Peninsula Prep Baseball
Ian Josephson, who last year led Serra to a Central Coast Section-Division I championship on his way to becoming PeninsulaPrepBaseball.com's No. 1 player in its Postseason Prime 31 rankings, has had a freshman season to remember.
Saint Mary's College has qualified for the NCAA tournament for the second straight season, and the San Mateo native played a key role in helping them win the West Coast Conference tourney in Scottsdale, Arizona over the weekend.
The Gaels (34-25) beat the University of San Francisco, 7-6, in the final to punch their ticket to the NCAA Regionals. They'll open play Friday in Los Angeles against top-ranked UCLA (51-6).
Virginia Tech (30-24) and Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo (36-22) round out the four-team group. The winner of that tournament, which begins Friday, will move onto the Super Regionals – a two-of-three series – with a trip to the College World Series in Omaha at stake.
Josephson was not in the rotation early on but put together quality pinch-hit at bats and a solid glove at third base to slowly earn the starting role over the course of the season. Last month, he got hot and became the first WCC player ever to hit for the cycle in a game. A week later, Gaels' catcher Ian Armstrong, another Serra graduate, duplicated the feat.
"Accomplishing something so amazing at such a young point in my career was incredible, especially seeing how fired up all my older teammates were, that meant the world to me," he said after hitting for the cycle in a win over UC-Riverside. "I can’t wait to experience more amazing memories with this group.”
It doesn't get bigger than qualifying for the NCAA tournament for a second straight year. Last year, the Gaels traveled to Corvallis, Oregon and upset Oregon State in their opening game of the NCAA tournament before dropping their next two games.
Josephson was on the WCC's All-Freshmen first team and the All-WCC second team. He hit .350 in 190 at-bats – double his plate appearances in his senior year at Serra – and had an OPS of .984. He was named the conference's Freshman of the Week twice.
Armstrong, a 2024 Serra graduate, was named to the All-WCC first team. He finished the WCC tournament with 11 hits and was named its outstanding player.
Also on the team is shortstop Jared Mettam, who graduated from Half Moon Bay in 2022.
Jacobs shines, but Claremont comes up short
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps came within three outs of qualifying for its first-ever NCAA-Division III World Series. Johns Hopkins scored two runs in the bottom of the 10th inning to beat the Stags, 16-15, in a wild final game of the three-game series played in Baltimore.
But it was a memorable freshman year for Josh Jacobs, the 2025 Aragon graduate, who had two hits in the decisive game and finished the season with a .354 batting average, 11 home runs and 35 RBI.
Jacobs had five hits in 14 trips to the plate with a home run in the Super Regional.
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