University of San Francisco Athletics

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco baseball team rolled its spring championship success right into this summer, as numerous Dons raked in all-star accolades, all-league honors, and summer league championships all across the country.
 
PRESTIGIOUS OPPORTUNITIES
 
The Dons sent one of their best from last season to play in one of the most respected summer leagues in the country – Riley Ornido pitched in the famed Cape Cod League, and only got better as his baseball season went on. After earning a first team all-West Coast Conference nod with a 2.58 ERA in 15 appearances during the spring, he posted a 2.18 ERA with a 5-to-1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio in 12 1/3 innings in the Cape.
 
CHAMPIONSHIP SUMMER
 
Another USF weekend starter had great success this summer. Landen Bourassa was named the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League Pitcher of the Year, leading his Corvallis Knights to a league championship. Bourassa posted a better-than 4-to-1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio in 46 innings this summer, going 5-1 while holding opponents to just a .213 batting average and recording a 0.98 WHIP. For all of his efforts, Bourassa was named a WCCBL All-Star and earned first team all-league honors.
 
Daniel Slominski joined Bourassa on the championship run with the Knights, giving Corvallis two powerful San Francisco arms. Slominski carried a 3.25 ERA in 27 2/3 innings, averaging more than five innings per outing. He had a 2-to-1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio and did not allow a home run all summer. He also turned in an impressive .236 opponents' batting average and 1.16 WHIP. He, too, was named a WCCBL All-Star.
 
A quartet of Dons teamed up this summer to win a summer league title in Maryland. Scott Parker, Benji Post, Tyler Villaroman and Jacob Westerman all earned a title playing for the Bethesda Big Train of the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League. That made six Dons who earned championships this summer, joining Bourassa and Slominski.
 
ALL-STAR SUMMER
 
Villaroman and Westerman were also named all-stars in the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League. Riley Helland – the Dons' second-leading batter last season with a .329 average in the spring – was named an all-star in the New England Collegiate Baseball League for the Plymouth Pilgrims. And Joey Steele – one of the stalwarts in the USF bullpen last spring with a 3.15 ERA in 16 appearances – was named an all-star for the Arroyo Seco Saints in the California Collegiate League. That gave the Dons six total all-stars this summer, joining Bourassa and Slominski in the WCCBL.
 
COMING UP
 
The Dons are in full swing with fall ball, having started practice on Sept. 21 and playing their first intersquad scrimmage on Sept. 28. The Dons will play two scrimmages, as well as complete their Fall World Series, during the month of October. Stay tuned to USFDons.com for more updates on the Dons' fall schedule.