Long before he set foot on a college baseball field in the United States, Jerdy Lopez was a kid in the Dominican Republic who loved the game so much he played with whatever he could find — even if that meant using a cardboard glove.
That passion carried him from sandlots in the DR to Little Rock, where he’s become a key part of the Trojans’ success. But the journey wasn’t easy. It was built on sacrifice, perseverance, and the unwavering belief that baseball could change his life.
Lopez’s introduction to organized baseball came thanks to his father, who scraped together the money to put him in one of the country’s best youth leagues, Pimentel. “He finally got the money for me to go there,” Lopez said. “I was 7 to 8 years old, and he paid for the league.” As he grew older, the path became more competitive — and more expensive. “When I turned 12, then was starting to go to an academy,” Lopez said. “He took me to this academy. They didn’t take me because I was too small. I was too skinny.” But his father never gave up. “He couldn’t find me any academy because nobody wanted to take me at the beginning,” Lopez said. “Then when I turned around 13, somebody took me. Pimentel Academy took me finally. I was there for probably three years.” At the academy, they signed a contract: if Lopez eventually signed professionally, the academy would receive 45% of his bonus. “My dad said, ‘I’ll take that because I just want him to be free, just working out, playing baseball,’” Lopez said. That agreement allowed Jerdy to focus on the game he loved — and to dream even bigger.
Lopez had a chance to sign for $10,000 — money he desperately wanted — but a scout advised him to wait. “I wanted to take it,” Lopez said. “But the same guy told me that I wouldn’t last long if I take it. He said, ‘I know you want to take it so bad, you just wanna play baseball,’ and I said yeah. Then he said, ‘But I got a friend in the US that he can help you out.’” That connection eventually led him to high school in Wichita, Kansas. It was a life-changing leap — and a lonely one. “At the beginning I just wanted to go back,” Lopez said. “It was probably too much for me. Learn a new language, being in a different country, far away from my family. I was 16 or 17 years old.” His father’s voice kept him going. “My dad was the one all the time telling me, ‘If you wanna chase your dreams, you have to give everything you got, even if you have to be away from your family,’” Lopez said.
He also found encouragement from his coaches. “The coach was telling me a bunch of stuff too about it,” Lopez said. “He said, ‘If you stay here, I promise you it’s gonna get better. At the beginning is the worst part, but then it’s getting better and better and better.’” Lopez stayed — and thrived. He learned English with the help of his host family. “It was mandatory for me to learn English to communicate with people,” he said. “Everything I was saying to people, it was just like translating on the phone and showing them. I actually wanted to talk to people, trying to be friendly.” His host family corrected his grammar and pronunciation, helping him gain confidence. “They kind of taught me how to speak when I was saying stuff that wasn’t right,” he said. “That helped me a lot.”
Finding His Place in College Baseball
After high school, Lopez didn’t fully understand the college system. “I thought junior college was the same, NCAA was the same thing,” he said. “I didn’t know anything about college when I got recruited to Western Oklahoma.” That’s when Little Rock senior first baseman Angel Cano — who was his high school and junior college teammate — stepped in. “Angel came to me, explained everything about how it is,” Lopez said. “He said, ‘Here we work hard. That’s all I gotta tell you — we work hard, really hard.’” Coach Russell at Western Oklahoma echoed that message. “He told me the same thing,” Lopez said. “‘It’s gonna be hard, but after this you’re gonna be really tough.’” Lopez embraced the challenge. “I just wanted to play,” he said. “I didn’t know anything about school. I just wanted to play. I get the chance to play. I went to Western Oklahoma, played my two years, and yeah.” He leaned on Angel for support — and for a sense of home. “He is speaking Spanish to me, kind of feels better, you know, that is my first language,” Lopez said.
Even as he adapted, Lopez never forgot how far he’d come. “When I was really young, 17 when I got here,” he said, “I saw everything was impossible. But then when you wanna do this stuff, you can do it. When you from your heart want to do something, you can do it.”
A Home on the field
No matter what was happening in his life, baseball remained his sanctuary. “Even when I’m not feeling good, when I’m sad, and I go to the baseball field, everything goes away,” Lopez said. “If I was sad outside of the baseball park, I come here to the baseball park — that went away. I’m really happy here.” At Little Rock, Lopez has become a steady presence in the lineup and in the infield.
“When I made the decision here and I see this guy went to the region and did what they did — because it was awesome watching them play last year — and then the coaching staff saying, ‘Hey, next year we’re gonna be better,’ and I trust the coaches. I trust Angel for sure 100%,” Lopez said.
He’s also leaned on veteran teammates like Cooper Chaplain and former Trojan shortstop, and now graduate assistant, Alex Seguine. “I gotta stick with Cooper and Alex, too, because he was here last year,” Lopez said. “I asked them a bunch of questions about how is everything here, how do I have to act. They kind of walked me through stuff to do or not to do.” Seguine’s experience at LSU has been invaluable. “He went really far last year,” Lopez said. “He was the second to win the Gold Glove, you know, so I kind of wanted to pick up where he left it at and do my best job.” At the plate, Lopez has embraced his role as a table-setter. “I’m just trying to put the ball in play,” he said. “When he told me that I’m gonna be the leadoff spot, he just told me my plan. He said just get on base. We have more guys that they can use, you know, take you home plate, and I said OK, that’s my job.” Still, it felt good to show a little pop at the Hattiesburg regional as he slugged two doubles and a triple in the final game against Jacksonville State. “It felt good to be honest with you because I’m a guy that hits singles most of the time, doubles,” Lopez said. “But it feels good to be in the scoring position most of the time so the guy can score me easily.” Dreaming big Now, Lopez and the Trojans have their sights set on something every college player dreams of — Omaha. “That is like a dream come true,” he said. “That’s why we’ve been working a lot since the fall to go there. Every single guy that is in college, that is in high school, they wanna go to the College World Series. That’s what we’ve been working for, and it would mean a lot.” Confidence runs high in the clubhouse. “We have so many good guys here,” Lopez said. “We have good pitching, we have good coaches, we have good hitters. We trust each other because we are really good at this.” For Lopez, the journey from cardboard gloves to college baseball has been nothing short of remarkable. “Now that I’m grown, that I’m 21 years old, and I look back and I’m like, man, I actually got really far,” he said. “I didn’t think that I would be this far because all my friends that were in the academy with me, they’re done with baseball. I’m the only one that is still playing baseball. Unbelievable.” And he’s not done yet.
Little Rock Athletics