College of the Canyons alum Jacob Lopez was on the mound at Dodger Stadium on Sunday, with the young left-hander, who also attended Saugus High School, drawing his first start of the season for the Tampa Bay Rays.

Lopez played at COC during the 2017 and 2018 seasons and turned in a highly successful two-year Cougar career.

His start on Sunday vs. the Dodgers came in front of a sizeable group of family, friends and supporters, including COC baseball head coach Chris Cota, but was a bit unexpected.

Lopez was recalled to the big league club from Triple-A Durham as a replacement for scheduled starter Shane Baz (illness). He was moved to the active roster on Sunday morning just hours before taking the mound.

Sunday’s outing was the first start of the season, and second of the career, for Lopez. He had previously logged four relief appearances for the Rays during the 2024 season.

Lopez worked five innings and limited the Dodgers lineup to one run, a solo home run by Kiké Hernandez in the fifth. He walked a pair of batters but recorded six strikeouts in the game. Included in that total was Shohei Ohtani’s strikeout in the third inning. Earlier in the series Ohtani became just the sixth player in league history to join the elusive 40/40 club.

Wearing No. 74 for the Rays, Lopez exited the game trailing 1-0 but did not factor into the decision.

Tampa Bay tied the game at 1-1 with a Jonny DeLuca home run in the seventh. The Dodgers eventually retook the lead on a two-run home run from Mookie Betts that proved to be enough for a 3-1 Dodgers victory.

“It was everything I could have asked for,” Lopez told reporters after the game. “Really a dream come true.”

From College of the Canyons to Tampa Bay

A two-year starter for the Cougars, Lopez helped COC win a conference title as a freshman in 2017 and was later named the 2018 Western State Conference (WSC), East Division Pitcher of the Year, after his sophomore campaign.

Lopez was also named to the 2018 American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA)/Rawlings Pacific Association Division (PAD) All-American Second Team; the ABCA/PAD Southern California All-Region First Team; and the California Community College Baseball Coaches Association (CCCBCA) Southern California All-State Team.

He finished the 2018 season with an 9-2 record and state-leading 128 punch-outs after logging double-digit strikeout totals in six of his 14 starts. His 1.62 ERA across 88 and 2/3 innings of work also ranked fourth in California that season.

Lopez was selected by the Giants in the 26th round (766th overall) of the 2018 draft and signed with the club a few weeks later.

In 2019, Lopez was part of a trade deadline deal that sent him from the Giants to the Rays system. After rehabbing from a Tommy John surgery that sidelined him through most of 2022, Lopez started the 2023 season at Double-A and was soon promoted to the Triple-A club in Durham, North Carolina later that summer.

The lefty made his MLB debut for the Tampa Bay Rays on Aug. 14, 2023 at Oracle Park, pitching against the San Francisco Giants, the franchise that originally drafted him.

Lopez entered the game in the bottom of the seventh with the Rays leading 6-1 in relief of Tampa Bay starter Tyler Glasnow, a fellow Santa Clarita Valley product who attended Hart High School.

He concluded the 2023 campaign with a 4.38 ERA across 12 and 1/3 innings, with win, a save and eight strikeouts, making one start.

Stay up to date on all this season’s action by visiting the College of the Canyons Athletic department on social media at @COCathletics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.