For the past 30 years, the Pasadena City College baseball program had often been the doormat of the South Coast Conference since the college joined the league in 1987. The Lancers finished in last place 13 times and nine other times were second to last. The program struggled under a host of different coaches never […]
For the past 30 years, the Pasadena City College baseball program had often been the doormat of the South Coast Conference since the college joined the league in 1987. The Lancers finished in last place 13 times and nine other times were second to last. The program struggled under a host of different coaches never finishing higher than fourth place in the 2001 season.
On Saturday, PCC found it no longer a patsy in the standings. The Lancers blanked East Los Angeles, 5-0, and in the process clinched at least a share of the SCC North Division championship. It was the first conference title accomplished by the Lancers in 45 years when they were Metropolitan Conference co-champs with Long Beach City College in 1972.
PCC head coach Pat McGee saw his state No. 20-ranked team improve to 22-12 overall and secured first place at 13-6 in the division. Second-place Rio Hondo (10-9) would have to win all three of its games next week and Pasadena would have to lose all three against Mt. San Antonio to grab a share of the title. Otherwise, PCC will win the championship outright.
“First I like to thank Tony Barbone, our athletic director, for giving me the opportunity to coach at PCC,” McGee said. “My assistant coaches did a great job with Nico Calderaro in particular being all in from day one in spite of a lack of tradition for baseball at PCC. He always believed we can be successful. I’m very happy for the players, starting with guys like Robert Mier and Thomas Castro my first year in 2015 to Joe Quire and Justin Cage last season, and then the bridge to shortstop Alex Briggs and first baseman Jeremy Conant this year. All of them had a big role in changing the identity of the program.”
“This year’s team has shown perseverance and toughness at every turn. So many other teams would have folded after a walk-off homer against Rio Hondo. Instead, we came back to beat them twice. The first thing we concentrated on when I got here was playing fundamentally sound defense. And not to diminish other aspects of our game, including a much better offense the past two seasons, but this year it was our ability to pitch that put us over the top.”
The Lancers swept their 3-game series v. East Los Angeles thanks to a combined 6-hit shutout by Paul McAllister (three innings, two hits, three Ks), Matthew McElligott (winning pitcher, two innings, one hit, four strikeouts) and Nick Esparza (four innings, three hits, three Ks), who picked up his conference-leading eighth save and second in three days.
Rightfielder Shane Ogata, maybe the team’s most unsung hero, blasted a 2-run homer over the left-field fence in the fourth inning and added a triple. Second baseman Andres Kim delivered a 2-RBI triple in the seventh and Conant a sacrifice fly. Leftfielder Nico Martinez went 2-for-3.
Pasadena will shoot for the outright title next week in its final conference series against Mt. San Antonio. The opener is 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 25 at the Walnut campus.
