Former Pioneer Maikol Gonzalez Shining in Angels Organization
Former Tusculum College baseball standout Maikol Gonzalez is enjoying an outstanding season so far with the Arkansas Travelers, the Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Since being acquired from the Lincoln Saltdogs of the American Association last month, Gonzalez is leading the Travelers with his .357 batting average, including a blistering .444 in his current seven-game hitting streak. In his 20 games with the Little Rock, Arkansas club, he has three doubles, two triples, four stolen bases and nine runs scored.
Gonzalez jumped out to a blistering start in 2014 with Lincoln, hitting .417 (15-for-36) over seven games with a double, a home run and seven RBI. Before the American Association season began, Gonzalez appeared in five games with the Leones de Yucatan in the Mexican League.
In 2013 with the El Paso Diablos, Gonzalez hit .337 with 21 doubles, 43 RBI and 47 stolen bases. Those numbers were good enough to earn the former Pioneer a spot on the 2013 American Association All-Star team. Gonzalez’s 47 steals led the American Association and the .337 average was part of a four-way tie for fourth place. He ranked in the top-five in four other offensive categories, and finished the year with 50 walks against 42 strikeouts.
On July 3, 2013 in a game against the Laredo Lemurs, Gonzalez stole four bases, an American Association single-game high for the season. He was named American Association Pointstreak Player of the Week for the week ending August 18, 2013 and earned Player of the Month honors for the month of August. During the month, he carried a 17-game hitting streak from August 13-31, when he hit .544 with a .617 on-base percentage.
Gonzalez’s impressive 2013 followed up a 2012 season for the Diablos in which he hit .330 over 100 games with 50 RBI and 40 stolen bases. Gonzalez debuted in independent baseball in 2011, when he hit .335 over the course of 62 games with El Paso.
Gonzalez was a 35th round selection of the Colorado Rockies the 2008 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. He split 2008 between the Dominican Summer League Rockies and the rookie-level Pioneer League’s Casper Ghosts. In 2009, Gonzalez appeared in three games with the low-A Asheville Tourists, but spent the majority of his season (111 games) with the advanced-A Modesto Nuts. Gonzalez returned to the Nuts in 2010, appearing in 50 games.
Gonzalez, who played at Tusculum during the 2007 and 2008 campaigns, established a new single-season record by hitting .468 in 2008, surpassing the previous best by Julio Velazquez in 1994 (.467). Gonzalez also broke the TC and South Atlantic Conference single-season record with his 103 hits in 2008 and was named the Daktronics Region Player of the Year for a second straight season.
He was a two-time consensus All-American in both 2007 and 2008. The two-time All-SAC first team honoree accounted for 21 doubles, seven triples, five home runs and a team-best 58 RBI. His 30 stolen bases in 2008 were also a new school record.
During his two-year career, Gonzalez established new TC records for career batting average (.457), triples (21) and on-base percentage (.522). His batting average was ninth all-time in NCAA II history, while his triples tally was tied for 12th in the national record book.
The Pioneers posted a combined 91-29 record during Gonzalez’ two-year stint at the Greeneville, Tennessee school. The 2007 club established a TC and SAC single-season record for wins in a season with an impressive 50-14 worksheet that included a No. 10 national ranking while capturing the SAC championship and a berth to the NCAA II Tournament. The 2008 team went 41-15 and swept through the SAC Tournament with a 4-0 record and earned the team another NCAA postseason trip.
Tusculum College, located in Greeneville, Tenn., is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, USA and is a NCAA Division II member of the South Atlantic Conference. Tusculum, the oldest college in the State of Tennessee, sponsors 16 intercollegiate sports, including women’s lacrosse, which will be competing in its first season during the 2014-2015 academic year.
Tusculum, the 28th oldest college in the nation, is a liberal arts institution committed to providing a liberal arts education in a Judeo-Christian and civic arts environment, with pathways for career preparation, personal development and civic engagement. Approximately twenty-one hundred students are enrolled on the main campus in Greeneville and three off-site locations in East Tennessee. The academic programs for both traditional-aged students and working adults served through the Graduate and Professional Studies program are delivered using focused calendars whereby students enroll in one course at a time.
