LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. — Senior Will Dembski of Caltech baseball was named First Team All-SCIAC on Wednesday after he recorded one of the most successful seasons in program history.
The slugger finished his exceptional season with a .404 batting average, connecting on 59 hits in his 146 at-bats. Dembski wrapped up the year with a total of 30 RBIs and 20 walks; he stole six bases. His 10 home runs tied the existing record for homers in a single season – set by himself in 2022. He also smashed the single season record for runs scored, with 43. The previous record was 29, set by Dembski a season ago.
The Iowa native ended the year with a .705 slugging percentage and an on-base percentage of .511.
In his 39 games, Dembski recorded three hits in a game six different times; he logged at least one hit 33 times. He recorded at least one run in the team's final ten games of the season.
The veteran played a vital role in every game the Beavers won, notching hits in seven of their eight wins; he was walked three times in the group's lone victory without a hit from Dembski. Among many offensive highlights include a massive home run in the group's 6-5 win over Providence Christian on Feb. 4. He rocketed a pair of doubles in their 11-5 win versus Bethesda on Mar. 28.
The senior also showed his dependability with his defense; primarily playing in center field, the star logged 120 put-outs with seven assists on just three errors.
While known for his bat and his defense, Dembski also demonstrated a third element to his game this campaign – pitching. Dembski pitched a total of ten innings this season across five games, sporting an ERA of 3.60 and a W-L record of 2-0. He played a pivotal role as a closer in the win over Providence Christian, striking out four of seven batters and holding the Seabeggars hitless for 1.2 innings. He gave up just one hit in his 1.1 innings as a closer versus Occidental on Feb. 18, in which the Beavers topped the Tigers by a score of 8-6. On Apr. 1, he completely shut down the Pomona-Pitzer offense, forcing six straight outs in his two innings pitched to close the 5-1 victory for Caltech.
2023 was Dembski's first time on the bump since his lone inning of work as a first-year player in 2020.
Dembski will leave Caltech with the program's career home runs record – 20, a number achieved in just two full seasons of baseball due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He recorded the second-most hits in a single season this year (59), behind senior Jack Warren, who holds the record (61).
Upon graduation, Dembski plans to work as a software engineer at Epic Systems.
Full SCIAC release at this link.
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