San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
MOHAWK OR NOT, OTJEN HEADS PLNU TOWARD NCAAS AGAIN
How close the Point Loma Nazarene baseball team is to getting another shot at the NCAA Division II national championship can be gauged by glancing at Hunter Otjen's hairstyle.
During last year's postseason run, the junior sported a mohawk that PLNU head coach Justin James termed “aggressive.”
The look was a little more aggressive than Otjen originally intended.
“I tried to cut my own hair into a mullet,” said the 5foot-11 Otjen, a starting outfielder and long reliever for the Sea Lions. “I don't know why. Not really sure. I botched it pretty good.”
Teammate Cole Hillier, PLNU'S closer and resident barber, fixed Otjen up, inspired by the mohawk sported by Robert De Niro's character Travis Bickle — “You talking to me?” — in the movie “Taxi Driver.”
Otjen has been letting his hair grow out since the summer, and there are no immediate plans for the mohawk to make an encore.
“When it feels like the time is right, that's when it happens,” Otjen said. “You can't plan for it.”
Otjen could kick it up a notch this season, however.
“Maybe get a little green dye involved this year,” he said.
Said James: “Hey, man, whatever you've got to do. If you keep hitting .360, you can do whatever you want with your hair.”
Otjen is among the top returning hitters for PLNU after hitting 11 home runs with 49 RBIS last season.
He also contributed on the mound, going 4-0 in 14 relief appearances with a 2.61 ERA, and is expected to be even more involved with the pitching this season.
“The thing I really love about being a two-way player is it gives you a chance to always succeed at something each day,” said Otjen, adding. “I like how you can make a bigger impact on the game.”
PLNU didn't realize Otjen's versatility when the Sea Lions first scouted him at nearby Point Loma High.
“We went to get him as a pitcher only,” James said. “But they were using him as a two-way player and he was just murdering baseballs.
“I was like, ‘Wait a second, he might be better on offense than he is a pitcher,' which is a true compliment. He's done both at an extreme level.”
Otjen is appreciated for the intensity he brings to the field as well as a more playful side of his personality that livens up the day during the grind of a baseball season.
“He's a different breed,” James said. “I think you have to manage other people. With him, the only thing I have to manage is him trying to do too much. He just doesn't have an off switch, so you have to protect him from himself sometimes.”
For example, James said, Otjen “will go from throwing a bullpen to running into some of our defensive drills and trying to hose somebody at the plate.”
Two weeks into the 2023 season, Otjen already has made three relief appearances.
At the plate, he already has four home runs and 11 RBIS, boosted by a two-homer, six-rbi game on Friday at Cal State Monterey Bay.
PLNU (7-1) opened this weekend's series at Cal State Monterey Bay with 35 runs — pounding eight homers — in Friday's doubleheader sweep.
On Saturday, Otjen helped the Sea Lions to a 9-6 win with his third homer of a series shortened from four games to three because of rain.
The Sea Lions seem as determined as the 2022 team, which opened the season with a school-record 10-game winning streak on the way to a runner-up finish for the Division II national title.
“It has left all the returners — and rubbed off on the new guys — that we're still hungry (to win the national title),” Otjen said. “Second place, as big of an accomplishment as it was, doesn't leave a great taste in your mouth. It makes you want to do more.”
2023 Outlook
The biggest challenge in another deep postseason run is replacing the pitching and offense provided by Baxter Halligan, the Pacwest Pitcher and Player of the Year who won a school-record 14 games while hitting 10 homers with 49 RBIS.
Halligan is among several key players who graduated, though a solid nucleus remains.
Returning starters include Otjen, SS Scott Anderson (.312, 9 HR, 49 RBIS), 1B Jakob Christian (.322, 13 HR, 56 RBIS) and CF Jack Malone
(.272, 7 HR, 40 RBIS) on offense.
Anderson (Sage Creek High), the Pacwest Defensive Player of the Year, and Christian (St. Augustine High), the conference Freshman of the Year, both prepped locally.
On the mound, RHP Dylan Miller (9-2, 4.06 ERA, 82 K in 88 IP) has moved up to No. 1 for his third season in the starting rotation.
RHP Hillier (1-2, 2.25 ERA, 17 SV, 57 K in 36 IP) is back as closer after leading the NCAA in saves a year ago.
“It's their time to pass on the culture and how we do things to the new players on the team,” James said. “That helps the transition from last year to this year.”
C Jake Entrekin (Steele Canyon High) moves into a starting role behind the plate.
Newcomers on the mound include Kaden Lewis ,a Washington native, and two local bounce-backs who figure in the starting rotation as well — RHP Ray Cebulski
(Eastlake High), a transfer from Long Beach State, and LHP Cole Colleran (Canyon Crest High), a transfer from USD.