Jon Alia, a 6-3 senior from Newbury Park, Calif. was the driving force behind the Toros’ offense as he connected on a 5-of-13 at-bats against No. 6 ranked UC San Diego, to lead the Toros to a series split against the No. 1 ranked team in the NCAA West Region.
Despite an 8-3 loss in game one of the four-game series, Alia would connect on a double in the fifth inning to bring home a runner for the Toros while at the same time tying the CSUDH single-season record for RBIs in a season with 61, also an NCAA top-30 mark and CCAA No. 1 mark.
Alia would once again connect in game three to belt a deep double that would clear juiced bases while bringing his RBI total to 64, well ahead of the second highest RBI leader in the CCAA with 47. At the same time Alia would also break the 22-year old CSUDH single-season record of 61 RBIs in a season. Alia’s hitting in the game erased a 5-0 deficit to lead the Toros to a 8-5 victory in the game.
Overall, Alia connected on five of his 13 at-bats, three of them doubles, while the Tritons would only connect on four doubles as an entire team.
From the field Alia held a perfect 1.000% percentage, making no errors in his 27 putouts and seven assists.
