Baseball

O'Sullivan is lights out again, Cho tears it up at the plate and Biola jumps back into tournament race

Three teams in PacWest baseball made strides in the conference standings by each winning their 4-game series. Biola made up the most ground with a sweep of Academy of Art, while Azusa Pacific won 3 of 4 from Fresno Pacific, as did Concordia against Holy Names. The Golden Eagles won one of the games behind another complete game pitching performance from Riley O’Sullivan, who is the Pitcher of the Week. UH Hilo’s Ryan Cho hit .667 against rival Hawaii Pacific to gain Player of the Week honors.

2023 Results/Schedule
2023 Standings
2023 Statistics

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Hawaii Hilo’s Ryan Cho, 1B, Sr., San Diego, Calif.                                                        
Veteran first baseman Ryan Cho had 10 hits in 15 at-bats for Hawaii Hilo as they won two out of three games on Oahu against Hawaii Pacific. He scored six times in those three games, hit two doubles, a home run and drove in seven. He went 5-for-6 in the Sunday contest including the home run. The fourth-year Vulcan is hitting a career best .418 with eight doubles and does not have an error in 137 chances at first base.
 
PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Concordia’s Riley O’Sullivan, RHP, Jr., Poway, Calif.                                                
Junior right-hander Riley O’Sullivan of Concordia picked up his second PacWest Pitcher of the Week honor with his nine-inning shutdown of Holy Names. For the third time this season, the 6-foot-4, 230-pounder went the nine-inning distance to pick up a win. He gave up just three hits against the Hawks, allowed no walks and struck out four in the 4-0 victory. He is now 4-1 on the season with a miniscule 0.78 ERA. Perhaps more amazing than even those numbers is the fact that the former Southwestern JC player has allowed only 25 hits in 46 innings pitched, and was walked just three batters all season.

FOUR BIG WINS BOOSTS BIOLA IN STANDINGS: The PacWest Team of the Week is the BIOLA EAGLES. Entering the series with Academy of Art, the Eagles were looking at a 2-6 record and in a small hole at least in their fight for one of four PacWest Championship tournament slots in May. After four straight victories against the Urban Knights they have moved to 6-6 and into fourth place in the conference standings. The Eagles got the bats going, scoring 38 runs in the series and knocking out 49 hits—including nine home runs. Oscar Serratos, Noah Ruiz and Duncan Wyatt had two home runs apiece, and Wyatt drove in nine runs. Serratos hit .533 in the series, and Gilbert Lopez struck out ten batters in five innings of work to lead the pitching staff.

RACE HEATS UP: The first-ever PacWest Championship baseball tournament is bit away on May 10-12 in Fresno, but it’s never too early to take a look at the conference standings and project who the top four might be for the double elimination tournament. The standings currently look like this, with conference records. (1) Azusa Pacific 12-4, (2) Hawaii Hilo 8-5, (3) Concordia 6-5, (4) Biola 6-6, (5) Point Loma 4-4, (6) Fresno Pacific 5-6, (7) Holy Names 5-7, (8) Hawaii Pacific 6-9, (9) Academy of Art 3-9.

PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: Fresno Pacific’s Andrew Valdez had a monster series at Azusa Pacific, hitting .625 (10-16) with three home runs…From the other dugout, APU’s Oscar Lopez hit .538 with a pair of home runs and six RBI…Hawaii Pacific’s Tejean Smith hit .500 in the Sharks’ three games against Hilo…Travis Turney (ART U) hit .438 against Biola with three doubles…Esai Santos hit two home runs for Holy Names and slashed the ball at a .438 clip in four games…Michael Dixon (Concordia) hit two home runs…Hilo’s Bryce Tweedt drove in eight runs in just three games against the Sharks…With all of that offense, you would think that there were few top pitching performances, but that wouldn’t be true. Concordia’s Brett Finnel pitched seven innings of shutout ball, did not walk a batter and fanned six in a win over Holy Names…HNU’s Harry Tooze gave up just one hit through six innings and struck out six (without any walks) in a no decision against CUI…APU’s Korey Shepard struck out 10 Sunbirds in 5.2 innings and did not give up a run…Mitch Benson earned HNU’s lone win the series with Concordia by tossing seven innings and allowing only three hits, one run and he struck out seven.

BUSY WEEKEND ON TAP AS SCHEDULE HEATS UP: The calendar is clean this week, until the weekend when a foursome of four-game series fill the slate. Hawaii Hilo will travel to Holy Names for a Friday-Saturday series, same for Hawaii Pacific at Fresno Pacific and Academy of Art at Concordia. Point Loma and Azusa Pacific will play four, playing two at Azusa on Friday and two in San Diego on Saturday.

PacWest TEAMS CONTINUE TO DOT WEST REGION TOP 10 LIST: The PacWest has three teams in the top five in today’s NCBWA West Region poll, and Concordia makes an appearance in the tenth spot. Here is the March 27 list. (1) CS San Bernardino 20-6, (2) Azusa Pacific 19-11, (3) CS Monterey Bay 18-9, (4) Hawaii Hilo 17-7, (5) Point Loma 16-8, (6) Cal Poly Pomona 15-9, (7) Chico State 12-8, (8) CS Dominguez Hills 12-10, (9) Stanislaus State 16-14, (10) Concordia 11-11. RV—Western Oregon 12-8, San Francisco State 13-10, Northwest Nazarene 15-19.