Academy of Art’s Hayato Niki swung a sizzling bat last week, hitting .550 for the Urban Knights to earn Player of the Week. Dylan Miller pitched seven innings of shutout ball for Point Loma to gain the Pitcher of the Week honors and Azuza Pacific got back on track with a 3-1 series to earn the Team of the Week.

2023 Results/Schedule
2023 Standings
2023 Statistics

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Academy of Art’s Hayato Niki, OF, R/R, Sr., 5-7, 150, Tokyo, Japan                                        
Academy of Art outfielder Hayato Niki was red hot last week at the plate for the Urban Knights against Central Washington and Cal State East Bay. Against the Wildcats, the Japan native went 4-for-4 and started a three-run rally in the eighth inning with a single that eventually led to a 9-8 ART U victory. For the week, he hit .550 (11-for-20) with eight runs scored, two doubles, two RBI and two stolen bases in four total games. The second-year ART U starter and former Folsom Lake College transfer had multiple hits in each contest and is now hitting .387 on the season.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Point Loma’s Dylan Miller, RHP, Jr., 5-11, 165, Coronado, Calif.                                          
Dylan Miller pitched just about as well as you could against one of the top hitting teams in the west region in Point Loma’s 7-3 win over No. 19 Cal State San Bernardino. Miller pitched seven shutout innings, allowing just three hits before departing after 100 pitches. He did not walk a batter, hit a batter or fling a wild pitch during the victory. It was the first win of the year for the Coronado (San Diego) native, who now has a 3.78 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 16.2 innings pitched, against just 13 hits. Opponents are hitting .217 against him.

COUGARS COME BACK: The PacWest Team of the Week is the AZUSA PACIFIC COUGARS. One week after a frustrating trip to Colorado where the Cougars dropped four games to Colorado Mesa, Azusa Pacific bounced back with three wins in four tries against league rival Biola (non-conference games). That included a marathon 14-inning 5-4 win over the Eagles in the third game of the series. APU took a pair of 6-1 victories, the 5-4 extra inning win and ultimately a 10-5 loss in the final contest of the series. Cougar pitching sported a 3.60 ERA during the series, paced by Isaac Mendez’s seven inning outing, giving up just four hits while fanning nine. Brendan Dixon also picked up a win by tossing five innings and only allowing a run. Cameron Lee led the offense with a .417 average and three stolen bases, pushing APU’s overall record back up to 6-7.

SEA LIONS SLIP A SLOT: Point Loma dropped from the top rung of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association west region poll this week after falling two of three times to Cal State San Bernardino. The Coyotes moved into the top spot, and Point Loma moved to No. 2. Idle Hawaii Hilo stayed at No. 4 and Azusa Pacific moved up to No. 5. The entire poll looks like this. (1) Cal State San Bernardino 9-1, (2) Point Loma 8-3, (3) Cal Poly Pomona 7-1, (4) Hawaii Hilo 7-1, (5) Azusa Pacific 6-7, (6) San Francisco State 7-1, (7) Chico State 4-3, (8) Cal State Monterey Bay 2-5, (9) Sonoma State 5-2, (10) Stanislaus State 7-3. RV—Holy Names (14 pts), Concordia (2), Fresno Pacific (1).

PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: Academy of Art had an insane week at the plate, in addition to Hayato Niki’s numbers (see Player of the Week). The Urban Knights hit .337 as a team, with 18 doubles in four games. They also stole 11 bases. Peter Torres and Travis Turney both hit .462, Landon Levin hit .381 with eight RBI and Liam Rizzo drove home 10 runs…Last week’s Pitcher of the Week Riley O’Sullivan was nails again this week during a 3-0 Concordia win over Cal State San Marcos. The big righthander pitched a seven-inning complete game, allowing just three hits, no runs, walked two and struck out five. He has yet to give up a run in 22.1 innings pitched this season…Concordia’s Josh Pugh fanned 10 batters in six innings against CSUSM…Biola’s Andrew Beauvais gave up just one earned run in 7.1 innings in the 5-4 ten inning loss to Azusa Pacific. He did not walk a batter and fanned six…Offensively, BU's Gavin Ayers had a 3-for-3 game with two home runs and six RBI in the Eagles lone win over the Cougars...Point Loma’s Jakob Christian continued his home run tear with three more last week against CS San Bernardino, giving him nine round trippers in 11 games…APU’s Casey O’Laughlin and Christian are battling for the early season lead in home runs and RBI, with Christian having a 9-8 lead in home runs while O’Laughlin leads with 24 RBI to 17…Academy of Art beat Fresno Pacific in a non-conference game last Monday (Feb. 13), 10-4…Hawaii Pacific dropped three games over a four-day spread (because of rain) to Northwood…Holy Names has won three of their last four games to improve to 6-3 on the season...Fresno Pacific starter Garrett Cooper pitched six innings and gave up just two hits in a no-decision against Sonoma State. He struck out nine and walked one batter. 

THIS WEEK IN THE PACWEST: Conference play is scheduled to begin this week, mostly in southern California where heavy rains are also scheduled for this weekend. On paper, Fresno Pacific is scheduled for a series at Point Loma and Holy Names is/was slated to go to Azusa Pacific. But the Hawks-Cougar series has already been moved to March (dates to be determined). Biola and Concordia are slated to be at Hawaii Pacific and Hawaii Hilo respectively, where the weather is expected to cooperative a little better.