Alexander Rivas began playing baseball when he was 4 years old in Reseda, California and as a sophomore starting pitcher for the Kingsmen baseball team, he has appeared in four games, completed 22 strikeouts and has a 1.71 ERA to start the season.

“The season so far has gone just like any team plans it. We are undefeated so far, which is amazing,” Rivas said. “We have faced many difficult challenges but we have overcome them.”

Rivas said his passion began from his dad and his grandpa who inspired him to play and as a kid, he grew up idolizing baseball players.

“I am a right-handed starting pitcher now, but as a kid I grew up looking up to position players. Vladimir Guerrero was my guy, number 27 was my number growing up. I really liked the way he played even though I am a Dodgers fan and he was on the Angels,” Rivas said.

As a team this season, Cal Lutheran is undefeated with an 11-0-1 record.

“Our coach’s message for this season is to take it one game at a time. We always say that we want to win, and that the most important game is now. We can’t look ahead, and we are trying to always go 1-0 everyday. We can never give up like our coach says, ‘The 7,8,9 innings is Kingsmen time’,” Rivas said.

Rivas’ teammate and sophomore catcher, Jalen Parks, described how Rivas is always a team player during the games.

“Alex is one of the best teammates,” Parks said. “He is always rooting for everyone else even when he is not pitching. He is a huge ‘ra-ra guy’ in the dugout by cheering everyone on.”

Parks attended Notre Dame High School and Rivas attended Crespi Carmelite, both in Los Angeles, and they got to see what each other had before they became teammates at Cal Lutheran. As Kingsmen, they have become really close and share a good bond like pitchers and catchers should.

“He’s one of the guys that comes out of practice everyday, grinds, gets his work in. He strives everyday to get something out of practice and get better. So come Fridays’ and Saturdays’ we can get the best out of him,” Parks said.

Although the Kingsmen are undefeated to begin the season, there is “always a need for improvement,” Rivas said. “I think we just need to continue to bring out the energy every single game right away. There have been a couple of games where there has been a lack in our energy to start the game, but we always finish strong. We can’t get distracted and think that we are going to win. We just need to continue to have great practices.”

Rivas started the season on a great note as he was named to the D3Baseball.com Team of the Week as starting pitcher. On Friday, Feb. 28, Rivas played against Chapman University and pitched 7.1 innings. This was his third start of the season and his pitching record is undefeated.

This season the Kingsmen are off to their best start in program history and are the first team this season in Division III to reach 10 wins.