James Sommerville

James Graham Sommerville Marin

• School Universidad Católica del Norte

• Born December 30, 1989

Biographical Information

James Sommerville has been a Chilean baseball star.

Sommerville was named the best baseball player in Chile in 2010, when he was a teenager. He followed his father Ian Sommerville (who won in 1993) and preceded brother Ian Sommerville Jr. (2014). James was named the All-Star shortstop at the 2011 South American Championship; Chile finished fourth, winning twice, after not having won for over thirty years. In 2012, he established a program to train Chilean girls in softball. He played for Chile in the 2012 South American Championship. He was captain of Chile's squad in the 2013 South American Championship, the first South American Championship the country hosted.

He was one of the top performers in the 2016 South American Championship, hitting .500/.550/.556 with three runs and four RBI in five games, while fielding .905. He tied Felipe Burin, Iago Januario and Lucas Montalbetti for the best average in the round-robin phase, had the most hits in that phase (9) and was 6th in OBP (between Luis de Camargo and Juan Pablo Angrisano). While he did not appear in the 5th/6th place game, he was named the All-Tournament second baseman.

He starred once again in the 2018 South American Championship, hitting .467/.600/.467 with 2 runs and 3 RBI in 5 games. This time, he covered mostly first base. He tied for 4th in the event in walks, was 3rd in average (behind Burin and Jacinto Cipriota) and was 3rd in OBP (after Burin and Ricardo Kirihara). He had half their six hits in their first loss to host Argentina.