Arcenio Martinez, a Life Skills student at Española Valley High School, has made enormous progress both on and off the field.
While his baseball skills have improved, being a part of the Sundevils junior varsity team has helped him flourish socially.
“He’s a lot more outspoken,” said his mother, Crystal. “He’s happier.”
To hear some team members tell it, Martinez is the most important member of the team. And his presence has rallied the whole team together, and given the team a special bond.
“He’s a one-of-a-kind,” teammate Nick Sandoval said. “I dripped him out today with eye black, looking all good. He’s a good little homie.”
Martinez said his favorite subject in school is baseball. He also does bowling in the special olympics, and Guinn said he is also part of the school’s esports team. And his favorite part about baseball is his teammates.
“I get to make new friends,” he said.
Martinez, who wears No. 3, led off the bottom of the second inning for the Sundevils in a Thursday game against Pojoaque.
When Martinez bats, coach Mike Guinn comes on to the field and stands in front of the mound, softly tossing a few balls his way until Martinez, from the right side of the plate, makes contact.
It’s the whole team’s favorite part of the game.
In Thursday’s game, in a typical series of events, Martinez hit a dribbler down the third base line, and took off for first.
The Pojoaque players threw the ball around the infield, always a step behind Martinez as he circled the bases, and just barely beat the throw home. At home plate, Martinez is swarmed first by Española players, then by Pojoaque players as well.
A home run.
“He gets the team going, whenever we’re down,” Guinn said, though Pojoaque ultimately won the game 8-2. “If they’re in a mood, made a bad play. Once Arcenio gets up here, he makes everybody forget about their bad plays.”
Team players said that doing this inspires the team and can lead to a big inning offensively.
“I’m happy he found a team that accepts him, and makes him feel included,” Crystal Martinez said.
Arcenio watches a lot of sports with his uncle, Jeremy, which led to him wanting to go out for baseball this year.
Guinn has seen Martinez progress throughout the year both as a baseball player and as a person
On the field, where it may have taken 10 or 20 pitches for Martinez to make contact, it now is only two or three.
Off the field, Guinn said he has seen Martinez have a social transformation. Guinn said he is more communicative, and involved as friends with both the junior varsity and varsity players.
“At the beginning, he was real timid, wasn’t really interacting with much,” Guinn said. “Throughout the year, little by little, he’s made many friends. To the point now that, at the end of the season, he’s just one of the guys. He’s not different anymore.”
And Crystal Martinez said that she agrees that baseball has been amazing for his social development.
Guinn said other team players are inspired by his daily dedication to work, and want to improve themselves, too.
And his teammates, many of whom are also football players and enjoyed a bond, have taken to him. They have group chats together, text all the time, and play video games.
“What people don’t understand, yeah he has a speech impediment and stuff like that, but he’s actually a really smart person,” Sandoval said. “When he texts with a phone, he has a great way of communicating with people. He’s a very curious boy, that’s what I like about him. He wants to know everything going on around him.”
Sandoval, one of the team’s football players, came into baseball after being recruited by friends after a track practice. But the joy that Martinez has brought to the team makes him want to stick around.
Martinez’s uncle, Jeremy, said that now, Arcenio’s autism does not define him, but, “He feels like a baseball player.”
“He makes the whole sport fun,” Sandoval said. “When I first joined the team, I said, the whole reason I showed up, is Arcenio. He’s himself. That’s what I love about him.”