The 2023 Baseball All-CCAA honors and special award winners were announced Tuesday, May 9. Cal State Monterey Bay's
Brady Miguel repeated as the CCAA Most Valuable Player presented by College Ave Student Loans., and Cal Poly Pomona's
Caleb Reyes was named the Most Valuable Pitcher. Both awards are presented by College Ave Student Loans.
Newcomer of the Year honors went to Cal State LA's
Matthew Piotrowski, and Cal State Dominguez Hills'
Zach Geiss was selected as the Freshman of the Year. Cal State Monterey Bay's
Walt White was voted by his peers as the CCAA Coach of the Year for the third time in the last four seasons.
Brady Miguel became the first student-athlete to earn CCAA Most Valuable Player honors in back-to-back seasons since the award began in 1985, and he's done it all by his sophomore season. The Hollister native hit.359 with five home runs and posted a .451 on-base percentage while playing shortstop for the regular-season conference champions. He finished ninth in the CCAA in hits (65), seventh in doubles (15), and sixth in RBI (44). Miguel posted 18 multi-hit performances in 44 games and carries a CCAA-best 17-game hitting streak into the tournament. He was held hitless just three times in CCAA competition, and he had three games in which he registered four or more RBI.
No pitcher was more dominant on the mound this year than Cal Poly Pomona's
Caleb Reyes. The Broncos' Friday night starting pitcher led the CCAA with a 1.90 earned run average and a 6-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. His 0.87 WHIP was third in NCAA Division II, and his 1.36 walks allowed per nine innings ranked 14th. The Occidental College transfer finished the regular season at 6-2 with two saves and 60 strikeouts over 66.1 innings. He combined on three shutouts, and he surrendered one run or less in eight of his 11 appearances. Reyes is the second consecutive Bronco to win Most Valuable Pitcher honors.
Matthew Piotrowski went 4-for-4 in his first game in a Golden Eagles uniform, and he didn't stop hitting all year. The senior third baseman ranked second in the CCAA with a .398 batting average and led the conference with 76 hits. Piotrowski also paced the CCAA in total bases (130), ranked fourth in doubles (17), and third in both home runs (11) and RBI (51). The Lancaster native had one of the most memorable games of the season when he launched three home runs, to three different parts of the ballpark, in a win over Cal State San Marcos on March 18.
Zach Geiss' selection made it three straight CCAA Freshman of the Year winners for Cal State Dominguez Hills. The right-handed pitcher led the Toros and ranked 13th in the league with a 4.09 earned run average. He took the ball every Saturday, racking up 55 innings, which includes six starts of at least five innings. The San Pedro native posted a season-best seven strikeouts in his second career start against New Mexico Highlands.
Walt White will hang place another award on the mantlepiece after being named the CCAA Coach of the Year for the third time in four seasons. The 13th-year head coach led Cal State Monterey Bay to its second consecutive regular-season championship with a 30-10 record (.750 win%). The Otters lost only one CCAA series and earned four sweeps. CSUMB ranked 11th in NCAA Division II in doubles (122) and seventh in fielding percentage (.977). Their 7.7 runs per game and .398 on-base percentage both ranked second in the CCAA. The Otters clinched the 2023 regular-season title by four games.
Cal State Monterey Bay and Cal State San Bernardino each placed four student-athletes on the All-CCAA first team. The Yotes also had an additional three members on the All-CCAA second team, leading the conference with seven first or second-team selections. Cal Poly Pomona pitchers occupied two of the four spots on the first team.
Rhys Stevens, who ranks 11th in Division II with 6.18 hits allowed per nine innings, joined the Most Valuable Pitcher,
Caleb Reyes, as a first-team All-CCAA selection. Cal State LA (
Johnny Pacheco,
Matthew Piotrowski) and Cal State Dominguez Hills (
Eric Smelko,
Scott Ogrin) also placed multiple members on the first team.
Click here to see the complete All-CCAA list.
Smelko, Ogrin, and Miguel all earned a first-team selection for the second consecutive year. Cal State San Bernardino's
Austyn Coleman moved to first-team pitcher after earning second-team honors in 2022, as did Chico State's
Jeffrey Ray. Other repeat selections include Cal State San Marcos'
Luke Reece and CSUSB's
Deshawn Johnson.
The 2023 CCAA Baseball Tournament will begin Wednesday, May 10, in Seaside. The first day of the six-team tournament will feature a pair of elimination games. No. 3 seed Cal State East will face the No. 6 seed Stanislaus State at Noon, followed by No. 4 seed Cal Poly Pomona taking on No. 5 seed San Francisco State at 3:30 p.m. The winners of these games will join No. 1 seed Cal State Monterey Bay and No. 2 seed Cal State San Bernardino to play a four-team, double-elimination tournament over the next three days starting on May 11. Tickets are available now at
GoCCAA.org/Tickets. For fans who cannot attend, all games will be streamed live on the CCAA Network at
CCAAnetwork.com.
