USD’s baseball program is off to one heck of a start that has it back on the national stage.
The Toreros swept Portland in their first West Coast Conference series of the year to improve to 13-4, moving them up to 23rd in the nation in this week’s Division 1 Baseball rankings. After dropping two of three to 6th-ranked Vanderbilt to start the season USD has won 12 of 14 games to crack the Top-25.
Their team success has come through a series of great individual performances. The season is only four weeks old and the Toreros have already had four guys earn WCC player of the week honors.
Pitchers Nick Sprengel and Troy Conyers were named Pitcher of the Week the first two weeks of the year and utility man Jay Schuyler won the Player of the Week award last week.
This time catcher Riley Adams gets the honor. All Adams did last week was hit four home runs, one of them a walkoff shot to beat the Pilots on Friday night. In four games last week Adams had 17 total bases.
Adams, a junior from Canyon Crest Academy in Encinitas, is also one of the top catching prospects in this year’s MLB Draft class and should be chosen in the top two rounds. One mock draft has the Padres selecting him with the 69th overall pick.
The Toreros host the perennial powerhouse from Cal-State Fullerton (ranked 5th in the nation) on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m.
