First published in the May 7 print issue of the Glendale News Press.
After completing one of the best regular seasons in school history, the Glendale Community College baseball team hosts conference rival College of the Canyons in a Southern California Regional Playoff first round series at noon today at Stengel Field.
The series began with the first matchup on Friday, which concluded after the News-Press’ deadline. If necessary, a third game will be played 30 minutes after completion of today’s game.
GCC (34-6 overall record) is seeded No. 2 in the regionals after winning the Western State Conference South championship and faces a Canyons team (21-20 overall) seeded No. 16 in the regionals and defeated Cerro Coso College 11-4 on Tuesday in a play-in game to earn the first-round matchup against the Vaqueros. GCC and COC played a three-game series in conference play in April with Glendale winning 7-3, 7-6 and 21-13.
In a season that had the Vaqueros win 21 straight games, the team had a batting average of .327 led by Isaiah Velazco at .434 and Adrian Gonzalez at .418.
Brandon Nguyen led GCC in several offensive categories, hitting eight home runs, 11 doubles and five triples. He collected 50 hits and hit .355 on the season.
Starting pitcher Aaron Suval is 5-0 in 63 innings pitched with 63 strikeouts, a 2.56 ERA and one save, and teammate Kenji Pallares is 7-1 with an ERA of 3.06 in 53 innings and 52 strikeouts.
State-mandated ticket prices for the games are $12 for adults and $8 for students, seniors over 60 and children.
