All-Area Baseball Player of the Year: Beer leaves legacy with Crescenta Valley baseball
Across two seasons, Trevor Beer carved out a name for himself with the Crescenta Valley High baseball team.
Dominance on the mound, impressive statistics and accolades galore colored a career that had already garnered him a ticket to play at UC Santa Barbara.
If there was a chapter missing in Beer’s Falcons’ story of success, though, it was the absence of a signature victory and, along that same line, the lack of postseason triumph.
Along came Beer’s senior campaign to change all that.
With a worthy Arcadia adversary standing in front of a Crescenta Valley three-peat in the Pacific League, Beer and the Falcons reclaimed their crown in dramatic fashion with the left-hander notching an aforementioned signature victory on the road against the Apaches.
Then the playoffs came to be and a run to the CIF Southern Section Division II quarterfinals was had, with Beer dealing wins in each of the first two rounds.
More dominance on the mound, impressive statistics and accolades galore came for Trevor Beer as a senior, but this time around, the long-awaited triumphs came as well.
And thus, for the second year in a row, Beer has been voted the 2018 All-Area Baseball Player of the Year by the sports staff Glendale News-Press, Burbank Leader and La Cañada Valley Sun.
“He’s one of the best Falcon pitchers of all-time,” Crescenta Valley coach Phil Torres says. “That’s a handful of pitchers you want to give the ball to and he’s on the list.”
Crescenta Valley achieved its first playoff win and first quarterfinal ascent since 2015, which was also the last time a player won back-to-back All-Area Baseball Player of the Year honors, as Falcons pitcher Brian Gadsby claimed two straight just as Beer now has.
Looking back over the last three seasons, Beer finds highlights in each of them.
As a sophomore, he took pride in trying to fill the cleats of Gadsby. As a junior, he was glad to step it up at the plate and step into an important role at first base when he wasn’t pitching.
But as a senior, achieving team success that had been so elusive the previous two seasons no doubt stood as a hallmark.
“There’s aspects of each of my years that I liked most,” Beer says. “This year, just the whole experience was really special. … Yeah, I’d say it was my best year.”
Beer’s best season saw him voted Pacific League Pitcher of the Year as he went a perfect 7-0 in league.
Overall, he was spectacular with an 11-2 record, a 0.80 earned-run average, a 0.78 walks/hits per innings pitched and 137 strikeouts to only 19 walks in 78 2/3 innings.
He was also tremendous at the plate, hitting .381 (37 for 97) with 18 runs and 18 runs batted in.
In addition, though, he truly embraced a leadership role, often leading by example as Falcons centerfielder Brian Erickson took on the more vocal role.
“I think he realized it was time for him to step up,” sophomore Will Grimm says of Beer. “Even last year he was a leader, but this year, he took it to a whole new level.
“Everybody looked up to him as a leader.”
Though Crescenta Valley had Beer and a pair of Pacific League titles over the previous two seasons, it was not really regarded as the favorite heading into the season. That distinction went to Arcadia and as the season played out, the Apaches remained undefeated and their role as favorites in league was an afterthought as national rankings rolled in and a CIF championship seemed almost likely.
With CV and Arcadia undefeated in league heading into the final week of the regular season, the archrivals squared off first on a Tuesday night at a jampacked Arcadia High with Beer on the bump.
“They’re right there and they’re loud, but it’s fun,” Beer says of the big-game feel at Arcadia. “Just the whole experience, the atmosphere. They packed the place. It’s why I play baseball, games like that.”
And the Falcons were ready to go.
“I’d say we were pretty fired up because we did have a chip on our shoulders,” Beer says. “For the most part, I think we were like, let’s get out there. We knew this would be a test: Do we deserve to win league?”
Beer did what an ace is supposed to do as he threw 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball in a 2-1 victory that handed the Apaches their first loss of the season. Three days later, the Falcons won again, 2-0, with Beer scoring the second run and CV taking the title all for itself.
Unbeknownst at that time was the first Arcadia win began a streak of what was likely the three greatest wins in Beer’s Falcons tenure over his final three starts.
Previous to 2018, Beer was 0-2 in playoff starts, both of them first-round defeats with a hard-luck loss to Capistrano Valley, 3-2, the season prior.
This season, Beer and Co. took on Lakewood to open the Division II tournament at Stengel Field and Beer delivered.
The left-hander twirled a complete game in a 5-2 win, allowing seven hits and no walks with six strikeouts.
“It felt great,” Beer says. “It was just surreal to say I got one more game with these kids I worked with and sweat with for so long.
“I like to keep everything about the team, but yes I did always have that demon. It was satisfying.”
The Lakewood win came on a Thursday and on the following Tuesday, Beer was on the road getting another start against Fountain Valley.
“He had to pitch again because he’s our guy,” Erickson says. “He was struggling a little bit, but he kept pushing.”
Beer tossed 4 2/3 innings with a run allowed in a 5-3 win at Fountain Valley as he allowed three hits and struck out six while walking an unconventional seven with the Falcons faithful taking exception to the umpire’s strike zone.
“He came up big in those playoff games,” Torres says. “That was really a gutsy performance down there.”
Crescenta Valley’s run came to an end in the quarterfinals when it lost a crazy game to eventual champion Yucaipa, 5-2.
The first-round win had snapped a three-game playoff losing streak for the Falcons, who made their longest posteason trip since 2015’s semifinal run when Beer was a freshman on varsity who played sparingly with his ears and eyes open, taking it in.
“I got to kind of experience it watching as a freshman and seeing what Gadsby and those guys did,” Beer says.
In the seasons that followed, Beer became a model of outstanding consistency.
That was never more the case than the dazzling senior season he just had, as he fended off the pressure of being the face of the program, the No. 1 starter and the No. 3 hitter.
“On game day going in, this poor kid, everyone just thinks he’s gonna flip his glove and toss a no-hitter. But it’s just not that easy to do what he did,” Torres says. “It’s just remarkable how he went out there and did it every day.
“You don’t get to have a sick day or an off day; you’re the guy,” Torres says. “Trevor did everything but sell peanuts.
“That’s a nice legacy he leaves behind.”
Left behind are a lot of wins and strikeouts, more than a few big hits, three Pacific League titles, 70 wins as a team, assorted Pacific League, All-CIF and All-Area honors and two huge playoff victories.
In addition, though, one gauges that Beer left an example of how things should be done, having led by example.
“When last season was over, we looked at it and were like, we lost a lot,” Torres says. “But it didn’t seem to matter to the kids and a lot of that’s because of Trevor; he’s just one of those kids that other kids gravitate to.”
Indeed, that seems to be the case.
“He’s just a dude and people go after that and they want to be like that,” Erickson says. “He just gets it done.”
Now, Beer will move on looking to get it done at UC Santa Barbara as he looks back at a life as a Falcon having been a part of the program for as long as he can remember with his father Darrin having been the program’s pitching coach for years.
“It’s weird; that’s the bottom line. First time not being a Falcon in my life. It was something I started processing after that last game. It left me a little teary-eyed, I’m not gonna lie. This is what I’ve known my whole life in terms of baseball,” Beer says. “I’m beyond fortunate to be able to play at the next level. It’s something a lot of players don’t get to do. It’s humbling.”
Only time will tell how Beer fares as a Gaucho, but his days as a Falcon will not soon be forgotten.
“Our whole staff, we’re really proud of what he did for three years,” Torres says. “It was an honor to have him here. We’re the lucky ones.”
Twitter: @TCNGrantGordon
