BAKERSFIELD, Calif.--The Bakersfield baseball team opens the 2014 season this weekend with a three-game series against Milwaukee.
This is the first time Milwaukee and Bakersfield are playing baseball against one another. The Panthers won the 2013 Horizon League regular season championship, the progrmam's first since 2001. Baseball America has picked the Panthers to repeat as Horizon League Champions.
CollegeSportsMadness and Baseball America have both chosen junior Mike Porcaro as the preseason Horizon League Player of the Year. Porcaro was the 2013 Horizon League Player of the Year. He was named 2013 CollegeBaseballInsider.com honorable mention All-American, 2013 ABCA/Rawlings Division Mideast All-Region, and 2013 first team All-Conference. Porcaro led the Horizon with a .364 batting average. He led Milwaukee in runs (41), hits (68), doubles (14), RBI's (43), and slugging percentage (.497).
Bakersfield senior second baseman Oscar Sanay (Chula Vista, Calif., Bonita Vista HS) has earned several honors entering the 2014 season. Sanay was selected second team preseason All-American by the NCBWA and second team preseason All-American by CollegeSportsMadness. He was projected by Collegiate Baseball as the WAC Player of the Year while being named preseason WAC Player of the Year by CollegeSportsMadness.
A first team All-Conference selection as a junior, Sanay was the only Bakersfield player named to the 2013 All-WAC Tournament Team. Chosen Academic All-Conference, Sanay hit a team leading .362 with one home run and 45 RBI's a year ago.
Bakersfield has been selected as the favorite to win the 2014 Western Athletic Conference regular season baseball crown in a vote by the league's 10 head coaches. The Roadrunners received 80 points and eight first place votes after winning a share of last season's WAC regular season title. The 'Runners went 37-22 overall last season with an 18-9 mark in the WAC. CSUB went 2-1 at last year's WAC Tournament.
New Mexico State ranked second with 70 points and one first place vote. NM State was followed by Sacramento State with 68 points and a first place vote. WAC newcomer Utah Valley was selected fourth with 50 points. The Wolverines went 24-30 last season and finished fourth in Great West Conference play with a 15-9 record.
Grand Canyon, who will play its first year as a Division I member, was picked fifth with 45 points. Texas-Pan American received 37 points to earn the No. 6 spot, followed by Seattle U in seventh with 35 points. Northern Colorado was eighth with 34 points. North Dakota received 22 points to place ninth, while Chicago State was 10th with nine points.
~www.GoRunners.com~
