By Dylan Long, April 23, 2024
Cal Poly Pomona left fielder Jack Sanders took home his first career CCAA Baseball Player of the Week Award on April 1 with a scorching hot series against the San Francisco State University Gators.
Sanders put together a monster weekend where he batted 7-16 (.438) with a 1.221 OPS at the plate. His performance with the bat also helped the Broncos secure a series win, with the team going 3-1 against the Gators.
Sanders’ big series started in game one when he went 3-6 with a single, double and triple, while also adding two RBIs and one run scored. Game two saw Sanders add a double and a walk to his weekend total. Game three of the series featured one hit from Sanders before he exploded once more in game four. In the series finale, Sanders added yet another extra base hit with an RBI double for the Broncos.
In total, Sanders had a hit and reached base twice in every game of the series, while also having two separate multi hit performances in the first and last game of the weekend.
“It was a good feeling for me over the weekend; I felt like I was seeing the ball really well in all of my at bats,” Sanders said. “I did not try to do too much at the plate, and I think that is why I was able to have so much success.”
Sanders is in his first season at Cal Poly Pomona, as he spent the first two years of his collegiate career at Palomar College after competing at Poway High School in his hometown of Poway, California.
In his freshman season in 2022, Sanders appeared in 46 games posting a .456 batting average with seven home runs and 45 RBIs while being named an All-American. He followed up the 2022 campaign with another stellar year in 2023, posting a .387 batting average with 11 home runs and 58 RBIs. Sanders would also be named an All-American for the second consecutive year while also named the Conference Player of the Year.
Sanders touched on how his transition over to Cal Poly Pomona has gone in 2024.
“It has been a seamless fit here at CPP, I have really enjoyed being around all of my teammates and it is a fun group to be around,” Sanders said. “You can really tell that everyone is playing for one another and that is a special thing to have in a team.”
Sanders has been an integral part of the 2024 team at CPP, helping the Broncos stay in the hunt for another CCAA championship. So far this season, Sanders has a .351 batting average with a 1.023 OPS with 46 hits, five home runs, nine doubles and four triples. Sanders is tied for the team lead in RBIs and leads the team in slug percentage (.595) and total bases (78). Sanders’ four triples also ranks 5th in the entire CCAA.
Sanders has been able to find fast success in his Broncos career and attributes it to the environment of the program.
“The culture that is set here at CPP through the coaches and my fellow teammates has allowed for me to find my footing here,” Sanders said. “Everyone has been so supportive of me since I first got here, and I am so thankful for it being that way.”
Sanders and the Broncos are now rounding third base on the 2024 season, with only 12 regular season games left on the schedule. The Broncos have overcome a pedestrian start as they now sit in fourth place in the CCAA, but for Sanders and the rest of the team, expectations remain high.
“We are a very confident group, and we can’t wait to play playoff baseball together,” Sanders said. “This is a team that is getting hot at the right time and that is so important in baseball.”
Sanders and the Broncos look to finish the season strong as they start a four-game series against Cal State Dominguez Hills on Friday, April 26.
Feature image courtesy of CPP Athletics
