Montes & Villar Bringing Hot Bats North to La Crosse
La Crosse, Wis. – The La Crosse Loggers front office announced today that they have added a pair of players from the University of South Florida with the official signings of infielders Coco Montes and David Villar.
Coco Montes is off to a red-hot start to his sophomore season at USF as he currently leads the team in hits (33) while hitting at a .413 clip, along with totaling three homers and 12 RBI’s. The Miami, Fla. native has started all 20 games for the Bulls who are currently riding an 18-game winning streak and are off to a 19-1 start. Montes was the everyday shortstop for USF as a freshman in 2016, when he hit .218 with two homers and 13 RBI’s over 56 games played and 197 at-bats. The slick-fielding Montes has already garnered professional interest as he was a 35th round selection of the Washington Nationals back in 2015 coming out of Coral Gables High School (Miami, Fla.) before electing to pursue his collegiate career at USF.
Joining Montes will be teammate and fellow infielder David Villar who is also off to a torrid start to this 2017 season. The sophomore third baseman currently leads the Bulls with 25 RBI’s and is hitting .333 with three home runs over the first 20 games. A native of Pembroke Pines, Fla. Villar was also a mainstay in the USF lineup as a true freshman in 2016 when he hit .239 with a team-best 14 doubles to go along with five homers and 23 RBI’s. Villar is also no stranger to summer collegiate baseball as he excelled last summer as a member of the Danbury Westerners of the New England Collegiate League when he hit .276 with seven home runs and 19 RBI’s.
Montes, Villar and the rest of the Loggers will open their 2017 campaign at home on Tuesday, May 30 when they play host to the Duluth Huskies at 7:05 p.m. at the newly renovated Copeland Park. Season tickets and specialty ticket packages are on sale now at LaCrosseLoggers.com or by calling the Loggers ticket office at 608-796-9553.
The La Crosse Loggers are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 23-year-old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 160 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM) and Lucas Duda (NYM). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.lacrosseloggers.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Loggers as your favorite team.