Hiura tops local All-Big West Conference baseball honorees

UC Irvine junior Keston Hiura, who tops NCAA baseball players in batting average (.442) and on-base percentage (.567) has been named Big West Conference Player of the Year.

Hiura, who was also named Wednesday as one of 25 semifinalists for the Golden Spikes Award given to the top amateur player in the nation, is among three locals on the first team.

Additional first-team honorees are Newport Harbor High product Connor Seabold, a junior pitcher for Cal State Fullerton, and junior Titans’ first baseman Dillon Persinger, who played at Fountain Valley High and Golden West College.

UCI junior pitcher Louis Raymond, as well as Long Beach State junior outfielder Brock Lundquist, out of Fountain Valley High, are second-team honorees.

Hiura had eight home runs, 42 RBIs and 24 doubles, while slugging .693 for the Anteaters in 2017. He was a freshman All-American and the Big West Freshman of the Year in 2015 and is projected to be a first-round pick in the upcoming June draft.

An elbow injury limited him to designated hitter this season.

Seabold, a 6 feet 3 right-hander, was a second-team selection last season. He takes a 10-4 record and a 2.94 ERA into the Titans’ opening-round game of their regional against BYU on Thursday at 1 p.m. at Stanford. Seabold struck out 108 and allowed 103 hits in 110 1/3 innings for the Titans (34-21), who finished third in the Big West with a 15-9 conference record. He has three complete games.

Persinger, the Orange Empire Conference Player of the Year last season at Golden West, is hitting .286 with three home runs, 27 RBIs and a team-best 14 stolen bases for Cal State Fullerton. Persinger has a .407 on-base percentage with 52 hits in 182 at-bats over 52 games.

Raymond was 5-5 with a 3.54 ERA in 15 starts for the Anteaters (23-33, 9-15). He struck out 54 and allowed 114 hits in 94 innings.

Lundquist is hitting .275 with three home runs and 24 RBIs going into the opening round of the Dirtbags’ Regional against San Diego State on Friday at 8 p.m. at Blair Field.

Lundquist leads the Big West champions (37-17-1, 20-4) with 12 doubles and has 10 stolen bases.

UCI senior shortstop Mikey Duarte received honorable mention.

Long Beach State junior Darren McCaughan was the Pitcher of the Year, while Long Beach State junior David Banuelos was the Defensive Player of the Year.

Sahid Valenzuela (Cal State Fullerton) and Dylan Thomas (Hawaii) were named Freshman Field Player of the Year and Freshman Pitcher of the Year, respectively.

Long Beach State’s Troy Buckley was named Coach of the Year.

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Twitter: @BarryFaulkner5