Giants' baseball seeded 16th for NorCal Regional, host Marin at 2 p.m. May 3

By Nick Giannandrea

COS ATHLETICS

College of the Sequoias' baseball team is headed back to the postseason.

After the California Community College Athletic Association canceled the past two state playoff tournaments because of safety concerns related to Covid-19, the postseason has returned and the Giants were seeded 16th in the Northern California Regionals.

Sequoias (24-16) will host No. 17 Marin (24-16) on May 3 in one of two NorCal Regional play-in games. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.

The winner advances to a best-of-three series against either No. 1 Ohlone (38-2) or No. 2 Folsom Lake (32-6-1) on May 6-7.

Ohlone gets the lowest remaining seed from a pair of play-in games that also features No. 18 Monterey Peninsula (23-17) at West Valley (24-16).

The Giants have made the postseason field in nine of the past 10 championship seasons, including four in a row. 

This is Sequoias' 17th berth in the postseason under 28-year coach Jody Allen, who earlier this season became one of 14 coaches in California community college baseball history to surpass 700 career wins.

The Giants were one of the winningest teams in the state during the past two pandemic-altered seasons. They were 18-4 with the fifth-best winning percentage in the state when the season was canceled in 2020, then went 23-5 and won the Central Valley Conference championship in 2021 when Sequoias was among the handful of colleges around the state to bring baseball back as Covid-19 restrictions eased.

But Sequoias needed a late-season charge to reach the postseason in 2022.

While replacing four key position players and three of their top six pitchers in terms of innings pitched from 2021, the Giants were 13-11 on March 15 following a 7-6 home loss to Reedley, their third straight loss overall.

But Sequoias went 11-5 overall and 11-3 in CVC play the rest of the way to build its playoff resume.

The Giants' regular-season closing run featured two wins over NorCal Regional No. 6-seeded and CVC champion Fresno (30-10) and one over No. 9-seeded and conference runner-up Merced (27-13).  

Sequoias closed the regular season with a 17-5 thumping of West Hills-Coalinga that featured two RBIs apiece from Lee Trevino (Redwood High), Flavio Perez Jr. (Hanford), Benjamin Pedersen (Tulare Union) and Elijah Cortez (Central-Fresno).

The Giants broke the game open with an 11-run seventh inning highlighted by Pedersen's two-run single.

Julian Lopez (Fresno), J.T. Friesen (Immanuel) and Stephen Dean (Mt. Whitney) combined to pitch 3 ⅓ scoreless innings to close out the win in relief of starter Cristian Garcia (Hanford).

Sequoias finished third in the CVC at 16-8, behind Fresno City (20-4) and Merced (17-7).

Heading into the postseason, the Giants have been led offensively by Perez (.367, 19 doubles, one home run, 43 RBIs), Trevino (.351, one home run, 19 RBIs), Mt. Whitney product Mike McKernan (.345, two home runs, 32 RBIs), and Exeter grad Jackson Brooks (.309, one home run, 21 RBIs), Cortez (.260, two home runs, 23 RBIs) and Pedersen (.288, two home runs, 20 RBIs).

Former El Diamante standout Riley Creech (5-0, 3.80 earned-run average in a team-leading 73 1/3 innings) has been Sequoias' top pitcher. 

Golden West grad Tyce Ochos (4-1, 4.12 ERA in 43 2/3 innings), Friesen (6-1, eight saves, 4.39 ERA in 41 innings) and Garcia (2-1, 4.70 ERA in 38 1/3 innings) have also been key contributors to the Giants' pitching staff.