Marcelo’s hard work paying off

Marcelo could be the poster child for those baseball players who got lost in the COVID-19 shuffle, but also the definition of a late bloomer.

He graduated from Serra — following two solid, but not spectacular, baseball seasons — in the spring of 2019. He was set to continue his career at Skyline College and played in 20 games of the 2020 season before it was shut down due to the pandemic.

But Marcelo showed some signs of becoming a better ball player, batting .388 with 31 hits, 12 RBIs and three home runs — after going homerless in two seasons with the Padres.

Marcelo re-emerged from the lockdown in 2022 at Western Arizona College, another junior college and had 10 homers and 54 RBIs in 56 games, adding another element to his game: the stolen base. After having just six in high school, he swiped 16 bags at Skyline and 27 more in Arizona.

Meanwhile, Marcelo was also getting reps during three summer league seasons at Duluth of the Northwoods Summer League and Niagara of the Perfect Game Collegiate League.

In 2022, he made his professional debut with the Glacier Range Riders of the Pioneer League. Since then, he has steadily gotten better. After 13 games with the Range Riders, Marcelo hooked on with Boise Hawks of the Pioneer League, spending three seasons there before moving on to Winnipeg this season.

In his five years of pro ball, he has an average OPS of .840, slashing .307/.406/.434. He has 338 hits, including 149 in 96 games with Boise in 2025. This year, he is the Goldeyes’ team leader in most offensive categories. In 46 games, he leads the team in hits with 59, has 23 extra-base hits, including 10 home runs. He hit a career-high 12 last season. He has 42 RBIs after driving in 75 last season.

But his biggest attribute might be his ability to steal bases. He has 19 this season, being caught only twice. In his previous two seasons, he has a combined 87 — including 64 last year.

Marcelo, 25, starred for the Belmont-Redwood Shores All-Star team that, in 2013, became the first squad from District 52 to qualify for the Little League West Region tournament in San Bernardino. That team fell one win short of making the Little League World Series, losing in the West Region final.

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The US Rowing Youth National Championships were held last month at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida, with one local crew coming home with a national championship.

And it’s not who you think it is.

The Redwood Scullers, formerly known as Stanford Rowing Center that operates out of the Port of Redwood City, captured the women’s U16 quadruple sculls with coxswain national title.

The Scullers team of Emily Eden, Chloe Lee, Mylia Wall, AnneLise Dobbs and Ayla Staley posted a time of 7:47.61 in the finals, holding off Newport Sea Base Rowing-California, which finished second in a time of 7:48.32.

NorCal Crew, which shares the Port of Redwood City with the Redwood Scullers, had its men’s youth eights team taking second. After a phenomenal lead up to the national championships with a number of impressive performances, they could not quite close the deal. The NorCal Crew team finishing in second place with a time of 5:56.49. Deerfield Academy-Massachusetts won the national title in a time of 5:54.69.

Overall, the 38-race regatta had a strong showing from Bay Area crews. Los Gatos Rowing Club won four national crowns — women’s quadruple sculls, women’s 2v quadruple sculls, men’s youth quad sculls and men’s 2V quad sculls — to lay claim to the best program title.

The Marin Rowing Association took home the national championship in the men’s U18 eights, while the Oakland Strokes won the men’s U17 eights title.

Nathan Mollat has been covering high school sports in San Mateo County for the San Mateo Daily Journal since 2001. He can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com.