Injuries Aside, Loyola’s Perez Shows He Can Play With Best : Colleges: Third baseman, who has missed 25 games this season, is leading the team with a .381 batting average.

There has never been any doubt about Gerardo Perez’s baseball skills, only his health.

The transfer third baseman from Cerritos College made the All-West Coast Conference team as a junior and leads Loyola Marymount in batting with a .381 average.

But since he started playing football and baseball at Cerritos High, his athletic career has been plagued by injury.

The list, which reads like a glossary of sports injuries, includes:

* A compression fracture of his neck that he suffered playing in a summer passing league football game as a high school sophomore.

* Several knee injuries that have decreased his mobility and forced him to have fluid drained from his knees on several occasions.

* A blood clot in his shoulder that developed early in his senior season. It kept him out of the lineup for more than a month.

* A broken foot that he suffered early in his junior year at Loyola. The injury went undetected until late in the season.

* Two cracked vertebrae from a home-plate collision with UC Irvine catcher David Dieter on Feb. 25. The injury forced him to miss 25 games.

“He’s a broken-down ballplayer,” Loyola Coach Jody Robinson said.

Perhaps the reason behind Perez’s injuries is his uncompromising style of play.

“He’s just an intense guy,” Robinson said. “Whether he’s playing baseball, cards or bowling, he goes all-out.”

Said Perez: “It’s what got me here. It’s the only way I know how to play.”

Perez has missed his share of games, but he doesn’t like to stay out of the lineup for long. Despite his foot injury last season, he still played in 58 of the team’s 60 games.

“I played almost the whole season with it that way,” he said. “I didn’t come out but it got to the point that they moved me (from third base) to designated hitter because my mobility was hampered to say the least.”

But the most frustrating injury for Perez has been the back injury that sidelined him for more than half of the games this season. He vividly remembers the play.

“It was really kind of funny because Jody (Robinson) was going to hold me up but he decided to send me and I came in the only way I know how,” Perez said. “I blasted the (catcher) and I got hurt.”

Although he appeared to score on the play when he popped the ball loose from the catcher, the home plate umpire ruled Perez out and ejected him for intentionally charging into the catcher.

Perez played in five more games before he said the pain grew unbearable.

“I kept trying to play on it, but I couldn’t get past the third inning,” he said. “So I went to the doctor and they told me I had fractured some vertebrae.”

It was an injury that might have kept some players out of the lineup for the season. Only Perez said he never doubted that he would return.

“I wasn’t going to sit out the rest of the year,” he said. “It was my senior season and I knew what my role was on this team. Besides, I’m one of those guys that doesn’t want to be out of the lineup. So I always knew I’d be back.

“I just enjoy being out there on the baseball field. For me, a bad day at the yard is better than a good day anywhere else.”

After playing against USC on March 3, Perez didn’t return to the lineup again until April 14 against UCLA. Robinson said his absence was felt.

“I thought when we lost him it hurt because he was the one experienced guy coming back and the guys look up to him in pressure situations,” Robinson said.

In fact, the team was 6-9 when Perez left the lineup and 5-20 in the games that he missed. The Lions have won four of nine games since his return to improve to 15-34.

Since his return, Perez has actually increased his batting average from .362 to .381. But he said he has yet to regain all of his strength.

“If I said I was 100%, I’d be lying,” he said. “But I have to work with what I have right now. I can no longer turn on (pitches) the way I used to. My mechanics are good, it’s just that the ability to turn one loose is not there. So I’m going to have to settle for being purely a singles and doubles hitter.”

Robinson said scouts are expressing concern about Perez’s health.

“He has the ability (to play professionally) but it depends on if he gets healthy,” Robinson said. “He’s an older guy and they (scouts) usually have a hard time going for a guy like that. His best chance is that he gets a chance with some team and he comes in as a fill-in player and comes through.”

Perez doesn’t have any doubts that he can play professionally.

“I’ve played in this area for a while, so I think scouts are familiar with the fact that I’ve always been injury-plagued,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a doubt in my mind that I can play. It’s just if I can stay healthy.”

But Perez is nearing completion on a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

“He could be the ultimate success story,” Robinson said. “He’s a baseball guy and school wasn’t always that important to him. But he could walk away with a degree. He’s only 10 or 12 units short of his degree, so it’s very attainable. A lot of people never thought that would happen.”

Perez will be satisfied if he earns a degree, but he believes his future could be as a baseball coach.

“I’m a baseball guy and I was meant to be on the field,” Perez said. “I just realized that academics are an important steppingstone along the way. So I’ve never lost sight of that fact.”

Robinson also thinks Perez has a future as a coach, maybe even with the Lions.

“That’s why we want to make sure he graduates,” he said. “He may be a guy we would want to have on our staff. He’s got enthusiasm and leadership ability. He also played at Cerritos (College) and I coached there too. So he knows the type of things we do.”

For the moment, though, Perez is satisfied to be playing again.

“No matter what happens the rest of the way, it’s going to be good for me because I’m back on the field and that’s where I want to be,” he said.