Freshmen Alex McKenna of Cal Poly and Colton Eastman of Cal State Fullerton got their collegiate careers off to a great start as both received weekly recognition for their exploits on the baseball diamond.
McKenna Leads Cal Poly to Season-Opening Sweep
Cal Poly leadoff batter Alex McKenna (Canyon Country, Calif./Alemany HS), a true freshman, hit .500 to lead the Mustangs to a four-game sweep of Pacific and earned Big West Baseball Field Player of the Week accolades.
The second baseman had six hits in 12 at-bats and anchored an offense that scored 38 runs against Tiger pitching for the weekend. McKenna played a role in more than one-third of the offense as he scored nine runs and drove in five more.
McKenna also walked seven times to finish the series with a .650 on-base percentage.
In the season-opening 6-2 victory, McKenna went 1-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI. He unloaded his first career homer and added a triple to finish 2-for-4 with two more runs in a 7-6, game two win. He concluded the series by scoring five times, helped along by two hits and four walks in a 19-2 rout. McKenna also blasted his second homer of the series, and ended with a 1.167 slugging percentage.
Others nominated: Josh Vargas (Cal State Fullerton); Branden Berry (CSUN); Garrett Hampson (Long Beach State); Keston Hiura (UC Irvine); Andrew Calica (UC Santa Barbara); Jacob Sheldon-Collins (Hawai‘i)
Eastman Leads Cal State Fullerton to Win at Stanford
Leading Cal State Fullerton to its first victory at Stanford’s Sunken Diamond since 2002, Cal State Fullerton freshman Colton Eastman (Fresno, Calif./Central HS) nabbed Big West Baseball Pitcher of the Week accolades.
The 6-3 right-hander impressed in his collegiate debut as he retired the first 16 batters he faced in his start against the Cardinal.
Eastman tossed 5.1 innings and struck out five without walking a batter. He allowed three hits and two earned runs, emerging as the winning pitcher in a 4-3 Titan victory.
Others nominated: Kyle Smith (Cal Poly); Kenny Rosenberg (CSUN); Darren McCaughan (Long Beach State); Shaun Vetrovec (UC Irvine); Angel Landazuri (UC Riverside); Joe Record (UC Santa Barbara)