Baseball

Eliopulos, Kent Claim Season's Final Weekly Awards


With their teams in pivotal positions heading into the final week of the regular season, UC San Diego’s Alex Eliopuplos and Alex Kent of Chico State answered the call and went on to claim the final CCAA Player and Pitcher of the Week in 2019.

Eliopulos, a senior third baseman for the Tritons, paced the squad’s offense during a four-game road sweep at Cal State East Bay en route to clinching the No. 1 seed in the CCAA tournament bracket. The regular-season title is the first since 2012, and was claimed after Thursday’s 21-2 romp in the opener.

Eliopulos hit .350 (7-20) and slugged .700, with five runs, a double, two home runs, eight RBI and a walk. He led the Tritons in home runs (tied), RBI and total bases, and was second in runs and hits. Eliopulos did not strike out at all the entire weekend. Highlighted moments for the La Jolla native included posting his third career four-hit game on Thursday, a homer to open open Friday's doubleheader, and another long ball in Saturday’s finale. He scored at least one run in all four contests as UC San Diego outscored the Pioneers 50-18.

Kent, a reliever for the Wildcats, went 3-for-3 in save opportunities on Friday and Saturday as the Wildcats won three of four to rise into third place in the final CCAA standings. The junior from Irvine tossed a scoreless ninth in a 3-2 win at San Francisco State Friday, and on Saturday at Stanislaus State, pitched a scoreless ninth in a 5-3 win and a scoreless seventh in a 1-0 win. Kent struck out four in his three innings of work and surrendered only two singles.

His eight saves are tied for the second most in the CCAA. Kent has pitched in all seven of the Wildcats' wins over the past two weekends as they vaulted from a tie for sixth in the conference standings into third.

The Wildcats, Tritons and the rest of the league’s top six teams converge on Stockton for the 2019 CCAA Baseball Tournament. Play from Banner Island Ballpark, home of the Stockton Ports, begins Wednesday. UC San Diego and Cal Poly Pomona meet in a No. 1/6 showdown at 11 a.m., in the first game of a CCAA tripleheader. Tournament Central >>>

Also nominated:
JT Navarro, Chico State (player)
Brandon Weed, UC San Diego (pitcher)
 
2019 CCAA Baseball Weekly Awards
Player of the Week Pitcher of the Week
Jan. 28-Feb. 3 Grant Buck, Cal State San Marcos Mike Lopez, Cal State San Marcos
Feb. 4-10 Gabe Chavez, Cal State San Bernardino Rylan Tinsley, Stanislaus State
Feb. 11-17 Austin Ott, Cal State San Marcos Chase Wheatcroft, Stanislaus State
Feb. 18-24 Brian Morley, Cal State Monterey Bay Tim Holdgrafer, Cal Poly Pomona
Feb. 25-March 3 Aaron Kim, UC San Diego Chase Wheatcroft, Stanislaus State
March 4-10 Brandon De La Guardia, Stanislaus State Grant Larson, Chico State
March 11-17 Shay Whitcomb, UC San Diego Kenton Carruthers, Chico State
March 18-24 Grant Buck, Cal State San Marcos Tyler Murphy, Stanislaus State
March 25-31 Brian Morley, Cal State Monterey Bay Ethan McRae, Cal State Monterey Bay
April 1-7 Gabe Chavez. Cal State San Bernardino Brian Martinez, Cal State East Bay
April 8-14 Blake Baumgartner, UC San Diego Andrew Lopez, Chico State
April 15-21 Adam Gordon, Cal State LA Grant Larson, Chico State
April 22-28 Cody Wissler, Chico State Kevin Hahn, Stanislaus State
April 29-May 5 Alex Eliopulos, UC San Diego Alex Kent, Chico State