All-SCC List | Playoff Seedings
Season Stats

May 4, 2009

Baseball:

Crook named SCC Coach of the Year, Long Beach to host Grossmont in playoffs

Long Beach City College’s Casey Crook was named South Coast Conference Coach of the Year and nine Vikings earned All-SCC postseason honors at last week’s postseason coaches meeting. Also, Long Beach has been named the No. 6 seed for the Southern California Regionals Playoffs and will host No. 10 Grossmont College in a best-of-three series this weekend.

Crook was named conference coach of the year for the third time (1996, 2006) after leading LBCC to his third SCC Championship. The Vikings went 17-7 in conference action and are 27-16 overall as they head to the postseason.

During Crook’s tenure, the Vikings have made playoff appearances in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2006, 2008, and now 2009.

Long Beach had four Vikings named to the All-SCC first team. Earning all-conference honors for the second straight season was sophomore second baseman Trevor Costin. He hit .357 in 24 conference games this season and led the SCC with 11 doubles.

Freshman Blake Golding (4-3, 2.77 ERA) earned first-team starting pitcher honors while sophomore Teddy Mitrosilis (4-1, 0.37 ERA) captured relief pitcher accolades.

Shortstop Hector Iribe played gold glove defense all season and picked up first-team honors while also hitting .344 during the SCC season.

Being named to the second team were freshman starting pitcher Jared Smith (2-1, 3.96 ERA) and freshman first baseman Cory Buchheim (.344 BA). Earning honorable mention honors were freshman starting pitcher Matt Johnson, freshman infielder Andy Hernandez, and freshman catcher Jonathan Keener.

Long Beach will open up postseason play against Grossmont this weekend, with Game 1 set for 2 p.m. on Friday (May 8) at Joe Hicks Memorial Field. Game 2 is scheduled for Saturday at 11 a.m. with Game 3 to follow shortly after if necessary.

The Griffins enter the playoffs with a 27-13 overall record and finished second in the Pacific Coast Conference at 18-7. Grossmont is currently riding a six-game winning streak.

The winner of the series advances to the Super Regionals, scheduled for May 15-17. The State Championships are set for May 23-25 in Fresno.

Last season, the No. 14-seeded Vikings lost two straight playoff games at No. 3 Orange Coast College to be eliminated from the postseason. The Vikings were state champions in 2006.