ATHLETICS | Following a successful season, two members of the Loyola Marymount Lions baseball team were selected Wednesday in the final day of the 2019 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. Junior infielder Nick Sogard was selected in the 12th round by Tampa Bay, and senior right-hander Codie Paiva was a 22nd round pick by Miami. In 11 seasons as LMU’s head coach, Jason Gill has produced 31 MLB draft picks and was at the helm of the Lions first return to the NCAA regionals since 2000.
LMU’s baseball season came to an end with a 6-3 loss to No. 1 overall seed UCLA in the Los Angeles Regional June 3, 2019, at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Lions jumped out early in the winner-take-all regional final, with two runs in the top of the first, but were unable to hold off the top-seeded Bruins. LMU comes off their most successful season since the 2000 made the NCAA Regionals and first conference tournament championship in Gill’s tenure with the team.
The 2019 West Coast Conference Postgraduate Scholarship recipients were announced as part of the ninth annual West Coast Conference Honors Dinner, held June 5, 2019, at the Benson Hotel in Portland, Oregon. LMU women’s soccer student-athlete Emma Tyrnauer was named the Female Postgraduate Scholarship winner. Tyrnauer is the second straight Lion and third overall to win a postgraduate scholarship since the award’s inception in 2004.
LMU’s men’s basketball team is headed to the Bahamas and another international tournament. From Nov. 20-25, 2019, the Lions will compete in the 2019 Junkanoo Jam, along with Air Force, Duquesne, and Indiana State. The four Division I teams will play a round-robin tournament with a crowning of a champion based on best record. Fans interested in traveling to Bimini to support the team can sign up for fan travel packages at www.junkanoojam.com. Last season, the men’s basketball team took home the Jamaica Classic crown.
The LMU women’s tennis team has been selected to participate in the 2020 ITA Kick-Off Weekend, announced by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association this week. This will be the second-consecutive season where the Lions have made an appearance at the event, which will be held in Los Angeles. LMU will take on conference opponent Gonzaga, while Minnesota will take on UCLA to kick off the weekend.
