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Baseball: Crook, Griego earn top South Coast Conference honors, Vikings total 10 All-SCC awards

LBCC's Casey Crook was named SCC Coach of the Year for the fourth time and sophomore Julian Griego was named SCC Pitcher of the Year (Photos by Chris Ruiz)
LBCC's Casey Crook was named SCC Coach of the Year for the fourth time and sophomore Julian Griego was named SCC Pitcher of the Year (Photos by Chris Ruiz)
Posted: Apr 28, 2015

The 2015 South Coast Conference champion Long Beach City College Vikings were recently awarded 10 All-SCC postseason honors as head coach Casey Crook was named SCC Coach of the Year and sophomore Julian Griego (Poly HS) was named the conference Pitcher of the Year at Monday's postseason coaches meeting.

Crook was named the SCC Coach of the Year for the fourth time in his career (1996, 2006, 2009) after leading the Vikings to a second consecutive conference championship. He is also taking LBCC to the playoffs for the fourth time over the past eight seasons.

Earlier this year, Crook earned his 500th career win at the college. Currently at 509 wins, he is just five victories away from surpassing the legendary Joe Hicks as LBCC's all-time coaching wins leader.

Griego was nearly untouchable in conference play as he totaled a 6-1 SCC record and 1.89 earned run average. He posted five complete games, struck out 34 and walked just seven over 57 innings pitched. The right-hander has already signed a National Letter of Intent to play at Houston Baptist University next season.

Joining Griego on the first team was freshman starting pitcher Evan May (Oxford Academy). May posted a 4-1 SCC record and an impressive 0.60 ERA. He allowed just three earned runs over 44 2/3 innings and tossed a pair of shutouts. He walked four and struck out 23 batters.

Earning second team honors were freshman starting pitcher Schuyler Hill (Wilson HS), sophomore first baseman Tanner Levine (Millikan HS), sophomore shortstop Michael Thomas (St. John Bosco HS), sophomore outfielder Justin Davis (Mayfair HS), and freshman outfielder Tai Tiedemann (Poly HS).

Honorable mention selections for the Vikings were freshman third baseman Jackson Foss (Wilson HS) and sophomore catcher Robert Castaneda (Poly HS).

Long Beach captured the SCC title with a 15-6 conference record and enters the postseason with a 20-16 overall mark.

The Vikings were recently named the No. 7 seed for the Southern California Regional playoffs. Long Beach hosts No. 10 seed Orange Coast College in a best-of-three game series on May 1-2 at Joe Hicks Memorial Field. Game 1 is set for Friday at 2 p.m. with Game 2 scheduled for 11 a.m. on Saturday followed by Game 3 if necessary.