College Update: Crescenta Valley’s Ashby concludes stellar Stanford career

The following are updates on local athletes at the collegiate level.

Erin Ashby (Crescenta Valley High, 2011) Stanford University softball senior: Following a high school career filled with team success and many an individual accolade at the All-Area, Pacific League, CIF and state level, Ashby played her final game as a Cardinal on May 9.

Her last hit for Stanford came May 8 with a sixth-inning single.

Both games were against California and both were losses. However, Stanford’s final homestand gave Ashby and company something to remember, though.

On May 3 against Arizona State, Ashby homered and got the win in a comeback victory over Arizona State in Pacific-12 Conference action.

Down, 2-0, Stanford began a comeback that ended in the ninth with a walk-off home run from Victoria Molina when Ashby hit a solo home run in the seventh.

“Erin’s home run was the jolt we needed in that moment to know that we could battle back,” Stanford Coach Rachel Hanson told the school’s website.

Ashby, who was part of a contingent of position players to take on pitching duties in the wake of multiple injuries, also got the win in the circle. She came on in relief to throw six innings, allowing two runs (one earned), eight hits and four walks.

Stanford went 17-37 and 2-22 in the arduous Pac-12.

Ashby, a two-time All-Area Softball Player of the Year, played in 43 games (all starts) as she battled an injury early in the season.

She hit .280 (35 for 125) with 37 runs batted in (second on the team) along with six home runs, six doubles, 17 runs, a .472 slugging percentage and 17 walks for a .359 on-base percentage.

Her finest game of the season might well have come April 20 against Oregon, when she pitched 3 1/3 innings of relief against the team ranked No. 1 in the nation and allowed two runs (one earned) and hit a grand slam as par of a five-RBI day.

Ashby, a communications major, was an All-Pac 12 honorable mention and was also a conference all-academic honorable mention.

For her career, Ashby hit .296 with 137 hits, 109 RBI, 69 runs, 18 home runs, 21 doubles and a .391 on-base percentage. Her best season proved to be her junior campaign, when she earned all-region honors after hitting .342 with 52 hits, 36 RBI, 32 runs and six dingers.

Paul Park (Crescenta Valley High, 2014) New York University golf freshman: It was just a flat out phenomenal first season for Park.

The NYU freshman racked up a cavalcade of awards while leading the way for the Violets.

Most recently, he was named the 2014-15 Liberty League Rookie of the Year as a unanimous selection.

With a 76.8 scoring average, he led the Violets and finished in the top 20 in eight of the nine tournaments he played. With a 36-hole score of 156, Park took sixth at the Liberty League Championship on April 26, which was good enough for league second-team honors.

Perhaps his biggest honor came when he was named to the Division III Golf Coaches Assn. of America All-Freshmen Team. Park was the Northeast Region representative on the six-player team.

NYU finished fourth as a team in the Liberty League Championship, with Park scoring lowest for his team on both days.

Park made his college debut Sept. 6 at the St. Lawrence University Invitational in New York with an 11th-place two-round score of 153 (nine-over).

Park’s highest finishes were back-to-back third-place scores at the NYU/Manhattanville Fall Invite on Oct. 11-12 and the 2015 University Athletic Assn. Championship in Florida March 8-9. In Florida, Park shot an eight-over-par (150) with an eight-stroke improvement on the second day. A week earlier in New York, he also shot an eight-over-par 150.

Ashley Taylor (Crescenta Valley High, 2014) Azusa Pacific water polo freshman: Following a Crescenta Valley career brimming with Pacific League titles and an unprecedented CIF Southern Section Division V championship, Taylor quickly acclimated to the college level.

Taylor was one of five Azusa Pacific players to compete in all 27 games during a 10-17 campaign.

Good for third-best on the team, Taylor tallied 31 goals with eight multiple-goal games. She added 24 assists and 23 steals.

APU dropped its final three matches of the season, losing to Santa Clara, 11-8, in Golden Coast Conference Tournament action. APU went 2-4 in the GCC. Taylor had two goals in the season finale.

Olivia Thayer (Crescenta Valley High, 2014) Occidental College softball freshman: At first glance, Occidental’s past season was one of struggles with a small roster.

But perhaps it was just the beginning.

Thayer was one of three freshman pitchers to comprise the Tigers’ staff.

She logged 104 1/3 innings over a team-high 18 starts. Thayer, who led the Tigers with 13 complete games, went 3-15 for Occidental (8-30, 5-23 in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference).

Thayer posted a 5.70 earned-run average with 49 strikeouts.

She also hit .215 (20 for 93) with 10 RBI and five runs.

Thayer, who tallied her first college hit on the first day of the season in the second game of a doubleheader Feb. 7 against St. Katherine, notched her first college victory on Feb. 21 in a 4-3 SCIAC win against La Verne. Thayer went the full seven, allowing seven hits and three runs.

Perhaps her finest performance came March 15 in the second game of a doubleheader against Augsburg. Oxy notched a 2-0 nonconference win with Thayer spinning the shutout on just three hits allowed with seven strikeouts to one walk.