Vanguard Baseball Preview: Lions aim for Idaho

The Vanguard University baseball team took a preseason missions trip to the Dominican Republic that Coach Rob Pegg said gave his Lions an opportunity to both serve and bond.

But it was the season-ending trip in 2015 — to the NAIA World Series in Idaho — that could provide perhaps even more value to the team in the 2016 campaign that opened on Jan. 18 with a 7-2 home triumph against La Sierra.

The Lions earned the last at-large bid available in the NAIA regionals a year ago, then won their regional to advance to Idaho, ending the program’s 30-season World Series drought.

Vanguard was 39-22 a year ago and finished fourth in the Golden State Athletic Conference. With six starting position players returning, including two all-conference choices, as well as senior all-conference ace Sean Isaac, Pegg said expectations have also traveled — upward.

“This is a big year for us, because we have a lot of key seniors who will be moving on and it will be hard to replace some of those guys,” Pegg said of a team that appears to be solid in all areas.

“I think our pitching will be good again and I think we’ll have a better offensive club and a better defensive team than we had last year,” said Pegg, who enters his fourth season at the helm. “I think we’ll be a dynamic offensive team.”

Fueling the offense will be seniors Jose Rojas, Brandon Sandoval, Paul Keating and Matt Harris, as well as juniors Brock Eissman, Trai Patrick and Justin Vega.

Rojas, an NAIA Gold Glove award-winning shortstop, led the team with a .329 average, 12 home runs and 57 runs batted in last season, when he also stole 13 bases. He’ll bat cleanup.

Sandoval joined Rojas on the All-GSAC squad last season, when the left fielder hit .295 with 28 RBIs. He led the team with 38 stolen bases and 52 runs.

Keating hit .316 with three homers, 31 RBIs and 15 steals as a junior center fielder, while Eissman, who rounds out a stellar outfield in right, hit .309 with nine homers and 43 RBIs in 2015.

Eissman had a home run and five RBIs in the season-opening win, in which Isaac, who was 10-5 with a 2.76 earned-run average in 111 innings last season, struck out seven and allowed one earned run in six innings to earn the victory.

Harris, a right-handed hitting first baseman/designated hitter in his first season at Vanguard after stops at Irvine Valley Community College and Cal State Monterey Bay, is slated to platoon at first base with junior left-handed hitter Justin Vega. Vega hit .323 with 14 RBIs while playing second base last season.

Patrick, a transfer from Bellevue Community College, where he hit .391 with 21 RBIs last season, will play third base, Pegg said.

Senior catcher Kevin Bettencourt and junior second baseman Dylan Ramie are additional returning starters, though Ramie started just nine games, primarily in the regular-season.

Pegg said Harris and sophomore Shane Elias-Calles will see time at DH, while sophomores Bryce Wetherell (outfield) and Kody Wright (catcher), as well as freshman Sam Neufeld (second base), will provide depth.

Pegg said Rojas, Sandoval and projected closer Michael Jordan have caught the attention of professional scouts.

On the bump, Isaac is the lone proven starter and potential rotation mate Monty McCasland, a senior lefty transfer from Lubbock Christian University has undergone season-ending arm surgery, Pegg said.

But Jordan, who was 2-2 with a 5.06 ERA, three saves and 24 strikeouts in 26 2/3 innings last season, anchors a bullpen that Pegg said should be ready to go at any time.

Trusted 2015 relievers Sam Frakes and Marshall McKinnon, who combined for 11 saves, are now first-year assistant coaches.

“Outside of Isaac, we won’t rely on starters the way we did last year,” Pegg said. “We have good depth in the bullpen, where we think we can use three or four guys every game to lock it down and do a good job.”

Pegg said senior Ryan Heinle (4-2 with a 2.68 ERA in nearly 54 innings last season) will also be a starter, with senior lefty Matt Silberman, sophomore Alex Camacho and freshman Tyler Steele also vying for a spot in the rotation.

Silberman’s contribution will be delayed at least a month as he recovers from a broken ankle, Pegg said.

Additional contributors in the pen include senior Michael Ostrea, junior Akoni Arriaga, junior lefty Christian Sheehan and junior Roberto Johnson.

Arriaga, Ostrea and Jordan all threw a scoreless inning in the opener.

A new conference lineup that adds Menlo and Hope International and subtracts Concordia, now an NCAA Division II program, creates a new unbalanced schedule that trims last year’s 42-game conference slate to 30 games.

Pegg said three pods of three teams (Vanguard is aligned with The Master’s and William Jessup) will require teams to play their pod mates six times, while playing three-game series against the other six conference foes.

Vanguard, ranked No. 22 in the NAIA preseason poll, drew the low straw by being pared in its pod with The Master’s, ranked No. 10.

The schedule also means more nonconference games and the Lions return to nonconference play on Friday, when visit Marymount California University at 2 p.m. for the first of a three-game set. The Lions host Marymount in a doubleheader on Saturday.

The GSAC also includes No. 16-ranked Westmont.

“Last year we were just a fourth-place team in the conference that just had a good postseason run,” Pegg said. “The message to our guys this year is to be focused on being up at the top of the conference and getting one of the top two seeds for the conference tournament.

Pegg said he also is encouraged by his team’s intangibles.

“It’s a special group,” Pegg said. “That’s similar to last year, but I think we have an even better caliber of kids this year than last year, in terms of makeup.”

Vanguard opens conference play Feb. 12 at William Jessup.