Miguel Espana

• Article
• May 01, 2024

Those unfamiliar with the Warriors’ seeding at the 2024 Cal Pac baseball championships may have been scratching their heads at the start of Wednesday’s 6-3, tournament-opening win over Park. Camden Cooper toed the rubber, rather than Warriors’ ace Eddie Rios. But the move by Westcliff skipper Dylan Hoffman was one of confidence, in Cooper and his team — and strategy — because if it worked out, the Warriors would be set up for their best chance at tournament success. As planned, Cooper was fantastic, and when he slowed, Kyle Douphner picked up right where the starter left off and the Warriors cruised to the win.

• Article
• April 23, 2024

It’s been a year of learning and process for the Westcliff baseball team. After a sizable amount of player turnover, and with Head Coach Dylan Hoffman in his first year at the helm, it’s taken the season for the Warriors to develop and start to play their most consistent brand of winning baseball. But if there’s one player Hoffman has been able to pencil in easily from the very start, it’s top-of-the-rotation pitcher Eddie Rios, who started the Warriors’ first-ever playoff game year ago, and had an opportunity to return Westcliff to Mesa, AZ for the 2024 Cal Pac playoffs when he took the hill against Saint Katherine Monday at the Great Park.

• Article
• March 14, 2024

The Westcliff baseball team scored four in the second and six in the third to take a 10-0 lead into fourth inning before wrapping up a Game 1 laugher, 23-3, Thursday morning at the Great Park. Westcliff took home the sweep with a 7-4 win in Game 2.

• Article
• March 10, 2024

The Westcliff basketball team took one win home after a three-game road trip to La Sierra in Riverside that concluded Sunday. The victory was a 7-6 final in Game 2. The Warriors dropped Game 1, 16-12, and Game 3, 4-3.

• Article
• January 31, 2024

For those baseball fans of a certain age, the name Greg Maddux is of the household variety.  Maddux was a starting pitcher who won the World Series with the Atlanta Braves.  He was a master tactician on the mound, using speed variation and pin-point control to flummox hitters and eventually earn himself a spot in the Hall of Fame.  But for as good as Maddux was, he was also notorious for disastrous first innings.  Part of what made Maddux so good was ability to recover in games that didn’t start well.  Just as often as Maddux put himself at a disadvantage early in a game was he also just as often able to quickly lock down after a shaky start and dominate the rest of the game.  Such was the script for the Westcliff No. 1 starter Eddie Rios Wednesday at the Great Park, where the Warriors honored their fallen friend JJ Sanchez with a pregame moment of silence, then followed up with a tidy 5-4 win over Bethesda in the first of two. 

• Article
• January 29, 2024

Eddie Rivero is a baseball player who exemplifies what’s best about the 5Cs culture of Westcliff Athletics. Rivero is a humble, selfless, vocal leader who plays through significant physical pain with the highest amount of effort that could be asked of a college student-athlete. Rivero’s leadership was on full display Saturday at Long Beach City College, where he not only secured the two-game sweep ( 13-3, 2-0) of Cal Tech with a clutch, pinch-hit single in the bottom of the eighth, but also did every other added task leaders must accept with his trademark smile and energy.

• Article
• January 27, 2024

It wasn’t pretty Friday in Fullerton, where the Westcliff baseball team met NAIA No. 11 Hope International at Amerige Park to open the 2024 season. The Royals took home two wins, 20-5 in the opener, and 13-6 in the nightcap. Although the outcome was disappointing, there were a number of bright spots for first-year head coach Dylan Hoffman and the Warriors. Perhaps brightest was the output from new cleanup hitter, 3B Ian Avalos, who hit a pair of solo shots, one in each contest.