Photos by Michael Watkins

College Baseball:

If you were to ask any of the PCC players or coaches, they would acknowledge without hesitation that the final three weeks of the 2022 season didn’t go as well as they had planned or hoped.

The Lancers lost five of their final six conference games and finished in fourth place.

Last night, PCC fell in a three-game playoff series at Palomar, 2-1.

But they didn’t go down without a fight.

PCC trailed the Comets, 7-1, in the bottom of the sixth inning.

They were 12 outs away from being swept, but they rallied for a 9-7 victory, and forced a third and decisive game.

In their 2022 finale, the Pasadena City College pitching staff surrendered 20 hits in a 17-4 thumping.

With their uniforms still dirty, it would be easy for someone to make a snap judgment that PCC had an OK or pretty good season.

But when taking a deep dive, what they accomplished was nothing short of historic.

PCC won more games in 2022 (28) than the program had tallied in at least 40 years, if not much longer.

The PCC website has official records/stats that go back 25 years, but even before 1998, the Lancers were a perennial punching bag for decades.

And then athletic director Tony Barbone hired Pat McGee to take over the program in 2015.

McGee played for Barbone at APU, and when ‘Bones’ left, he was the Cougars all-time wins leader in what was a Hall of Fame caliber career.

Just a few years into taking over, McGee has turned the program into a contender and his undying passion is turning his boys into young men through tough love.

Is McGee everyone’s cup of tea? Definitely not.

But if you want your kid to be prepared for a myriad of challenges in the real world, and if you want your son held accountable for his successes and failures, he’s your guy.

After having covered his program for six years, I’ve never met a college coach that spent more time (during, before and after baseball season) or got more pleasure watching his athletes earn their AA degrees and helping them get the opportunity to continue their career at a four-year school.

What many outside of the program might not understand is that when PCC took the field on January 27th, it was their first real game since March 7th of 2020.

They had a number of athletes that had committed to McGee and his program since 2019, and because of COVID-19, the coaches and players stuck it out together and bonded through this pandemic.

And because of their loyalty to him, McGee didn’t heavily recruit for players at those positions to show ‘you’re my guy.’

PCC would start the season 4-0, and at one point, the Lancers won 10 consecutive games.

PCC would open SCC conference play with two-game-to-one series victories over Mt. SAC, La Harbor and ELAC, and followed that up with three-game sweeps of Compton and Rio Hondo.

They were either in first place or tied for first with Mt. SAC for most of conference play, before dropping to fourth after the first two losses to El Camino.

Looking back, though, the coaches, players and PCC should be incredibly proud to go 28-15, especially considering how much local talent Glendale and Mt. SAC pull from area high school programs and college bouncebacks.

This 2022 season saw Raider Tello tied with Jeter Ybarra of Ohlone for most hits (76) in the state.

Tello hit .406, with those 76 hits, 41 runs, 52 RBIs, 19 doubles, one triple and eight home runs.

That production earned Tello a scholarship to the University of Iowa.

Max Blessinger, who won a CIF championship with Maranatha during his junior campaign in 2018, went to Dallas Baptist, came back, and had an incredible season.

Blessinger batted .372, with 67 hits, 52 runs, 48 RBIs, 14 doubles, one triple and five home runs.

Blessinger, who was amongst the state leaders in almost every offensive category, will weigh his options over the next few months, but his success at PCC greatly drove up his stock.

Matt Rice, who hit just .219 at San Dimas High in 2021, batted .338 with 24 hits, 12 runs, 12 RBIs, five doubles, one triple and a walk-off home run against ELAC to clinch that series.

Rice did a solid job behind the plate, as did Matthew Delgado.

Benny Olguin led the pitching staff with a 7-2 record and a 2.51 ERA.

Olguin went 71 2/3 innings, walked 28 and fanned 68 opposing batters.

Jakob Guardado (4-3, 5.28 ERA), Ryan Graves (3-2, 4.18), Coleman Mitchell (3-2, 3.46), Rider Gardner (3-1, 7.15 & one save) and Kyle Noell (2-0, 5.40) all did their part on the mound.

Aryonis Harrison batted .287 with 33 hits, 25 runs, 15 RBIs, three doubles and a triple.

Andrew Scannell hit .247, with 39 hits, 23 runs, 31 RBIs, three doubles and a team-high four triples.

Jake Trabbie hit at a .247 clip, with 32 hits, 28 runs, 20 RBIs, eight doubles and a triple.

Kenny Kim batted .274 with 32 hits, 28 runs, six doubles, two triples and a home run.

Along with his contributions on the mound, Jakob Guardado batted .305, with 32 hits, 28 runs, 19 RBIs and nine doubles.

There isn’t a coach or player in uniform that didn’t play a role in a historic season.