Glendale’s Cicuto Named Coach of the Year in the East; Canyons’ Estrada and Lopez are Player and Pitcher of the Year
The 2018 All-Western State Conference East Division Baseball list was released recently. Division Champion Glendale College was home to the Coach of the Year in 15-year head man Chris Cicuto. He was joined atop the list by a pair of players from second place College of the Canyons in sophomore right fielder Calvin Estrada and sophomore left Jacob Lopez who were named the Player and Pitcher of the Year respectively.
Cicuto guided his Vaqueros team to a 30-15 overall record and 17-3 mark in WSC East play. Glendale claimed their 10th conference title in program history, just edging College of the Canyons by a single game. Of the five WSC East series, the Vaqueros played, they swept three of them, won a fourth, and split their season series with Canyons. For their efforts, Glendale was seeded #5 in the CCCAA Southern California Playoffs.
Estrada led the entire WSC in batting average in 2018, hitting a robust .434. He finished fourth in RBIs (44), was second in home runs (13), fourth in runs scored (48), and led the conference in on-base percentage (.526) and slugging percentage (.834). Estrada showed a well rounded approach, swiping 11 bases and committing just one error in 57 total chances in his play in the field.
Lopez led the entire WSC in ERA in 2018, posting a minuscule 1.62 ERA. He finished second in wins with nine (going 9-2 on the season), and was the strikeouts leader in the conference by over 30 punch outs with 128 too his name on the year. Lopez was the horse for the Cougars this season, pitching 88.2 innings, giving up just 26 walks and one home run.
