COLLEGE UPDATE: Scott Hong, former Glendale college baseball players excel at next level
The following are updates on local athletes at the collegiate level.
Scott Hong (Glendale Community College, 2011) Occidental College baseball senior: With the Glendale Community College baseball team having clinched its third consecutive Western State Conference South Division title Tuesday, plenty of former Vaqueros who helped lay the foundation for current success are excelling on the collegiate level.
Not the least of which is Hong, who’s achieving success with his arm, legs and bat.
Hong leads the Southern California Interscholastic Athletic Conference with 28 stolen bases, 16 more than the second-best total and more than two teams in the conference have swiped overall. His earned-run average of 1.44 is also second-best in the conference.
Indeed, Hong has been outstanding overall for the Tigers.
He had a hit, a walk, three runs batted in and a run scored in Oxy’s 14-4 win against Pomona-Pitzer on Sunday in the second game of a doubleheader. In the first game, Hong got the start on the mound and took a hard-luck loss, giving up four hits and two runs over seven innings, while striking out seven versus no walks.
With a 23-12 mark and a 14-10 conference record, Oxy faces Caltech and Pomona-Pitzer in a conference doubleheader on Saturday.
On the mound, Hong has four starts, a 4-1 record, four saves and 38 strikeouts to 12 walks in 43 2/3 innings. At the plate, Hong leads his team with a .328 batting average (42 for 128) and his 31 runs and 22 walks are also team-bests.
Tom Korn (Glendale Community College, 2011) York College baseball senior: York is leading the way in the Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference and Korn has been a crucial contributor to the Nebraska NAIA college’s success.
Korn has posted a 2.41 earned-run average through 12 appearances, 10 starts and 56 innings. He’s notched 36 strikeouts to 13 walks and holds a stellar 8-2 record with an impressive five complete games that’s tied for the team lead.
Korn’s last appearance was in relief, though, as he threw a perfect inning against Hastings and struck out all three batters he faced. It came just three days after his previous start in which he gave up four runs in six innings, but earned a win against Oklahoma Wesleyan.
The win was part of a current six-game winning streak for York, which has a two-game conference set starting Friday before the conference tournament starts May 1.
York, at 36-9, is currently in first in the conference with a 16-2 mark with Bellevue having concluded its conference season at 17-3.
Ellis Whitman (Glendale Community College, 2011) Vanguard University baseball senior: Whitman singled to left-center field in the bottom of the 12th on Saturday in the opening game of a Golden State Athletic Conference doubleheader against visiting Biola.
An error and a sacrifice bunt later, Whitman came around to score the walk-off run in Vanguard’s 4-3 win. Whitman went two for four with a pair of runs and a run batted in during the game. Vanguard swept the double-dip with Whitman adding a RBI in the second game.
The wins moved Vanguard to 12-19 in GSAC play and 19-25 overall with three games this weekend at Concordia to end the season.
Whitman is turning in a terrific season, having started in 43 of his team’s 46 games and playing in 44. He’s hitting at a .309 clip (46 for 149) with 11 runs, six doubles, 23 RBI and a .995 fielding percentage.
Teammate Jason Ochart, another Glendale Community College transfer, is putting up even better numbers in most categories. Ochart is hitting .320 with a team-high 55 hits in 172 at-bats. The Hoover High graduate’s 26 runs, eight doubles, 17 walks and 23 stolen bases are all leading Vanguard.
Alyssa Sovereign (Crescenta Valley High, 2010) Penn State softball junior: Penn State, which had a nonconference doubleheader on Wednesday against Kent State, has been struggling, though Sovereign has heated up a bit.
In a 2-1 Big Ten loss — Penn State’s fourth straight — to Northwestern on Sunday that dropped the Nittany Lions to 11-30 and 2-14 in conference, Sovereign had a pair of walks. In a 17-14 loss the day before to Northwestern, Sovereign was three for six with three RBI and a run scored. It was the second straight game in which Sovereign produced a career-high three hits as she went three for four the game prior against Northwestern.
Sovereign, who had missed some time and has played in 34 of 41 games with 27 starts, was hitting .271 (23 for 85) heading into Wednesday. She also has 13 runs, seven doubles, eight RBI and the outfielder has made just one error.”