OFFICIAL CCAA RELEASE

POMONA – Cal Poly Pomona freshman Will Rudy has been named the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Baseball Most Valuable Pitcher for the 2022 season, and seven other Broncos earned All-CCAA recognition, highlighting Tuesday's release of the annual postseason awards handed out by the conference office.
 
Joining Rudy on the All-CCAA First Team is catcher Johnny Pappas, second baseman Ryon Knowles and outfielder Ricky Nuñez.  Outfielder Cesar Lopez and designated hitter Jacob Lopez garnered Second Team honors, while pitchers Noel Soto and Eric Romo are Honorable Mentions.
 
Rudy pitched at the top of Cal Poly Pomona's rotation all season, and he helped lead the Broncos to a second-place finish. The freshman right-hander was third in the CCAA in earned run average (2.76), and he tied for the league lead in wins (7) and strikeouts (81). Opponents hit just .223 off Rudy, and he walked only nine batters in 75.0 innings (third CCAA).
 
Rudy went at least six innings in 10 of his 11 starts, and the Broncos won every one of those games. He had two starts with 12 strikeouts, including a one-hit shutout of Sonoma State. Rudy is the first Bronco to win CCAA Most Valuable Pitcher honors since Michael Koval in 2016.
 
Knowles is the Broncos' second-leading hitter with a .372 batting average, and leads the team in slugging percentage (.567), on-base percentage (.484), runs (53), hits (67), home runs (6) and total bases (102). Currently, he has a team-best 21-game hitting streak and was just named the CCAA Player of the Week for the second time this season.
 
This is the second-career All-CCAA award for Knowles; he was a Second Team All-Conference selection in 2019.
 
Pappas is hitting .322 for the Broncos this season, leads CPP with three triples, 37 walks and 12 hit by pitches, and is second on the team in runs scored (44) and doubles (18).
 
Nuñez is the third-leading hitter for CPP this season at .360, but is tied for the team lead in hits with 67, and has a team-high 47 RBI. He also leads the team with multi-hit games (23) and multiple-RBI games (16).
 
Cesar Lopez leads the Broncos with a .373 batting average and leads the CCAA in doubles with 19.  He is currently on a 30-game reached base streak.  This is his third-career All-CCAA, he was an Honorable Mention in both 2018 and 2019.
 
Jacob Lopez is hitting .343 this season with seven doubles, two triples, two home runs and 35 RBI.  He also sports the second-best on-base percentage for CPP with .467.
 
Soto is 4-0 with a 3.60 earned run average this season and is the only CPP pitcher to throw a complete game; it was a 6-0 victory over SF State in which he went nine innings and allowed only three hits and a walk to go along with six strikeouts.  For the season, he has 50 strikeouts in 60 innings of work.
 
Romo is the CCAA leader in saves this season with six.  He is 1-1 with a 5.01 ERA in 23.1 innings of work.
 
Cal Poly Pomona is set to make its seventh straight CCAA Tournament appearance this week. The Broncos, winners in 24 of their last 30 contests, will enter as the No. 2 seed and enjoy a First Round bye before opening play on Thursday at 3:00 pm.
 
The six-team 2022 CCAA Baseball Tournament will begin Wednesday, May 11, in Chico. The first day will feature a pair of elimination games. No. 3 seed Chico State will face No. 6 seed Cal State Dominguez Hills at 3 p.m., followed by No. 4 seed Sonoma State taking on No. 5 seed Cal State San Bernardino.
 
The winners of Wednesday's play-in games will join No. 1 seed Cal State Monterey Bay and No. 2 seed Cal Poly Pomona to play a four-team, double-elimination tournament over the next three days. Tickets are available now at GoCCAA.org/Tickets. For fans who cannot attend, all games will be streamed live on the CCAA Network at CCAAnetwork.com.

