The Pasadena City College baseball team tied a *school-record by having six players make the All-South Coast Conference First Team as the Lancers earned the #16 seed for the Southern California Regional Playoffs. PCC is making its sixth consecutive postseason under head coach Pat McGee.
The Lancers (23-16 overall) placed fourth in the difficult SCC (13-11 record), which had five teams make it into the playoffs including #1 seed and conference champion Cerritos, a team they beat in their final South Coast series, 2-game-to-1.
PCC will play a First Round best-of-3 series at #9 Fullerton College (23-17), the fourth place squad out of the Orange Empire Conference, on Friday-Saturday, May 3-4.
The Hornets were 3-3 v. SCC teams, splitting two games each with Cerritos, and second place tied finishers Mt. San Antonio and Long Beach CC.
The All-SCC First Team contingent for the Lancers include sophomore shortstop Jack Esguerra, sophomore transfer pitching ace Jameson Ferraro, letterman closer Ben Griffith, utility freshman leftfielder-infielder Bryan Richman, first-year designated hitter Evan Nahra, and frosh outfielder Thomas Villanueva, who has played all three positions this season.
In the 24-game, conference only statistics which the conference team is based on, Esguerra led the conference in hits with 40, batting .388 (fifth in the SCC) with 19 RBI. Ferraro pitched big games for Pasadena, recording a 5-1 record in 58 innings with a sparkling 2.02 ERA, second in the conference.
Richman was third in SCC batting (.422) and his 38 hits were second to Esguerra while he also drove in 15 RBI. Nahra hit .365 with nine doubles, three triples, two home runs and 16 RBI. He was fourth in SCC slugging percentage with a .698 mark.
Appearing in half the team's conference games, Griffith picked up five saves, a win, and had a 3.86 ERA in 23.1 innings. Villanueva, who made a number of spectacular leaping catches in the field, batted .356 with 20 RBI.
In overall statistics, Ferraro is eighth in the state in ERA with a 1.91 mark in 84.2 innings. He is responsible for more than a third of the team's wins with an 8-3 record.
Griffith's seven overall saves are tied for third in the state while Esguerra's 63 hits are 13th among California players.
The Lancers carry a 4-game win streak into the playoffs.
Fullerton is led by one of the state's top sluggers in first baseman Trevor Schmidt, who has 12 home runs, 60 RBI (sixth in the state) and is batting .342. Esguerra is hitting a team-best .396 for PCC as well as leading the team in RBI with 31. The 2-year starter is second in the state in fielding assists with 137.
The teams last faced each other in 2019 with PCC winning a February non-conference game, 8-2, and the Lancers hold a 2-0 edge since McGee began his tenure at PCC in 2015. The last time Fullerton defeated PCC on the diamond was in 2013.
CAPSULE COMPARISON: PCC V. FULLERTON
TEAM BATTING: LANCERS .299, HORNETS .281
TEAM PITCHING: LANCERS 4.74 ERA, HORNETS 4.79
TEAM RUNS SCORED: LANCERS 6.9 PER GAME, HORNETS 8.5
TEAM RUNS ALLOWED: LANCERS 5.9 PER GAME, HORNETS 6.3
*-editor note--In 2017, the Lancers also had six players named First Team, but that was part of a then 5-team separate North Division (also a 5-team South). This is All-SCC for an entire 9-team conference.