Big West Baseball: Composite Schedule || Standings || Stats 

Friday, March 18
Cal State Fullerton at UC Santa Barbara, 5:30 p.m. E+ 
CSU Bakersfield at UC Riverside, 6 p.m. E+ 
Hawai’i at Long Beach State, 6 p.m. E+ 
CSUN at Cal Poly, 6 p.m. E+ 

Saturday, March 19
UC Davis at UC Irvine (DH), 1 p.m. E+ 
Hawai’i at Long Beach State, 3 p.m. E+ 
CSUN at Cal Poly, 4 p.m. E+ 
Cal State Fullerton at UC Santa Barbara, 4 p.m. E+ 
UC Davis at UC Irvine (DH), 6 p.m. E+ 
CSU Bakersfield at UC Riverside, 6 p.m. E+ 
Connecticut at UC San Diego, 6 p.m. E+ 

Sunday, March 20
UC Davis at UC Irvine, 1 p.m. E+ 
Hawai’i at Long Beach State, 1 p.m. E+ 
CSUN at Cal Poly, 1 p.m. E+ 
CSU Bakersfield at UC Riverside, 1 p.m. E+ 
Cal State Fullerton at UC Santa Barbara, 1 p.m. E+ 
Connecticut at UC San Diego, 2 p.m. E+ 

Monday, March 21
Connecticut at UC San Diego, 1 p.m. E+ 

Tuesday, March 22
UNLV at UC Riverside, 2 p.m.
Dixie State at CSUN, 2 p.m.
UC Santa Barbara at Saint Mary’s, 3 p.m.
Cal Poly at California, 3:05 p.m.
Long Beach State at Fresno State, 6 p.m.
San Diego State at UC San Diego, 6 p.m. E+ 
UC Irvine at San Diego, 6 p.m.
Cal State Fullerton at USC, 6 p.m.
Pepperdine at CSU Bakersfield, 6:05 p.m. E+ 

All times Pacific, and subject to change; E+ - Streamed on ESPN PLUS

Friday, March 11
Portland 7, at UC Riverside 6 (8 inn.)
Portland 10, at UC Riverside 0 (7 inn.)
CSUN 9, at McNeese State 6
CSU Bakersfield 8, at Pacific 5
No. 25 Gonzaga 7, at Long Beach State 2
Harvard 0, at Cal Poly 5
Iowa 6, at UC Irvine 7
UC Santa Barbara 9, vs. UC San Diego 6
Loyola Marymount 11, at Cal State Fullerton 12 (15)
Rutgers 10, at Hawai’i 11

Saturday, March 12
CSUN 3, at McNeese State 4 (10 inn.)
Harvard 1, at Cal Poly 10
CSU Bakersfield 2, at Pacific 3
No. 25 Gonzaga 3, at Long Beach State 13
Rutgers 13, at Hawai’i 1 (7 inn.)
UC Santa Barbara 3, vs. UC San Diego 2
Harvard 4, at Cal Poly 3
Iowa 1, at UC Irvine 2
Loyola Marymount 8, at Cal State Fullerton 2
Rutgers 6, at Hawai’i 2

Sunday, March 13
CSUN 6, at McNeese State 4
Harvard 9, at Cal Poly 4
CSU Bakersfield 7, at Pacific 10
No. 25 Gonzaga 0, at Long Beach State 1
Iowa 12, at UC Irvine 1
Loyola Marymount 5, Cal State Fullerton 9
Rutgers 7, at Hawai’i 13
 

Tuesday, March 15
CSUN 7, at Loyola Marymount 4
Cal State Fullerton 10, at San Diego 11

Wednesday, March 16
Connecticut 1, at Long Beach State 7

Big West wins in BOLD

What 2 Watch 4
It’s time for Big West Baseball! 

Eight of the 11 Big West programs begin their 30-game conference schedules this Friday night, March 18, with two more joining them the next day. The four primetime affairs Friday evening are at 5:30 p.m. in Santa Barbara to get things rolling, followed by a trio of 6 p.m. starts in Riverside, Long Beach and San Luis Obispo. Twenty of the 27 contests this week are scheduled to air live on ESPN+.

Preseason favorite Long Beach State rounds out its season-long 11-game home stand against Hawai’i Friday through Sunday, before heading up to face Fresno State on Tuesday night. UC Riverside likewise concludes a season-long 11-game home stand, hosting CSU Bakersfield to open Big West play before UNLV pays a visit on Tuesday afternoon. The Roadrunners entertain Pepperdine Tuesday night.

Cal Poly hosts CSUN at Baggett Stadium all weekend. The Matadors welcome Dixie State to Northridge on Tuesday afternoon, with the Mustangs in Berkeley against Cal. UC Santa Barbara takes its current league bests of a five-game win streak and 10-4 record into a home set with Cal State Fullerton Friday night through Sunday, before traveling north on Tuesday for a matinee at Saint Mary’s. The Titans are at USC on Tuesday night.

