Mt. San Antonio's Pitcher of Year Flores Heads All-SCC 2022 Baseball Team
Long Beach's Matthew Pinal, SCC MVP for 2022
Complete 2022 All-SCC Baseball Team
Mt. San Antonio College southpaw Michael Flores, who hurled a perfect 8-0 record in conference play, and Long Beach City College utility player Matthew Pinal gained the top awards on the 2022 All-South Coast Conference Baseball Team.
Flores was selected SCC Pitcher of the Year while Pinal, a freshman who batted .320 with three home runs and 23 RBI in conference games as a first baseman and pitched to a 2-1 record with seven saves as the Vikings closer, was chosen as SCC Most Valuable Player.
Flores, a freshman, led the conference in wins and had a 2.85 ERA in 53.2 innings pitched in South Coast games. He is tied for the state lead in overall victories with 11. The All-SCC selections were based on the 24-game conference schedule statistics.
Flores was one of nine Mounties selected to the First and Second Teams while third-place El Camino matched Mt. SAC with nine selections. LBCC had seven players chosen.
The SCC batting champion was Mt. SAC First Teamer and sophomore leftfielder Brent Cota, who hit .457 and knocked in 24 RBI. ERA champ was Pasadena City sophomore long reliever Benny Olguin, who produced a 4-2 record with one save and a sparkling ERA of 1.45. Olguin struck out 41 in 43.1 innings pitched. He is fourth in overall state ERA at 1.91.
First Team utility selection Cristian Enriquez, a sophomore first baseman-pitcher, led the SCC in RBI with 35 while hitting six home runs and batting .380. Long Beach First Team frosh centerfielder Moises Guzman had a SCC high of seven home runs (hit .341 with 29 RBI).
Raider Tello, PCC's freshman shortstop and First Team infield choice, currently leads the state in overall hits with 74, is tied for second in overall doubles with 18, and his 51 RBI is tied for sixth among all California Community College hitters.
El Camino First Team pitcher Thomas Bainton, a freshman, is fifth in state wins with nine. In SCC play, he pitched to a 5-2 record, 2.33 ERA and a conference high 57 strikeouts in 58 innings.
John Knott of Mt. San Antonio and Long Beach's Casey Crook shared the SCC Coach of the Year honors as both directed their teams to a co-South Coast championship at 19-5 each. For Knott, it was his third straight selection (2018, 2019, 2020 was a shortened season with no team named and the 2021 season was cancelled for South Coast play).
FOUR SCC TEAMS PART OF REGIONAL SEEDINGS
Mt. San Antonio (32-8) earned the No. 6 seed to top four SCC teams that qualified for the SoCal Regional Playoffs. Long Beach (28-12) picked up the ninth seed, El Camino (29-11) grabbed the 10th seed and fourth-place Pasadena (27-13) took the 12th seed.
Here is a bracket of the playoff matchups with all best-of-3 game series for South Coast teams being played May 6-7.