After the kind of season Julian Gonzalez put together for the Moose Jaw Miller Express in the Western Canadian Baseball League last summer, there was little question he’d be more than welcome to return for his senior season.
And so the Miller Express made sure to make that happen.
The Express announced earlier this week that Gonzalez will be back in the yellow and black for the 2024 campaign as Moose Jaw aims to build on their stellar 2023 season.
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound product of Bayonne, N.J. was a big part of the Express’ first-place showing in the regular season, with his work out of the bullpen as a set-up man proving invaluable throughout the campaign.
All told, Gonzalez would appear in 21 games and pitch 42.1 innings, allowing only 10 runs in that span and finishing with a 2.12 earned run average. He struck out 27 along the way and walked 29.
Had Gonzalez pitched a handful more innings and qualified for the league leaders, his ERA would have been second-best in the WCBL.
In fact, the Keystone College senior gave up more than one earned run in an appearance only once, had a seven-game, 14 2/3-inning shutout streak from July 23 through Aug. 7, and allowed only two earned runs over 30 ⅓ innings and 15 games from June 25 through Aug. 7.
Gonzalez didn’t have the best season with the NCAA Division III Giants heading into his WCBL campaign, posting a 8.78 ERA in seven appearances over 13.1 innings at Keystone.
That was still enough to help Keystone College to a stellar showing in 2023, as they posted a 30-14 record overall, including 17-1 in the now-defunct Colonial States Athletic Conference. They’d go on to win the CSAC conference championship and appear in the NCAA Division II National Championship Tournament, where they’d bow out in two games.
Gonzalez was part of a pipeline of players from Keystone’s home in La Plume, Penn. to Moose Jaw last season, with infielder Bobby Pokorney, catcher Julio Acosta and pitcher Brayan Villar joining him in the line-up.
Keystone College opens their 2024 baseball season on Feb, 29 at the Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach, S.C. and will play in the new United East Conference tournament at the beginning of May, meaning a return to the Miller Express in time for opening day could be in the cards.
The Moose Jaw Miller Express open their 56-game season on Friday, May 24 when they travel to Weyburn to face the Beavers. Moose Jaw’s home opener is the following night against the Medicine Hat Mavericks.
You can follow along with Gonzalez’s exploits with the Giants this spring at www.gokcgiants.com and keep up to date with the Miller Express on social media at www.facebook.com/mjmillerexpress.
