WORCESTER, Mass.– This December the 2025 Bolivarian Games (Juegos Bolivarianos) were held in Peru, becoming the 15th iteration of the games to feature the sport of Baseball. The countries of Curacao, El Salavador, Venezuela, Peru and Columbia participated in the games. Also participating was Ecuador, whose roster featured a member of the Clark University Baseball Team, senior Alfonso Jalil. 

"(I was) proud, for sure excited, honored as well. I was more excited then my previous two selections, this was probably the biggest tournament that I've played with the national team." Said Jalil, going on to say "this was Juegos Bolivarianos which opens the olympic cycle, which is a little bit bigger of a tournament which is why I was more excited than the ones before." 

Jalil started with spots on the U10 and U12 Ecuadorian baseball teams. He currently plays in a league in Ecuador alongside other college athletes, as well as some ex-professional baseball players. "Playing for the national team, putting that shirt on, is a different feeling for sure." Jalil went on to praise the competition, "Lot of good guys, ex-big leaguers, current big-leaguers as well." 

Jalil held his own in the competition, with his highlight of the tournament coming on a two-RBI hit vs Peru. His journey to Clark also featured a stop in California, where he played baseball for two years at the collegiate level before transferring to Clark a year ago. "I wanted to go more towards the East Coast and I was looking for conferences that had a great education and great competition." Jalil went on, "I played some great baseball last year and am excited for what's coming this year as well." 

Jalil had a stellar .361 batting average in 24 games played, featuring nine games with multiple hits and six games with multiple RBI. When asked if playing this past season has helped him he responded "100%, I played a good amount of games last year, the most I've played in college … It has helped my development a lot, coach (Billy) Cather has been a big part of it, he's a great hitting coach and of course he's a great manager as well. I've improved my skills all-around, I felt better at shortstop than ever, my hitting has been better. I've been seeing more pitches and I've stayed more active overall, it's been a great year and half." 

"I think we have a good team this year at Clark, I'm excited about it … from being one of the younger guys one year to being one of the older ones the year after is kinda weird, but it's great having responsibility in the leadership on the team as well. Personally, my goal is to be an all-conference player, hopefully an all-american." Jalil hopes that his experience with the national team can also help his teammates at Clark, "Hopefully I can transfer all that knowledge from playing this type of baseball at this level to the guys at Clark so that they can learn from me and I can learn from them as well." 

Looking forward to his future in Ecuador, Jalil said "I wanna stay active in baseball .. I would love to play wherever I am and keep playing for the national team …I'm pretty sure next year there will be another South American tournament … I think if I keep doing what I'm doing and I stay active, I'll be part of the national team for a long time and that's my goal"