, but the team went 1-3 in its pool and had to go through qualifying to get back into what Colombia pitcher Julio Teheran referred to as “the main event.”

“A lot of us were on that team,” Gomez said. “We knew the objective was to get back to next year’s World Baseball Classic. We left a lot out there in ’23. We could have done much better. Everybody was focused. We know what we need to do to finish the task at hand here.”

Gomez acknowledged that it’s still spring training for him and most others, a time that presents “things to work on, things to build off for the season.” For him, barring MLB interest, that will mean a second season in the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. Gomez revealed Monday night that he has signed with the Fubon Guardians, who will give him a chance to start.

The difference between the WBC qualifiers and spring training is that the results matter. So Gomez watched China’s first game vs. Germany with a keen eye. He noticed how aggressive China’s batters were early in the count and strived to pitch “backwards” with a heavy dose of breaking pitches.

“He’s a smart guy,” Colombia manager Jose Mosquera said. “A lot of preparation by himself. He shared a lot of information about those guys. He said, ‘I know they were jumping the first pitch.’”

The first pitch Gomez threw resulted in a line-drive single to right. That was the only hard contact he allowed. The other two hits he yielded were infield singles. And the only run China scored came on an error.

Colombia right fielder Jesus Marriaga, who went 2 for 4 with a home run and four RBIs, praised Gomez for “pitching east to west and getting hitters off-balance.” Gomez threw 47 pitches in all, 33 for strikes.

“I knew that I had a limited pitch count,” he said. “The game plan was just go out and attack, compete, throw all my pitches right away, no reason to hold onto anything, and just get the job done.”

Baseball bond

One of the three ceremonial first pitches before the Brazil-Germany game Monday was thrown by Arizona state Sen. David Gowan.

Gowan played an instrumental role in the formation of the Southern Arizona Sports, Tourism & Film Authority. Without SASTFA, Tucson wouldn’t have won its bid to host a WBC qualifier. It might not even have been in the running.

Here’s how Edgar Soto, the chairman of SASTFA, first connected with Gowan, in Soto’s words:

“I was giving baseball lessons to this kid named Nick. Nick’s mom happened to be the lobbyist for the Vail School District. Her name is Darcy Mentone, I started talking to her. I said, ‘Yeah, I got this little project. I’m trying to get this Pima County thing going.’ She said, ‘Well, let me help you. I’ll introduce you to David Gowan.’

“Here I am, a Democrat. And he’s a Republican. But he is a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He grew up in L.A. and was a Dodgers fan. So I started telling him how I spent a lot of time with Tommy Lasorda when I was coaching USA Baseball and how I had pictures with Fernando Valenzuela. So he and I connected on baseball, of all things.

“He sponsored the bill (to create SASTFA), and he saw the value in this opportunity.”

Kids and mascots

To boost attendance and ramp up the energy for a pair of 11 a.m. weekday games, local organizers tapped into a boundless source of the latter:

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Kids.

Buses brought almost 5,000 students from area schools to the early games Monday and Tuesday. They squealed in delight every time a hitter made contact.

During Monday’s game between Brazil and Germany, two special guests fired up the kids and the crowd: Dusty, the Roadrunners’ mascot, and Bones, the Sugar Skulls’ mascot. The two danced together atop the third base dugout during a replay review at the end of the fifth inning.

Back to basics

One of MLB’s overarching goals is to introduce new fans to the sport of baseball. To that end, a video has played on the scoreboard between batting practice and the start of games called “Intro to Baseball.”

The “baseball basics” explained in the video include the definition of the strike zone and the various ways to score a run (home run, base hit, fielder’s choice, sacrifice fly) and make an out (strikeout, groundout, flyout, force-out, tag-out).

Jersey roll call

Fans attending the early games on Monday and Tuesday sported a variety of jerseys. They included:

– A “Sedona Red” No. 37 Diamondbacks jersey (Kevin Ginkel)

– A white, pinstriped No. 99 Yankees jersey (Aaron Judge)

– A royal blue No. 51 Mariners jersey (Ichiro Suzuki)

– A brown No. 23 Padres jersey (Fernando Tatis Jr.)

– A yellow No. 9 Brazil soccer jersey (Ronaldo)

– A white No. 17 Dodgers jersey (Shohei Ohtani)

– A white No. 11 Sandlot (movie) jersey (Yeah-Yeah)

– A white No. 12 Mets jersey (Francisco Lindor)

– A red retro No. 25 Cardinals jersey (Mark McGwire)

By the numbers

85 — Maximum number of pitches a pitcher can throw in a WBC qualifier game.

17 — Length, in minutes, of a delay during Monday’s Brazil-Germany game to replace a broken drain cover near the first base coach’s box.

11 — Walks issued by Brazil’s pitching staff in its 9-7 victory over Germany on Monday.

They said it

“I grew up across the street from Flowing Wells Junior High. I love my community, I love my neighborhood and I love Flowing Wells, but to say we had money to go to games or to drive up to Phoenix would be false. A lot of our kids don’t have that opportunity (to go to a professional baseball game) and afford a $45 spring training ticket and a $30 parking pass.

“To be able to provide that in Tucson for them, it’s a core memory they’re going to keep for the rest of their lives. It’s going to continue to grow and turn a generation of Tucsonans and Southern Arizonans into baseball fans and sports fans that we don’t currently have.” — SASTFA executive director Blake Eager on donating tickets to local schools