East Bay Athletic League alumni had quite the season in Big West conference baseball this year.

Leading the way was Cal State Northridge's Jakob Simons, a 2018 Foothill graduate, who was named the Co-Field Player of the Year along with UC Irvine's Caden Kendle.

Simons, a junior outfielder for the Matadors, had a career season with CSUN, improving his batting average 129 points from the prior season.

Simons finished first in the conference in OPS (1.115) while he ranked second in slugging percentage (.665), third in home runs (14), fourth in batting average (.356), on-base percentage (.450) and runs scored (51), fifth in stolen bases (11), and seventh in hits (67) and RBI (48).

Simons also shined on the defensive side, posting a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage with two assists in center field.

Back in Pleasanton for a couple weeks before he heads off to summer ball in North Dakota, Simons took some time to discuss the season.

And it was last summer when everything turned for Simons.

"I figured some stuff out last summer," Simons said of his game. "Once I figured it out, I spent the rest of the summer refining it."

Simons took the new part of his offensive game through the fall season and continued to refine his game. Then a minor injury threatened to sideline Simons.

"When the season was starting, I had a broken pinkie," he said. "I wasn't sure I was going to be able to start, but then I got the start."

He reached base in 44 of 48 games and hit safely 37 times, with a team high 23 multiple hit games and 14 multiple RBI games.

Those numbers paved the way for the successful run.

"My consistency was something I was the proudest of," Simons said. "You're not going to stay hot the whole season. When you have your failures, you learn from them. You analyze it and figure what do I need to do differently, and you make it better. I'm not worried about results -- you can only worry about what you can control."

Now Simons heads into summer with a solid game, just one year after entering summer looking for answers. Is the approach any different this time?

"I feel like during the summer we have the freedom to work on something," he said. "The coaches let you play more during the summer. It's more relaxed, a more chill environment."

And that will get him ready for his final year at CSUN, that is if he is still in college.

"During the year I was getting some attention from some professional teams," Simons said. "I have someone that is working with me and helping me, but we will have to wait and see. I am looking forward to going back to CSUN."

Matt Ager, another former Foothill star who now pitches for UC Santa Barbara, joined the Big West first team after a big season for the Gauchos.

Ager was the Friday night starter and the ace for Santa Barbara this year.

One of the nation's top strike-throwers, the sophomore made himself a candidate for Big West Pitcher of the Year, racking up 115 strikeouts, the 10th most in Division I, in 92-1/3 innings of work this season.

Ager pitched every weekend for the Gauchos, going 5-4 in 15 starts with a 3.12 ERA. Eleven of those outings were quality starts -- at least six innings pitched while allowing three or fewer runs -- including eight of his first 10.

He threw three scoreless outings this season and was named Big West Pitcher of the Week after two of them, stunning seven-inning outings at Oregon and Cal State Fullerton.

Finally, UC San Diego won the Big West title -- the first in any sport for the Tritons as they are in just their third year in the conference.

Nick Costello (Dublin), Ryan Rissas (California) and Donovan Chriss (De La Salle) are all members of the UCSD team.

Due to an NCAA rule, the Tritons were denied a berth in the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA has a mandated four-year reclassification for schools moving from D-II to D-I, as there are different academic requirements between the two divisions.

Summer activities

Just because school is out for the summer doesn't mean we are not looking for great local sports news.

I know our athletes work hard year round and I want to be able to write about what our teams are doing. Club sports, individual accomplishments -- you name it! Send it in to me at acesmag@aol.com and I will get to work getting local athletes notice for all their hard work.