South Coast Conference Baseball Figures Again To Be Day-to-Day Battle
The strength of the South Coast Conference in many sports has produced fierce competition and races for titles, but no sport has featured championships that aren't decided until the final week of the season like baseball.
Recent SCC baseball titles have come down to the wire. Last year, the top three placings were separated by one win for each spot and even fourth place was a healthy tie between East Los Angeles and Rio Hondo, both carrying quality 15-9 records (.625 winning percentage) in SCC play.
This season, the SCC has four teams that are ranked among the current SoCal Top 20. But a seismic shift occurred when defending conference champ El Camino College saw their long-time head coach Nate Fernley jump ship to take over the Cerritos College program.
The early results show that Cerritos, a team that placed eighth in the 9-team SCC, is already on the upswing. The Falcons were ranked #4 in the region poll and have a 9-4 overall record with the 24-game conference season starting with 3-game series this week.
Long Beach City (7-3) is #8, followed by Pasadena City (7-4) at #14, then Mt. San Antonio (6-4) in the #18 slot. Meanwhile, LA Harbor is 7-5 in non-conference games and El Camino, directed by first-year head coach Grant Palmer, is 6-6. East LA, a #24 playoff seed last year which upset #1 Palomar in the first round of regionals, is 5-7, but has a win over #19 Glendale.
Meanwhile, Rio Hondo (3-10), despite a rough non-conference run thus far, already started the SCC race with a bang, upsetting Cerritos, 3-1, in the conference opener on Feb. 21.
Even Compton (1-6) has been battle-tested in facing #1 Santa Ana, #7 Mt. San Jacinto, and #12 San Diego Mesa in defeats.
Cerritos is paced by strong pitching, featuring last year's conference ERA leader and current leader in that department in Franky Lopez, who has a 0.62 ERA in 29 innings with a 2-0 record.
Long Beach has a power source in catcher Luke Davis, the current SCC leader in home runs with five and RBI with 16 while batting .353.
Pasadena has three of the top conference batting average leaders, led by first baseman Adrian Roman with a .489 mark and also a SCC-leading .564 on-base percentage.
Mt. SAC infielder Joel Gutierrez has a .419 BAVG (third in the conference) while El Camino shortstop Connor Meidroth is fifth in conference hitting at .413 to go with three homers and 14 RBI.
LA Harbor pitcher Gabriel Courtwright is tied with two others for the SCC lead in mound wins at 3-1 with a 3.32 ERA. ELAC has returning All-SCC designated hitter Beno Olmeda, who is hitting .341 with a HR and seven ribbies.
Rio Hondo pitcher Matthew Leyva is 2-1 with a 3.45 ERA is averaging better than a strikeout per inning with 29 (second among SCC hurlers). Compton infielder Jacob Pech is hitting a team-best .321.
Release by Robert Lewis, SCC Sports Information Director