FAYETTEVILLE — In December 2020, Jalen Battles attended a going-away party in his honor hosted by his long-time youth baseball coach, Ed Perez.
During the party, Perez told Battles of his plan to travel to Arlington, Texas, to watch him compete in the College Baseball Showdown two months later. It was there, in the same house he broke countless glass frames playing baseball inside, that he last saw the man who taught him everything he knew about the sport.
Perez died from covid-19 on Jan. 23, 2021, after a 20-day stay at Methodist Hospital Stone Oak in San Antonio.