Salt Lake Community College To Host SWAC Baseball Tournament

SALT LAKE CITY –Thanks to a conference best 42-8 record, the Salt Lake Community College baseball team will host the SWAC postseason tournament this week.

The Scenic West Athletic Conference baseball tournament is scheduled to be held at the Bruins Cate Field in South Jordan, UT beginning on Wednesday, May 11. The tournament is scheduled to conclude on Saturday, May 14. First pitch is scheduled for 12 p.m. (MST) on Wednesday between No. 3 Southern Idaho (37-15) and No. 6 Community Christian College (3-41).

SLCC Bruins finish the regular season at 42-8; Scenic West Athletic Conference Champs with conference record of 36-4 & enter the Post Season at #️⃣1️⃣1️⃣ in the @NJCAABaseball National Rankings/Poll. Bruins will host NJCAA Region 18 Tournament @ Cate Field,South Jordan,UT. May 11-14 https://t.co/ng7W93yivs

— SLCC BASEBALL (@slccbaseball) May 10, 2022

The top two seeds, No. 1 Salt Lake and No. 2 Southern Nevada each receive byes into the second round and will begin play on Thursday with Salt Lake facing the lowest seeded team to advance on Wednesday.

The Bruins finished the regular season on an eight game winning streak, sweeping a pair of four game series’ against Utah State Eastern and Community Christian College. Illustrating their season long domination of the SWAC, SLCC held their opponents to two runs or fewer six times in eight games with three shutouts.

For the 5th time in 10 weeks a Bruin Pitcher wins SWAC “Pitcher of the Week”. In the Final game of Conference play, Ernesto Lugo earns the honors with 5IP, giving up zero runs, allowing only 1 hit and punching out 7. @slccbaseball @PBR_JUCO @PBR_Utah @ErnestoLugoCAN pic.twitter.com/cpZiSEbJ5m

— SLCC BASEBALL (@slccbaseball) May 10, 2022

Offensively, Salt Lake’s .319 batting average paced the conference as did their league leading 94 doubles, 24 triples, .502 slugging percentage, 250 walks, 103 hit by pitches, .458 on-base percentage and 87 stolen bases.

Freshman Jaxon Weatherly’s .375 batting average leads the conference while Bruer Webster’s 33 stolen bases are 11 more than second best Jackson Castillo for Southern Nevada.

On the mound, SLCC pitching staff was equally commanding. The Bruins finished at the top of the league with a 2.32 earned run average, more than a full run better than second place CSI. They also led the league in shutouts (12), hits allowed (262), fewest runs allowed (114), fewest walks (128) and fewest extra-base hits allowed (60). The defense behind their pitchers committed a league-best 40 errors, 23 fewer than CSI in second.

The Bruins hold four of the top six earned run averages in the SWAC led by Daxton Purse (1.42), Derik Eaquin (1.49) and Ernesto Lugo (1.62) sitting 1-2-3 in the rankings.

This is the second consecutive season the Bruins have finished on top of the Scenic West, winning the conference with a 33-17 overall record in 2021.

 

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