Conant Named SCC Baseball MVP, McGee Top Coach; #7 Lancers Host Riverside In Playoffs May 5-6

There have been many firsts this season for the Pasadena City College baseball program under third-year head coach Pat McGee. In the Lancers' 31-year history in the South Coast Conference, they picked up some more first-time accolades over the weekend. 

The main first is that PCC (24-13), by virtue of being the South Coast Conference North Division champions (15-7 league record), earned the No. 7 seed and will host No. 10 Riverside City College in the first round of the CCCAA Southern California Regional Playoffs Friday-Saturday, May 5-6. The teams will play a best-of-3 game series beginning with a 2 p.m. game on Friday at Brookside Park's Jackie Robinson Memorial Field. It is the first time that PCC enters the postseason since 1972. 

On Sunday at the SCC coaches year-end meeting, PCC sophomore first baseman Jeremy Conant was named the South Coast Conference North Most Valuable Player and McGee selected SCC North Coach of the Year. Both awards are firsts for the program in the college's SCC history.  In all, the Lancers had six players selected to the All-SCC North First Team and two more to the Second Team. The eight selections also the most ever from a PCC team in the South Coast. 

Conant continues to re-write the PCC record books as his current .449 average is 40 points higher than the previous single-season top average of .409 set by Eric Manning in 1990. In the team's regular-season, 10-8 loss at Mt. San Antonio on April 28, the lefty-hitting sophomore broke the single-season RBI record, now at 42 (Kenny Okamuro, 41 RBI in 1999). He is one hit away from tying the school record for hits in a season (63 by Okamuro, 1999). Conant already holds the No. 2 and No. 3 marks and his 123 career hits add up to a PCC all-time record.

He won the SCC batting title with a .456 average over the 22-game conference schedule. He also led the entire conference (both sides, North and South divisions) in on-base percentage (.514) and RBI (31, tied with Reese Berberet of Long Beach City College). Conant never made an error on defense at first base, flawless in 214 chances for a 1.000 fielding percentage. 

Also earning All-SCC First Team spots were freshmen starting pitchers Jesse Hanckel (3-0, 3.09 ERA in conference-only games) and Race Gardner (4-2, 3.80 ERA), sophomore transfer second baseman Andres Kim (.390, six doubles, 20 RBI), frosh rightfielder Shane Ogata (.391, six triples, 25 runs, two home runs, 20 RBI), and letterman designated hitter Anthony Fickewirth (.333, five doubles, one homer, eight RBI). Conant, Ogata and Kim were a trifecta as the 1-2-3 top batting average hitters in the SCC North this season.

No division shortstop earned a First Team nod which left sophomore shortstop Alex Briggs a surprising Second Team selection. In conference, Briggs hit .303 with seven doubles and 16 RBI, and is considered one of the state's best defensive infielders as he made 69 assists and turned nine double plays in conference-only games. Briggs is already inked to a playing scholarship to attend Long Island University, Brooklyn (New York), a NCAA Division I college. 

Freshman centerfielder John Bicos completed the All-SCC selections as a Second Team choice after batting .273 with eight doubles and 12 RBI in conference games. 

"Obviously, it's a great feeling to have so many players receive All-SCC recognition," said a humble McGee. "Jeremy's MVP choice was probably one of the easiest things the coaches could do as he pretty much dominated as one of the state's best hitters. Some of our guys that made First Team, I don't think were even on the radar coming into the season, and that's just a testament to how well we played as a team. To have my peers name me Coach of the Year will be something I remember fondly many years from today."

On playing in the postseason, McGee said, "We put all this time into practices and staying focused in games in order to get to this point. We won our conference, and that gives us a home playoff series. I like that we are facing a really good Riverside team. If we expect to go far, we have to meet this challenge because it's not going to get any easier next round. I hope fans will come out and watch us, and appreciate that there is this team playing off-campus that bleeds Cardinal and Gold."

Riverside is 29-11 and finished in second place in the powerful Orange Empire Conference. The Tigers are led by lefty pitching ace Blake Tuthill (10-1 overall, 2.17 ERA) and first baseman slugger Ryan Mota (.323, 11 home runs, 44 RBI). 

BREAKING NEWS: In the final regular season, CCCSIA State Top 20 Rankings released this morning, the Lancers jumped from No. 20 to No. 15 while Riverside comes in at No. 10. One of the criteria for playoffs is that conference champions are given the opportunity to host playoff series. 

In overall PCC statistics, Kim tied the school record for runs scored in a season with 39 (held by two other players). Kim is batting .346 with 24 RBI, and is tied for the team lead in doubles with 11 while Ogata is hitting .358 with two homers and 24 RBI. Seven different Lancers have reached the 20-RBI mark and 10 have 10 or more runs batted in. On the mound, reliever Nick Esparza has a 2-0 mark and eight saves while Hanckel is 4-0 with a team-best 2.90 ERA for pitchers with 40 or more innings. 

PCC NINER NOTES: The Lancers won two of their final 3-game series against Mt. San Antonio College, a school that McGee served as an assistant coach on the Mounties' 2012 SCC champion team. In the second game of the series and PCC's home regular season finale, the Lancers routed Mt. SAC, 17-2, as Ogata went 4-for-6 with a triple, home run and six RBI. Fickewirth was 3-for-5 with two doubles, a home run and four runs scored. Both Conant (plus three RBI) and Kim had three hits. Bicos was 1-for-2 with four walks. Chris Brown hurled seven innings of 3-hit ball, allowing only one unearned run to improve his record to 3-2. In the season finale, third baseman Jose Jimenez went 4-for-5 and leftfielder Jared Esquivel was 3-for-4. In the three games, PCC pounded Mt. SAC pitching to the tune of 39 runs and 54 hits...