Assistant Coach Nathan Choate has been tapped to lead the team next year, Athletic Director Craig Pintens has announced. The move follows a standout season for LMU Lions baseball that landed the team its first NCAA Tournament spot since 2000, and the resignation of Jason Gill to take a position with USC.
Choate joined the Lions as assistant coach in the summer of 2018, focusing on the pitching staff and recruiting. Under his leadership, senior Codie Paiva was named WCC Pitcher of the Year after posting an 8-5 record with a 1.91 ERA and a 90:18 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Paiva’s complete-game, 11-strikeout outing in the 2019 WCC Championships helped the Lions defeat the top-seeded BYU Cougars to start their run resulting in a WCC Tournament title for the first time since the format changed in 2013. Paiva was drafted in the 22nd round by the Marlins following his All-WCC First Team and ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division I West All-Region Second Team senior campaign.
Choate’s pitching staff boasted the West Coast Conference’s best ERA, allowing 3.50 earned runs per game, which currently ranks 14th in the nation. The Lions also finished the year as the WCC’s leader and 12th in the country in WHIP at 1.24. The 7.88 hits per nine innings also ranks at the top of the conference. Under Choate in 2019, both the starting rotation and bullpen significantly improved their ERAs from the prior season. The starters lowered their ERA from 4.99 in 2018 to 3.66 in 2019, and the bullpen improved by nearly two earned runs per game from 5.25 to 3.33.
Baseball’s Nick Frasso has officially accepted an invitation to the 2019 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team training camp, USA Baseball announced. The talented pitcher becomes the fifth Lion in program history to be associated with one of the USA Baseball National Teams and the first LMU player since Colton Plaia in 2012.
Two LMU teams earned points for the university in the Directors Cup over the course of the 2018-19 school year. Both volleyball and baseball’s postseason berths gave the Lions points by virtue of making the NCAA Tournament. The Lions finished with 100 points, a score that has been reached only twice over the past 10 years. The Lions finished tied for 18th among Division I-AAA schools, which is all Division I programs that do not sponsor football. Overall in Division I, LMU finished tied for 155th, the school’s second best mark of the decade. In 2015-16, thanks to a pair of Sweet 16 runs from women’s volleyball and women’s soccer, the Lions ended the year with 128 points to place 130th overall.
The Golden Coast Conference has named its 2019 All-Academic team, the conference announced Monday. Loyola Marymount women’s water polo team is well represented on the team, with 11 Lions earning recognition.
The College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association (CSCAA) has named the LMU women’s swimming team to its Scholar All-America team for the spring 2019 semester. A record 480 institutions were named to the list, highlighted by the LMU team’s GPA of 3.65.
The men’s tennis team has added transfer Keenan Mayo to the roster, announced by Coach Tom Lloyd on Friday. Mayo transfers from the University of Illinois, where he was nominated for freshman of the year after putting together an impressive spring campaign, beating several ranked opponents in singles and doubles play. Mayo was ranked as high as No. 71 while at Illinois.
The Top 10 Highlights of 2018-19 countdown continues throughout the summer. As we prepare for more excitement in 2019-20, we’re counting down the Top 10 Moments of this past year. Number eight focused on the winner of the 2019 Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sports Scholars Awards for Women’s Rowing, senior Ma’at Hembrick.
