Warriors Baseball Nets a Dozen Athletic and Academic Transfers to Four-Year Schools

TORRANCE, Calif. – The 2017 South Coast Conference champion El Camino College baseball team will be sending 12 student-athletes to the next level to continue their athletic and academic careers.

Taylor Rashi, Trevor Casanova, Noah Barba, Cassius Hamm, Ryan Eastburn, Jake Carr, Hunter Lewis, Brady Dorn, Darian Sylvester, Angel Mora and Sullivan Lyons will all be continuing their athletic and/or academic lives at the next level after helping the 2017 Warriors post their best season since 2010.

The Warriors set new program records during the 2017 campaign as they won 25 straight games at one point and posted a 40-win season. They secured the program's first conference title since 2010 and advanced to the CCCAA State Championships for the first time in seven years, finishing third overall and recording the first victory at the state championships under head coach Nate Fernley.

Taylor Rashi | UC Irvine

Rashi had a record-breaking season for the Warriors in 2017. He led the state with 144 strikeouts on the season and earned a number of accolades including an American Baseball Coaches Association All-American First Team selection and ABCA Southern California Pitcher of the Year nod. Rashi was also named the SCC Pitcher of the Year after helping the Warriors claim their first conference title since 2010. Rashi led the state with 118.2 innings pitched and allowed 7.96 hits per nine innings and just one home run on the season. Batters hit just .236 against him on the year. Along with his accomplishments on the field, Rashi accumulated a 3.4 GPA as a student at ECC and works as an EMT for McCormick Ambulance. He received the Don Mackenzie Memorial Scholarship, which is awarded by the SCC Scholarship Committee to student-athletes who exhibit strong academics and high performance in the field of play.

Trevor Casanova | CSUN

The Warriors backstop in 2017, Casanova earned a number of postseason accolades for his excellent season on the baseball field, capped off by the 2017 American Baseball Coaches Association Pacific Association Division National Player of the Year after leading the Warriors with a .390 batting average, playing in all 51 games for the Warriors. He added 14 doubles, seven triples and eight home runs to go along with 82 hits and 66 runs scored. Casanova helped lead the Warriors to their first conference title and CCCAA State Final Four appearance since 2010. In the postseason, he led the team with a .455 batting average in 11 games, going 20-for-44 with four doubles, one triple, one home run and 15 runs scored to lead the Warriors to a third-place finish at the state championships. Casanova was drafted in the 14th round of the 2017 MLB First-Year Player Draft with the 423rd overall pick by the Seattle Mariners but decided not to sign and will attend CSUN in the fall of 2017. He was the first Warriors player taken directly out of ECC in the draft since Kyle Petter was taken in the 34th round of the 2014 MLB Draft by the Cleveland Indians.

Cassius Hamm | CSUN

Joining his battery mate with the Matadors in 2017, Hamm led the Warriors and the state with 13 wins on the mound during the 2017 campaign. He posted a 2.98 ERA in 108.2 innings pitched. He finished second in the state with 134 strikeouts and led ECC starting pitchers with a .216 opponents' batting average. He allowed just 7.29 hits per nine innings and led all starting pitchers in the state with an 11.10 strikeouts-per-nine innings average. He tossed a no-hitter against Bakersfield on Feb. 9, his second start of the year. He walked four batters on the day and struck out 16, the most by a Warriors pitcher this season and the first of six double-digit strikeout performances on the season.

Noah Barba | CSU Bakersfield

Patrolling center field for the Warriors in 2017, Barba wrapped up his two-year career at ECC with a solid sophomore campaign. He played 51 games and batted .296 with nine doubles, five triples and four home runs. He drove in 45 and posted a .388 on-base percentage with 22 walks. He also stole five bases in six attempts.

Ryan Eastburn | Utah Valley University

Eastburn led the Warriors with 49 RBIs in 2017 was third on the squad with a .326 batting average, posting 60 hits in 48 games played. Eastburn posted 11 doubles and a .395 on-base percentage for ECC as he played in the outfield for much of the season.

Jake Carr | Utah Valley University

A two-year member of the Warriors, Carr took over as the anchor in the Warriors bullpen, leading the team with seven saves and 19 appearances. Carr struck out 26 batters in 25 and 2/3 innings out of the pen, posting a 9.12 strikeouts per nine innings average. He allowed 28 hits, the fewest by a Warriors pitcher with at least 24 innings of work during the season. He also led all ECC pitchers with 19 appearances on the season.

Hunter Lewis | Indiana State

The team leader in doubles (15) during the season, Lewis heads to the Midwest after playing in 51 games for the Warriors. He tallied 49 hits on the year and added three triples and four home runs. He slugged .429 on the year, the third best on the squad. He was also one of five players to score 40 or more runs on the season (40).

Brady Dorn | San Francisco State

Dorn was one of four Warriors to play all 51 games on the season. He was third on the team with 48 runs scored and tallied 53 hits including 11 doubles and four triples. He batted .280 and was on base at a .398 clip. He was 6-for-7 in stolen bases and was second on the team with 35 walks. His 42 RBIs were also third most on the team.

Darian Sylvester | Point Loma Nazarene

The Warriors shortstop in 2017, Sylvester played in 43 games for the Warriors and batted .290 on the season. He was third on the team with a .402 on-base percentage and second on the team with a .497 slugging percentage. He hit three home runs and was second on the team with six triples while also recording 11 doubles.

Angel Mora | Academy of Art University

Mora played in 41 games for the Warriors and also made two appearances on the mound for ECC during the season. Mora batted .309 on the year with 47 hits including nine doubles and one triple while driving in 28 RBIs. He tallied 47 hits on the year and also scored 26 runs.

Connor Underwood | San Diego State University

Underwood came on late for the Warriors and made a huge impact for the team in the tail end of the season and the postseason. Underwood finished the season with 26 hits including two home runs and 18 RBIs. He scored 17 times and batted .277 overall. He started the final 15 games of the season and recorded an 11-game hitting streak during that stretch. He recorded at least one hit in the Warriors first six postseason games including a pair of three-hit and three-RBI games. He will be attending San Diego State for academics.

Sullivan Lyons | University of Texas

Lyons appeared in four games out of the bullpen in 2017, tossing six innings and recording one strikeout. He will be attending Texas for academics.