Brady Miguel and the Cal State University Monterey Bay baseball team made history on a variety of fronts in the recently completed 2023 season.
Miguel, a 2019 Hollister High graduate, became the first player in California Collegiate Athletic Association history to win back-to-back MVP honors since the conference started handing out the award in 1985. CSUMB finished 39-18, tying its single-season record for wins and sweeping the regular-season and conference playoff titles in the same season for the first time in program history.
The Otters also advanced to the NCAA Division II Super Regionals for the first time.
“This season felt really surreal,” said Miguel, who recently graduated. “It felt so surreal, the way our playoffs went, the conference tournament and regional, was just some of the most fun baseball I’ve ever been a part of. This team was so special in the way we played as a team and really as a family. We were never out of it.”
Miguel hit .359 in the regular-season and had five home runs, 15 doubles and 44 RBIs. He closed the regular-season on a 17-game hitting streak and reached base at least once in the final 41 games, a testament to his consistency and ability to impact the game even when he wasn’t swinging it well.
“It looked like I had a pretty good year which I did, and I’m happy with the way I played,” he said. “But it didn’t go as good as I hoped it would.”
Miguel was referring to a broken thumb he suffered after getting hit by a pitch in the final series of the regular-season. That forced the shortstop to DH the rest of the way, a span of 10 postseason games. Numbers aside, Miguel was proud of the way he responded after he got fatigued about halfway through the season.
Conventional wisdom says that an athlete should rest or shut things down for a bit once they start feeling the effects of fatigue, but Miguel took a different approach.
“I started pushing harder in the gym and started doing a little bit more cardio,” he said. “I felt that it was benefitting my recovery time. A lot of people when they get tired take a break from the gym and lay in bed all day, but in those moments I think you have to push harder which I did.”
What made Miguel’s season extra special was the fact he got to play with several former Hollister High teammates and childhood friends on this year’s squad. That list included former HHS standouts Drew Williams, Ryan Platero, Ryan Io, Matt Campo and Dominic Felice, who grew up in Hollister but played at Monte Vista Christian.
Miguel was joined on the all-CCAA first team with Williams, who led the conference with 12 home runs and 57 RBIs in the regular-season, and Platero, who earned second team honors with a perfect 6-0 record. Williams drove in 18 more runs in 10 postseason contests.
“Drew Williams was two years ahead of me [at HHS] so I really didn’t get to know him that well there,” Miguel said. “But I always looked up to him and getting to play with him this year was surreal and really special.”
Io didn’t make all conference but had a tremendous season as well.
“Ryan Io was a year or two years behind me and he was a phenomenal pitcher,” Miguel said. “Everything he threw moved and was just nasty.”
Miguel counts Campo and Filice as some of his closest friends which made this past season all the more memorable.
“I got to play with my childhood best friend Matt Campo,” Miguel said. “Dominic Felice and I grew up together and played on the same teams when we were younger, so it was really fun to play with him, too.”