| 2023 All-CCA Baseball Team and Special Awards |
| Most Valuable Player |
Brady Miguel, Cal State Monterey Bay |
| Most Valuable Pitcher |
Caleb Reyes, Cal Poly Pomona |
| Newcomer of the Year |
Matthew Piotrowski, Cal State LA |
| Freshman of the Year |
Zach Geiss, Cal State Dominguez Hills |
| Coach of the Year |
Walt White, Cal State Monterey Bay |
| All-CCAA First Team |
| Pos. |
Name |
Yr. |
School |
Hometown |
| C |
Johnny Pacheco |
Sr. |
Cal State LA |
Eastvale |
| 1B |
Daryl Ruiz |
Jr. |
Cal State San Bernardino |
Corona |
| 2B |
Drew Williams |
Jr. |
Cal State Monterey Bay |
Hollister |
| SS |
Brady Miguel - & |
So. |
Cal State Monterey Bay |
Hollister |
| 3B |
Matthew Piotrowski |
Sr. |
Cal State LA |
Lancaster |
| IF |
Jeffrey Ray - # |
Jr. |
Chico State |
Lompoc |
| OF |
Giovanni Del Negro |
Jr. |
Cal State San Bernardino |
Rancho Cucamonga |
| OF |
Chase Lindemann |
Jr. |
Cal State Monterey Bay |
Santa Clarita |
| OF |
Eric Smelko - & |
Jr. |
Cal State Dominguez Hills |
La Mesa |
| OF |
Nick Upstill |
So. |
San Francisco State |
Huntington Beach |
| P |
Ethan Brodsky |
Jr. |
Cal State East Bay |
Mission Viejo |
| P |
Austyn Coleman - # |
Sr. |
Cal State San Bernardino |
Fontana |
| P |
Caleb Reyes |
Sr. |
Cal Poly Pomona |
Encino |
| P |
Rhys Stevens |
Jr. |
Cal Poly Pomona |
Mission Viejo |
| RP |
Oscar Rauda |
Sr. |
Cal State San Bernardino |
Ontario |
| UT |
Nico Hartojo |
Jr. |
Cal State Monterey Bay |
Arvada, Colo. |
| DH |
Scott Ogrin - & |
Sr. |
Cal State Dominguez Hills |
Valencia |
| All-CCAA Second Team |
| Pos. |
Name |
Yr. |
School |
Hometown |
| C |
Garrett Macias |
Jr. |
Cal State San Bernardino |
Iwakuni, Japan |
| 1B |
Matthew O'Mahony |
Jr. |
Cal State East Bay |
San Bruno |
| 2B |
Daniel Santos |
So. |
San Francisco State |
Hacienda Heights |
| SS |
Luke Reece - # |
So. |
Cal State San Marcos |
San Diego |
| 3B |
Luke Novitske |
So. |
Cal State East Bay |
Pleasanton |
| IF |
Christopher Wright |
Jr. |
Sonoma State |
Monterey |
| OF |
Cole Anderson |
So. |
Cal State East Bay |
Rocklin |
| OF |
Aaron Greenfield |
Sr. |
Cal State Dominguez Hills |
Los Angeles |
| OF |
Nick Schnopp |
So. |
Cal State San Marcos |
Camarillo |
| OF |
Vincent Temesvary |
So. |
Cal State Dominguez Hills |
Los Angeles |
| P |
Casey Carr |
So. |
Stanislaus State |
Turlock |
| P |
Tanner Fonoti |
Jr. |
Sonoma State |
Fairfield |
| P |
Dylan O'Connor |
Jr. |
Cal State San Bernardino |
Tacoma |
| P |
Ryan Platero |
Jr. |
Cal State Monterey Bay |
Hollister |
| RP |
James Colyer |
Sr. |
Cal State East Bay |
Hayward |
| UT |
Deshawn Johnson - # |
Sr. |
Cal State San Bernardino |
Puyallup, Wash. |
| DH |
Michael Cunningham |
So. |
San Francisco State |
Los Angeles |
| Honorable Mention |
| C - Johnny Pappas (CPP), Matt Sugden (SFSU); 1B - Kody Gardner (SFSU), Marco Malerba (CPP); SS - Robert Valdivia (STAN); 3B - Danny Garcia (CSUSB), Gavin Haimovitz (SFSU); OF - Essex Brown Jr. (CSUEB), Luke Brown (CSUEB), Nin Burns II (CPP), Justin Clark (SFSU), Brent Cota (CPP), J.J. Engman (CSUMB), Sammy Gonzales (SFSU), Kyle Guerra (CSUMB), Trent MacKinney (CPP), Michael Rosales (CSLA); P - Dylan Day (CHICO), Julian Diaz (CSUDH), Gary Grosjean (SFSU), Luke Hempel (CSUSB), Tony Jacob (STAN), Maxwell Pappas (STAN), Nate Rohlicek (CSUMB), Nathan Shinn (SFSU), Justin Tamelier (CHICO); RP - Preston Kelly (CSUSM), Anthony Ramirez (STAN), Eric Romo (CPP), Chris Tonna (CSUMB), Josiah Torres (CSUSM). |
| & - 2022 All-CCAA First Team; # - 2022 All-CCAA Second Team |