Christian Santisteban named PGCBL Player of the Year

The Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League is pleased to announce that Christian Santisteban of the Elmira Pioneers has been selected as the 2015 PGCBL Player of the Year.  Santisteban led the Pioneers to their first West Division title as he hit .377 with six home runs and 38 RBIs. The Miami native finished second in the league in batting and tied for second in RBIs, while finishing tied for third with his six home runs.Outside of the Triple Crown categories, Santisteban scored 41 times (third in the league) and led the PGCBL with 58 hits and 43 walks. He also led the league in OPS at 1.123, which was boosted by a .532 on-base percentage that trails only 2014 Player of the Year Josh Gardiner’s mark of .543 as the highest in PGCBL history.On the Sabermetric side of things, Santisteban “created” 46.655 runs, 10 more than the next closest player (Troy Scocca of Mohawk Valley). His Isolated Power of .214 was top 10 in the league.Santisteban was key in getting the Pioneers an early lead in the West Division, which they ended up winning by six games over the Victor RailRiders. Going into July, the left-handed batter was hitting .457 with a 1.291 OPS. He started the season with an 18-game hitting streak and got hits in 42 of Elmira’s first 47 games.”Chris had a great year. He hit for average and power. Every coach in the PGCBL told me he was the one player you constantly had to pitch around. The player you couldn’t let beat you,” commented PGCBL President Jeff Kunion.This year at Manhattan College, Santisteban hit .301 in 50 games (49 starts) with 28 RBIs and two home runs. Santisteban also spent the 2014 summer with Elmira. In 43 games, the PGCBL All-Star and First Team All-League hit .299 with three home runs and 33 RBIs.Player of the Year2011- Erick Gaylord, Watertown2012- Ross Kivett, Glens Falls2013- John Nogowski, Amsterdam2014- Josh Gardiner, Amsterdam2015- Christian Santisteban, ElmiraThe PGCBL is affiliated with Perfect Game, the largest independent scouting service in the country. Last year, more than 1,400 professional players had either worn the uniform of a PGCBL team or participated in a Perfect Game event.For more information about the PGCBL, visit www.pgcbl.com and follow the league on Twitter, @PGCBLbaseball.