Winners of two-straight, Azusa Pacific have their eyes on fourth consecutive conference title
Azusa Pacific baseball has an overall record of 5-7 going into PacWest play this season. The early tough non-conference schedule saw the Cougars drop six straight road games before winning the final two to end the road trip. The good news is the Cougars will likely not see the same kind of competition game-in and game-out in conference play. The bad news, APU is 2-6 in road games thus far this season and will travel to Hawai’i to begin their quest for their fourth consecutive conference championship.
Biggest Takeaways from Dixie State series:
The Cougars can lean on its senior captain, Nick Estrella at the plate and on the mound. Estrella who was honored with conference and region player of the week after turning in his fastball for his big bat. Although he tossed 3.2 innings in a start against Dixie State during the week, Estrella did most of his damage at the plate himself.
Estrella was 10-for-18 (.555) with two home runs, eight RBI on the week which also included four multi-hit affairs in just five games. Apparently, Estrella had eye surgery in the offseason, and it’s clearly paying off this season. He now leads the Cougars and the PacWest conference in batting average and OPS.
Joe Wills can be trusted as a starting pitcher for the Cougars. As mentioned before, the pitching of Wills has been impressive to start the season and it only got better in a starting role. Wills has yet to allow a single run this season and in his only start he didn’t allow a hit. He no doubt has proved his worth as a part of the pitching staff and the Cougars will be able to lean on him as a starter and reliever.
Veteran experience will be crucial in the long run. Whether it is in the back-end of the bullpen with seniors like Kenneth Pettibone, John Szczesny and Spiro Valasakos or if it’s throughout the lineup with returning starters like Griffen Herrera, Nick Estrella, Tido Robles and Osvaldo Tovalin. The experience in the starting rotation as well between Estrella, AJ Woodall and Declan Kearney will prove to be crucial down the stretch. All-in-all this team will figure things out because of its experience.
Since the Cougars have been off for this entire week heading into conference play, let’s hand out some awards based on my predictions of what conference play will look like for Azusa Pacific.
Two-Way Stud: Nick Estrella, he’s now become not only a threat on the bump but at the dish as well. Estrella has a chance to become one of the best two-way players in all of division II, not just the PacWest conference.
PacWest Snub of the Year: Tido Robles, he’s one of the better Cougar hitters but will be hard to outshine the likes of Tovalin, Herrera, Kim and Estrella in the middle of the order. Robles will put up player of the year numbers but will only be rewarded with first-team all-conference.
Newcomer of the Year: Jeffery Castillo, the Cougars freshman shortstop just may need a little bit of time to get up to speed at the college level. Castillo has all the tools you look for in a young shortstop and who says that can’t come to fruition this year?
Relief Pitcher of the Year: John Szczesny, he’s become one of the best back-end relievers for this Azusa Pacific squad early on and will most likely be trusted in close games. His experience in the past two seasons, will carry him to the best of his Cougar career in his final stint.
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