LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. – The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) announced the 2023 Softball awards and earning the SCIAC Pitcher of the Year honor is first-year Katlyn Gandara (Whittier, CA) who becomes the second Bulldog in the history of the program to earn this recognition.
Gandara finished the regular season with a 1.75 earned run average (ERA), good for the fifth best among SCIAC players. During conference she had a 1.62 ERA (6th) across 82.1 innings (3rd). Her season ERA of 1.75 currently ranks ninth in single-season program history and her four shutouts are tied for 10th most.
She led all pitchers with ten wins in conference play, which was two more than second place and five more than third. Another notable category Gandara shined in was home runs allowed, where she did not concede any in conference play. She threw the most innings of any pitcher that did not allow a home run with the next higher number of innings pitched at 32.1.
The Bulldogs qualified for the SCIAC Tournament after finishing in a three-way tie for first place in the regular season and will now be the No. 3 seed and will faceoff against No. 2 Chapman University this Friday, May 12 at 3:30 p.m. at host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS). Gandara is likely to start the game and combined she went 3-2 with a save against the No. 1 seed CMS, No. 2 Chapman, and No. 4 Pomona-Pitzer.