Puerto Rico’s Blanchard racking up Ks

In every way, Marco Blanchard is a faithful man.

The Puerto Rico National Collegiate team pitcher has faith in his talents on the mound — the talent which rung up 16 batters in the team’s first game of the NBC World Series.

He’s attended two Christian-based junior colleges and is set to attend a private Christian university next year. He has faith in his 90 mile-per-hour fastball to blow by batters. He has faith his under six-foot frame doesn’t tarnish his efforts on the mound.

Blanchard and his coaches are especially faithful about one thing: Blanchard can make it to the big leagues in due time. With his performance in front of a handful of scouts on Friday at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium and his consistently high strikeout tally playing for junior colleges, he might not be too far away from a shot with a pro team.

“Marco can go to the next level, and hopefully he does, where he can prove to professional scouts and all the minor leaguers that he can do this,” Puerto Rico coach Harvey Peña said. “With his performance, and his past performances, he will get scouts’ attention.”

Friday, Blanchard tied two others for the modern-era NBC World Series record for strikeouts in a single game. And he did it in eight innings before Puerto Rico run-ruled the Denver Cougars, 11-3.

He threw his fastball at 89 miles per hour consistently, and his curveball at 86. Two-thirds of the team’s outs came via strikeout. Nobody could seem to touch him, especially not early on.

“In the beginning, I started throwing my fastball, and they were just behind it,” Blanchard said. “So I just said, ‘Okay, let’s just work with my fastball, because it’s working.’”

Strikeouts are the name of Blanchard’s game.

Blanchard was fifth in the NJCAA and first in his conference with 109 strikeouts in only 70 1/3 innings on the mound last season at Arkansas Baptist after sitting out in 2014. In 2013, with Ecclesia College, he was top ten in strikeouts in the NCCAA, which included a complete game one-hitter where he recorded 15 strikeouts on only 24 batters.

“Strikeout pitchers say, ‘Here is this, hit it if you can.’ That’s Marco’s stuff,” Peña said. “Pitchers like Marco, they just have a gift, and they just go for it. They can smell the strikeout coming, and they don’t play around in the zone. They just go after guys. And the ball just misses the barrel.”

The left-handed, 5-foot-10 Blanchard has played for Peña for three summers, including last summer with Puerto Rico in the NBC World Series. He tossed 16 innings and 19 strikeouts in last season’s tournament.

“The size doesn’t matter for me,” Blanchard said. “I believe in my stuff, and that’s what makes me feel comfortable with myself every time I am on the mound.”

“Sometimes special arms come in small packages,” Peña said. “He needs the opportunity to pitch professional baseball so they can see the professional hitters will also miss his pitches, as much as these guys do.”

Blanchard will play for NAIA power Faulkner — a private Christian university in Alabama — next season.

There, he’ll have a larger opportunity to develop his faith, and get more eyes on his strikeout totals.

“I just play for the Lord. That’s what I do, that’s what I’ve been doing, and it’s working,” Blanchard said. “God has done so much in my life, and I’m thankful for it.

“Now I’m just looking to get the most strikeouts in the NBC.”

This story was originally published July 26, 2015 at 9:47 PM with the headline "Puerto Rico’s Blanchard racking up Ks."