SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos baseball team had seven Cougars take All-CCAA honors as Garrett Teunissen was named the CCAA Player of the Year and head coach Jose Garcia was named the CCAA Coach of the Year on Tuesday night.
 
Teunissen, Luke Reece, Preston Kelly and Phoenix Sommay were named to the first team while Ethan Rivera was named to the second team. Cameron Mahaffy was an honorable mention.
 
Becoming CSUSM's first CCAA Player of the Year in program history and earning All-CCAA first-team honors at third base, Teunissen led the conference with a .399 batting average, 22 stolen bases and 12 sacrifice bunts. In the CCAA, the junior from Corona ranks second in hits per game (1.48), fourth in doubles per game (.34), seventh in total doubles (15) and ninth in hits (65). Playing in all 44 games for the Cougars, Teunissen had a 1.065 OPS with 65 hits, 46 runs, 44 RBIs, five home runs and two triples. To date, he has a team-leading 22 multi-hit games and leads the squad with eight three-hit contests. Earlier this season, Teunissen became the team's first-ever NCBWA West Region Player of the Week after also taking CCAA Player of the Week honors.
 
In just his second season at the helm of the program, Garcia turned the Cougars around with their best-ever season as an NCAA Division II program as they finished second in the CCAA in the regular season and will be making their first-ever CCAA Tournament appearance. The Cougars posted a 12-game improvement in the CCAA standings from 2023. CSUSM didn't lose a single four-game series during the season and posted a signature series win over then-No. 19 and eventual regular-season champion Cal State Monterey Bay. The Cougars lead the conference with a .428 on-base percentage, a .503 slugging percentage, and 8.3 runs per game. Garcia is the second conference Coach of the Year in program history and the first as a CCAA member.
 
Reece earned his third All-CCAA honor and first on the first team at second base. The redshirt junior from San Diego hit .340 with a 1.031 OPS, 50 hits, 44 RBIs, 42 runs, 23 walks, nine home runs, eight doubles, a triple, four stolen bases, a .592 slugging percentage and a .439 on-base percentage in 40 regular-season games. Reece leads the team with 13 multi-RBI games this season and is tied for the third-most multi-hit games. Reece ranks third in the CCAA for RBIs per game (1.10) and fifth for home runs per game (0.23). Reece was named to the second team in 2022 and 2023 and is now tied for the most All-CCAA honors in program history.
 
Earning his second All-CCAA honor and first on the first team as a relief pitcher, Kelly earned a conference-best seven saves while accumulating a 5-1 record, 27 strikeouts, a 3.18 ERA, a 1.09 WHIP and .242 opponent batting average in 34.0 innings and 21 appearances. The Eastvale native has the second-most career saves in program history with 16.
 
In his first season of competition with the Cougars, Sommay took first-team honors as a utility player. CSUSM's leadoff man scored the most runs per game in the CCAA during the regular season at 1.21 while ranking third for total runs at 52. Sommay was hit by a pitch a conference-leading 20 times and posted the second-best on-base percentage in the league at .485. The redshirt sophomore from Temecula hit .360 with 59 hits, 35 RBIs, 21 walks, nine doubles, eight stolen bases, four home runs, a .985 OP and a .500 slugging percentage in 43 games. Sommay currently has an active reached-base streak of 39 games – the third longest in program history – while also tallying the second-most multi-hit games with 18.
 
Rivera earned his first All-CCAA honor as he was named to the second team at catcher. Rivera has the second-best batting average in the CCAA during the regular season at .382 and led the league with seven sacrifice flies. The redshirt junior from Chino Hills posted a .382 batting average and .961 OPS with 52 hits, 34 RBIs, 19 runs, 20 walks, nine doubles, two home runs, a .493 slugging percentage and a .468 on-base percentage in 42 games. Rivera tied for the third-most multi-hit and multi-RBI games on the team with 15 and 10, respectively.
 
Mahaffy earned his first All-CCAA honor as an honorable mention in the outfield. The Chico State transfer from Costa Mesa had the fourth-best slugging percentage in the conference at .636. Mahaffy hit .356 with 47 hits, 41 RBIs, 30 runs, 14 walks, 11 doubles, eight home runs, four stolen bases and a .444 on-base percentage in 42 games. He has the second-most multi-RBI games on the team this season with 11 and had the second-longest reached-base streak of the year at 21 games.
 
This is the second time CSUSM has had six All-CCAA selections, last doing so in 2019. The Cougars' four All-CCAA first-team selections are program high.
 
CSUSM will make its first-ever postseason appearance as an NCAA Division II program on Thursday as it heads to the CCAA Tournament as the No. 2 seed. The Cougars will play a to-be-determined opponent in the fourth game of the tournament at 3 p.m. at Scolinos Field on the campus of Cal Poly Pomona.