The noise came in waves: chants and cheers, building, breaking then rising again with every pitch.

The roar after the hit.

The rhythm after each pitch.

The dirt. The lights. The noise.

For Coppell High School senior Zander Montgomery, these game moments made up some of his first baseball memories. But they were not his games as they belong to his cousin, University of Houston first baseman/outfielder Xavier Perez.

When Montgomery was younger, Perez traveled from Corpus Christi to Dallas for his baseball games, staying with the Montgomerys.

For him, Perez’s games were where his love for baseball started. The sea of jerseys. The echo of cheers. The stillness before the pitch. They were what pushed his interest.

“I was always in a baseball environment,” Zander said. “It just got me to play the game.”

Taking Montgomery to baseball games was a shared duty between his mother, Jennifer Lara-Montgomery, and his great aunt. They would watch 3-year-old Montgomery scan the ballpark for his cousin, eagerly cheering for him.

“He was always in the stands, yelling for his cousin, excited to watch him play,” Lara-Montgomery said. “We’ve been watching baseball for a really long time, he just didn’t know he was old enough to play.”

That changed when Montgomery caught sight of some kids his age playing baseball on his way to soccer practice. At the time, he balanced multiple sports, yet baseball was the one he was most eager to play.

So his mom signed him up for T-ball and his journey began. 

Like most first games, Montgomery’s was confusing and chaotic.

“Oh my god it was a mess,” Lara-Montgomery said.

As Montgomery got older, his attention span and skills picked up.

His mother once joked that she would give him $100 if he hit a home run. Montgomery took this to heart. Not long after, he hit his first home run.

“I was 8 and playing with the Texas Rangers T-ball team at the time,” Montgomery said. “That is a memory I still hold to this day with me.”

Throughout his next games, the amount of home runs he would hit, along with money, started to rise.

“I started getting a little broke and had to try and figure out what kind of rules I was going to change,” Lara-Montgomery said. “‘Cause he started hitting home runs on a pretty regular basis.” 

Montgomery’s gameplay stood out to many. His first pitching coach, Matt Miller, discovered him at age 13 during a tryout in Colorado. According to Miller, Montgomery was a steal at that age.

“He was probably 6-1 to 6-2 and he struck out five to six of our hitters on straight sliders,” Miller said. “At that age, you just don’t see that very often.”

Miller recruited Montgomery for the Dallas Tigers which exposed him to several national showcases. He wanted to push Montgomery to his complete potential.

“He’s got the ability on the mound that a lot of guys naturally don’t have,” Miller said. “I told him that I’m going to continue throwing you in these [games] until you can continue to get comfortable and confident in what you’re doing. That’s the beauty of where he’s at now.”

Montgomery was initially a part of the MLB developers program. An exceptional performance at the Hank Aaron Invitational tournament scored him an offer to play in Area Code, a prestigious summer baseball tournament. That was the shift in Montgomery’s career.

“He was at the MLB develop’s training facility and he called super excited,” Lara-Montgomery said. “He told me that the coaches called him in and asked if he was available. He was asking me logistically if it was something we could do.”

Montgomery and his mother spent the summer traveling around the country for his Area Code games. They were home for seven days.

On Aug. 9, after an Area Code game in Long Beach, Calif., Oregon baseball coach Mark Wasikowski approached Montgomery and his mother to introduce himself. 

There, he offered Montgomery a spot to play for the Ducks.

“It was completely out of the blue, Oregon wasn’t even on my radar,”  Montgomery said. “It felt amazing.”

Less than two weeks later on Aug. 21, Montgomery committed to Oregon.

“I felt like he really wanted me to go there,” Montgomery said.

Playing Division I baseball for Oregon opens up a multitude of doors for Montgomery’s future and he is dedicated to maximize these opportunities to get him farther.

Miller sees this reflected in him all throughout his career, past and future.

“He’s different. He’s going to have the opportunity to do some things that a lot of guys don’t,” Miller said. “He just keeps working, and that’s where he’s at now.”

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