USF’s Coco Montes continues hitting tear at pro level

Former Bulls SS Coco Montes' professional career is commencing the way his collegiate one ended.

On a mesmerizing tear.

Through 21 games with the Colorado Rockies' rookie league affiliate in Grand Junction, Colo., Montes is hitting .453 with three home runs and 16 RBI.

Until going hitless Saturday against the Ogden Raptors, he had an 18-game hitting streak, and still is batting .500 (14-for-28) in the month of July. He enters Tuesday's game at Billings (Mont.) with an OPS of 1.203.

"Just working the middle of the field and not trying to do too much," Montes said in a text message Monday. "I just have to thank God for everything. None of this would be possible without Him."

A Rockies 15th-round pick, Montes hit .331 with 23 doubles this past season for the Bulls, and had a 20-game hit streak snapped in the season finale — a 6-1 loss to Oklahoma State in the NCAA Tournament.

Elsewhere, two other drafted Bulls also are enjoying solid professional starts.

Third baseman David Villar, recently promoted to the Giants' short-season Class A club in Salem-Keizer (Ore.), is hitting .295 with four home runs and 11 RBI for the Volcanoes. Villar has three multi-hit games in his last four contests, going 7-for-17 with two homers in that stretch.

LHP Andrew Perez, an eighth-round pick of the White Sox, has worked two scoreless innings for the club's Class A affiliate in Kannapolis, N.C., since his promotion from rookie league. In 10 1/3 minor league innings, Perez has allowed one earned run, striking out 10 and walking one.