 

2022 CCAA Baseball All-Conference Teams
Most Valuable Player	Brady Miguel, Cal State Monterey Bay
Most Valuable Pitcher	Will Rudy, Cal Poly Pomona
Newcomer of the Year	Eric Smelko, Cal State Dominguez Hills
Freshman of the Year	Daniel Santos, San Francisco State
Coach of the Year	Walt White, Cal State Monterey Bay
All-CCAA First Team
Pos.	Name	Yr.	School	Hometown
C	Johnny Papps	So.	Cal Poly Pomona	Chino Hills
1B	Willie Lajoie	Jr.	Chico State	Tustin
2B	Ryon Knowles	Gr.	Cal Poly Pomona	Corona
SS	Brady Miguel	Fr.	Cal State Monterey Bay	Hollister
3B	AJ Salgado	Fr.	Cal State LA	Glendora
IF	Scott Ogrin	Sr.	Cal State Dominguez HIlls	Valencia
OF	Kyle Csakan	Jr.	Cal State San Bernardino	Corona
OF	Ricky Nunez	Jr.	Cal Poly Pomona	Corona
OF	Francisco Pedraza	Sr.	Cal State East Bay	Alameda
OF	Eric Smelko	So.	Cal State Dominguez Hills	La Mesa
P	Owen Hunt	Jr.	Cal State LA	Sacramento
P	Isaac Mullins	Sr.	Cal State Dominguez Hills	North Bend, Wash.
P	Joseph Standley	Sr.	Cal State Monterey Bay	Nolanville, Texas
P	Will Rudy	Fr.	Cal Poly Pomona	Irvine
RP	Chris Tonna	Jr.	Cal State Monterey Bay	Fremont
UT	Josh Medina	Sr.	Sonoma State	Woodland Hills
DH	Jacob Martin	Jr.	Cal State Monterey Bay	Bloomington
All-CCAA Second Team
Pos.	Name	Yr.	School	Hometown
C	Jake Borst	Jr.	Cal State Monterey Bay	Imperial Beach
1B	Jason Ajamian	Sr.	Cal State Monterey Bay	Pasadena
2B	Deshawn Johnson	Jr.	Cal State San Bernardino	Puyallup, Wash.
SS	Luke Reece	Fr.	Cal State San Marcos	San Diego
3B	Jacob Jablonski	Jr.	Chico State	Palmdale
IF	Jeffrey Ray	Jr.	Chico State	Lompoc
OF	Kyle Dobson	So.	Chico State	Mission Viejo
OF	Cesar Lopez	Sr.	Cal Poly Pomona	Downey
OF	Grady Morgan	So.	Chico State	Laguna Beach
OF	Jack Murphy	Jr.	Chico State	Alamo
P	Garrett Apker	Jr.	Cal State San Marcos	Simi Valley
P	Austyn Coleman	So.	Cal State San Bernardino	Fontana
P	Ethan McRae	Sr.	Cal State Monterey Bay	Hanford
P	Mark Woinarowicz	Jr.	Cal State East Bay	Yorba Linda
RP	Parker Fokken	Sr.	Cal State Monterey Bay	Menifee
UT	Ethan Rivera	Fr.	Cal State San Marcos	Chino Hills
DH	Jacob Lopez	Fr.	Cal Poly Pomona	Montclair
Honorable Mention
C - Hunter Harris (CSUMB), Danny Murphy (STAN), Jarret Lindsay (CHICO); 1B - Pierson Loska (CSUDH); 2B - Manny Garcia (CSUEB), Nico Hartojo (CSUMB); 3B - Alberto Luevano (CSUDH), Luke Novitske (CSUEB), Kevin Van Linge (CSUSM); OF - EJ Brown Jr. (CSUEB), Giovanni Del Negro (CSUSB), Wilem Drozdowski (CSLA), Chase Lindemann (CSUMB), Johnny Pacheco (CSLA), Daniel Santos (SFSU), Torreahno Sweet (SSU); DH - Garrett Macias (CSUSB), Kody Gardner (SFSU); UT - Chris Rubottom (CSUMB); P - Michael Benz (SSU), Ethan Brodsky (CSUEB), Jason Doktorczyk (SSU), Maxwell Pappas (STAN), Ryan Platero (CSUMB), Noel Soto (CPP); RP - Mikell Chavez (CSLA), Oscar Rauda (CSUSB), Eric Romo (CPP).