2017 UC Davis Baseball First Pitch & Hall of Fame Dinner Flyer

DAVIS, Calif. -- Former UC Davis baseball greats Carl Velleno, Greg Bruso, and Matt Kamigawachi, will be the latest inducted into the Aggie Baseball Hall of Fame as the program rings in the 2017 season with its annual First Pitch Dinner and Hall of Fame induction ceremonies on Feb. 25, 2017, at the UC Davis Conference Center ballroom on campus.

After facing Utah Valley on the diamond in the second home game of the 2017 season at 1 p.m., the Aggies invite supporters of the program to join them at 6 p.m. with a social hour, followed by dinner and ceremonies at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are available for $45 per person or, you can sponsor a UC Davis baseball student-athlete for the same price.

Tax-deductible sponsorships are also available at two levels: a gold sponsorship ($1000) includes a table for eight and a mention in the event program, while a blue sponsorship ($500) includes dinner for four and a program mention.

Those who wish to attend are asked to RSVP by Feb. 7, 2017, by contacting Dani Judal in the UC Davis athletics development office at (530) 754-7548, or via email at dcjudal@ucdavis.edu.

Velleno will be honored posthumously after the San Francisco native passed away following a two-year battle with brain cancer in October. A 1999 UC Davis graduate with a degree in exercise science, Velleno was a career .295 hitter for the Aggies from 1996-99, earning ABCA All-Region honors and All-CCAA first team laurels following a monster senior season that saw him hit .388 with 18 doubles, seven home runs, and 50 RBI. He led the team with 13 home runs as a sophomore, ranking tied for second on the UC Davis single-season chart, while his .388 average as a senior ranks seventh on the school's single-season list.

Among the Aggies' all-time leaders, Velleno ranks fifth with 123 career RBI, tied for seventh with 43 career doubles, tied for fourth with 23 home runs, and third with 49 career hit by pitches.

Bruso, a four-year letter winner from 1999-2002, capped off his UC Davis career with second team All-America honors and first team NABC All-Region honors as a senior after finishing tied for fifth on the school's single-season wins list with 10, to go along with a 1.94 ERA and 100 strikeouts -- totals that stand ninth and tied for sixth, respectively, on the single-season charts. The region and CCAA's Pitcher of the Year in 2002, Bruso made 49 career starts for the Aggies -- a mark that ranks second on the school's all-time list -- and holds the career mark for shutouts with seven, while standing among the top 10 in career innings (304.2), strikeouts (250), complete games (18), and strikeouts per nine innings (7.40).

He was taken in the 16th round (No. 487 overall) by the San Francisco Giants in the 2002 First-Year Player Draft, reaching as high as Double-A in his professional career.

One of four Aggies to play in more than 200 career games, Kamigawachi was a four-year letter winner for UC Davis from 2001-04, holding the career records with 798 at-bats and 266 hits, while ranking among the top 10 in runs scored (132), RBI (136), and doubles (50). A two-time All-CCAA first team honoree at third base, Kamigawachi led the team in hits for three straight seasons from 2002-04, including a career-best 82 as a junior, and added a team-high 17 doubles as a senior.

After striking out just nine times in 103 at-bats as a redshirt freshman, the Woodland, Calif., native hit a career-best .352 with a season-best 15-game hitting streak as a sophomore, following that up with a .331 average and NCAA West Regional all-tournament honors as a junior. During his senior season, Kamigawachi hit .345 while starting all 53 games, scoring 45 runs, slugging six home runs, and driving in 35.