Back in January, the Pittsburgh Pirates signed 16-year-old right-handed pitcher David Matoma from Uganda during the international signing period. He became just the third Ugandan-born player to sign, joining Ben Serunkuma and Umar Male, each of whom joined the Los Angeles Dodgers during the previous international signing period.
Matoma was quite familiar with Serunkuma and Male. The trio are from the same town, Luwero, and attended the same boarding school, where they all played on the same team from 2016-2022.
“My family is happy for me because I’ve been playing baseball for so long,” Matoma said at the time, via MLB.com.
At the age of 16, Matoma already had a fastball topping out at 93 MPH.