Griffith, Hutson, Howard, Marjala offense leads Condors' return to playoffs; CSUB, BC sports news

As the Bakersfield Condors prepare for their first participation in the Calder Cup playoffs in two seasons with its AHL Pacific Division first-round series with Coachella Valley, this is a chance to examine the regular-season statistics to show what helped them offensively to reach the postseason.

The Condors received a solid regular season from its captain, Seth Griffith. The right wing led the team in scoring, scoring 18 goals and piling up 49 assists for 67 points. He finished fifth in the AHL and was only one point away from being tied for third place and three points from tying for second.

Quinn Hutson, also a right wing, amassed 30 goals and 33 assists in his rookie AHL season. He had the most goals among all rookies and his 63 points were second only to Hershey center Ilya Protas’ 66 points (29 goals, 37 assists). Hutson, who was Bakersfield’s lone representative in the AHL All-Star Game, was named AHL Rookie of the Month for December and just last week was named to the AHL’s All-Rookie team.

He was joined on the latter by another talented first-year Condors player, left wing Isaac Howard, who scored 24 goals and 26 assists for 50 points. The 50 points put him fourth among rookie scoring leaders. It could have been more, but Howard, the 2025 Hobey Baker Award winner as the nation’s top Division I NCAA player, started the 2025-26 season with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers for 29 games, scoring two goals and assisting on three others. Howard received the AHL’s Player of the Month award for December.

Another top offensive performer has been center Viljami Marjala. He’s 20th in the AHL in scoring with 60 points, with 17 goals and 43 assists.

Coachella Valley’s top scorer is Logan Morrison with 61 points — 29 goals and 32 assists — which is 14th-best in the league.

The Condors, the No. 5 seed, will host No. 4 seed Coachella Valley in Thursday’s opening game of the best-of-three series. Game time is 7 p.m. After a day off Friday, the teams will play Game 2 at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Firebirds’ Acrisure Arena. If necessary, Game 3 is at 5 p.m. Sunday, also at Acrisure Arena.

BC tennis

The Bakersfield College men’s tennis team are not playing in the dual team state playoffs, but three singles players and three doubles teams will compete when the 3C2A State Individuals Tournament begins play Thursday in Ojai.

BC’s singles qualifiers are Mateusz Lipczynski, seeded second in Southern California; Axl Lajon Gonzaga is the ninth seed and Orlando Vankan is 24th. In doubles, BC’s teams will be Gonzaga and Shang En Kao, Lipczynski and Vankan and Zeb Duket and Chin-Chang Wu.

For the Renegade women’s draw, sophomores Naomi Pavletich and Kailani Lua qualified in both singles play and as a doubles team. Matches start on Thursday.

Pavletich is the eighth seed among Southern California players. Her first-round match will be against Northern California’s No. 6 seed, Subha Patel of American River. Lua, meanwhile, is 13th in SoCal and her first-round opponent will be NorCal No. 12 Sadie Avila of College of the Sequoias.