Summer leagues beckon locals
GLENDALE — The following are updates on area athletes at the collegiate level.
Dustin Emmons (Crescenta Valley High, 2007) UC Riverside baseball junior pitcher: It’s been a busy summer for the former News-Press Male Athlete of the Year.
He was drafted in the 40th round by the Florida Marlins in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft on June 9 and since then has gone coast to coast playing summer collegiate league baseball.
He played in the prestigious Cape Cod League and is currently plying his trade in the West Coast League for the second consecutive summer, playing for the Corvallis Knights.
Emmons, who was also drafted in the 44th round by the Pittsburgh Pirates out of high school, was welcomed back to the Knights on Tuesday.
His first and only appearance heading into Friday was a rocky one, as he pitched the final two innings of Corvallis’ 14-2 thumping of the Wenatchee AppleSox. He allowed one run, while giving up three hits and striking out two and walking one.
Emmons was dominant in his previous summer with the Oregon club, going 5-0 with a 1.69 earned-run average.
Earlier this summer, he played for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in the Cape Cod League along with Glendale High graduate Jesse Meaux.
Emmons was activated to the club on June 14, but released on Sunday.
Emmons made three appearances for the Red Sox, going 0-1 with a 3.68 earned-run average over three appearances, notching a save and four strikeouts to one walk and allowing seven hits in 7 1/3 innings.
As a junior at UC Riverside, Emmons went 9-4 with a 3.94 ERA.
Jesse Meaux (Glendale High, 2007) UC Santa Barbara baseball junior pitcher: Meaux, who was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 44th round of the latest Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, has made two summer collegiate league stops thus far.
He began his summer making just one appearance with the Santa Barbara Foresters of the California Collegiate League on June 12, tossing two scoreless innings in the Foresters’ 9-6 victory over the San Luis Obispo Blues. He allowed four hits and struck out two.
Shortly thereafter, he made his way to the prestigious Cape Cod League. As a temporary player for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, he pitched in two games on June 17 and June 24, both against the Brewster Whitecaps.
He combined to throw 5 1/3 innings, striking out eight to one walk and giving up five hits, while tallying a 3.38 ERA. Meaux, who played in the Alaska Baseball League last summer, tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings in his June 24 appearance. However, he was released the next day by the Red Sox.
He’s coming off a junior season at UC Santa Barbara in which he went 8-3 with a 4.41 ERA and was tabbed an All-Big West Conference honorable mention.
Evan Simonitsch (St. Francis High, 2007) Loyola Marymount baseball sophomore outfielder: For the second straight summer, Simonitsch has traveled north to the Alaska Baseball League to play for the Alaska Goldpanners.
He’s struggled a bit thus far for the 14-4 squad, as he’s played in 16 games, starting in 12. He’s hitting .196 (11 for 56) with eight runs and eight runs batted in.
Simonitsch last played on Tuesday, going 0 for five with a run and an RBI and made a huge catch in left field with the bases loaded in the top of the third inning to save three runs.
Simonitsch missed much of his redshirt sophomore season with Loyola Marymount due to an injury.
The Lions went 23-33 with Simonitsch playing in 22 games and starting 18. He hit .238 (15 of 63) with seven extra-base hits, 16 runs, 11 runs batted in and a .380 on-base percentage.
Simonitsch’s LMU teammates include fellow St. Francis graduate Ramiro Carreon, who went 2-6 on the mound with a 7.43 ERA, and Glendale resident Trevor Gee, who hit .162 (six of 37) playing in 13 games.
Nick Gentili (St. Francis High, 2009) Pomona Pitzer baseball freshman: Gentili and the Sagehens turned in a stellar season, wrapping up a second straight Southern California Interscholastic Athletic Conference title before finishing their season on May 22 with a loss in the NCAA Division III West Regional.
Gentili was an All-SCIAC second-team pick after a phenomenal rookie year.
Starting in 41 games during Pomona’s 31-11 season, he hit .384 (66 of 172), which was third on the team. He had 50 runs, 44 RBI, 14 doubles, five home runs, 12 walks, was hit by a pitch a team-high 12 times and had a .452 on-base percentage. He even pitched 2 1/3 innings, notching a 3.86 ERA over three appearances.