With University of California schools taking final exams this week, the three-gamer between UC Irvine and UC Davis at Cicerone Field in Irvine will be a two-day affair featuring a Saturday doubleheader and Sunday finale, both set for 1 p.m. starts. The ‘Eaters then move south to play at the University of San Diego on Tuesday night.

UC San Diego, also in final exams this week, hosts a strong UConn squad for a three-game series Saturday night through Monday, as the lone member idle from Big West competition this first week. The Huskies are 12-3 on the season thus far, and 3-2 on their eight-game California swing, having taken two out of three against Pepperdine in Malibu last weekend before knocking off USC on Tuesday night and falling in Long Beach on Wednesday. The Tritons finish off a season-long seven-game home stand on Tuesday night with their first of four matchups this season against crosstown foe San Diego State.

Poll Chatter
UC Santa Barbara held on to the No. 30 spot in this week’s Collegiate Baseball poll. The Gauchos, Long Beach State and UC Irvine are receiving votes outside of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) top 30. UCI is also getting votes beyond USA Today’s top 25.

Pair of Big West Tilts Announced for ESPNU
On Wednesday, Feb. 16, The Big West announced two baseball telecasts on ESPNU this spring which feature the top three teams in the preseason coaches’ poll. Defending conference champion UC Irvine will play at preseason favorite Long Beach State at 1 p.m. PT on Sunday, May 1. Then on May 6, UC Irvine hosts UC Santa Barbara under Friday night lights in a 7 p.m. PT showdown at Cicerone Field. The Anteaters and Gauchos represented The Big West in the NCAA postseason in 2021. Games aired on ESPN networks are available on the ESPN App, accessible on computers, smartphones, tablets and connected devices to fans who receive their video subscription through an authenticated provider.

Big West History
The Big West has sent at least one team to the College World Series in 21 seasons, including a stretch of eight consecutive years from 1988-95 and four in a row from 2014-17. Four current members have represented the Big West at the CWS - Cal State Fullerton (1975, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2015, 2017), Long Beach State (1989, 1991, 1993, 1998), UC Irvine (2007, 2014) and UC Santa Barbara (2016). In 2007, CSF and UCI played in the longest game in CWS history - a five-hour and 40-minute marathon that lasted 13 innings and ended in a 5-4 Anteater victory. The Big West has won two national titles, both by the Titans, in 1995 and 2004.

 Last Week, Today
- Long Beach State won a second straight series in come-from-behind fashion, and second road series over a nationally-ranked team already this season, as the Dirtbags took Sunday’s rubber game with No. 25 Gonzaga, 1-0, on Tyler Porter’s walk-off single to right field to score Big West Field Player of the Week Rocco Peppi from second with one away in the ninth inning. In Saturday’s 13-3 romp, Peppi, a redshirt freshman, went 3-for-4 with his first two collegiate home runs and season highs of three runs scored and five driven in. Long Beach State totaled a season-best five long balls, with two from Chase Luttrell and a league-leading fourth by Jonathon Long. The Dirtbags had hit six home runs on the year entering the weekend.

- Late, late Friday night, past midnight in the Pacific time zone, Cal State Fullerton and Hawai’i knocked off visiting Loyola Marymount and Rutgers, respectively, in lengthy barnburners. The Titans walked off the Lions in a wild one, 12-11, in the second 15-inning, five-plus-hour affair played by a Big West side this year. Brendan Bobo reached on an infield error to lead off the 15th, was sacrificed to second, and came around to score on back-to-back wild pitches. Jason Brandow’s home run on the first pitch of the home ninth had extended the contest deep into the night. On O’ahu, the Rainbow Warriors outlasted the Scarlet Knights, 11-10, overturning a 9-7 deficit with a four-run eighth.

- Cal State Fullerton went on to secure its first series victory of 2022, taking Sunday’s rubber game with LMU, 9-5. UH won 13-7 on Sunday to ultimately split the four-gamer after Rutgers had swept Saturday’s doubleheader, breaking open a tight one through a five-run sixth.

- Cal Poly won its first two at home against the Ivy League’s Harvard by an aggregate score of 15-1, before settling for the four-game split. The highlight for the Mustangs was the complete-game shutout twirled by second-time Big West Pitcher of the Week Drew Thorpe on Friday night, allowing just three hits while striking out 11.

- UC Irvine took its series over visiting Iowa of the Big Ten Conference. The Anteaters clinched the set by Saturday night, earning 7-6 and 2-1 decisions to run their season-best win streak to five games, all via narrow one-run margins. They came out on top in the opener despite getting out-hit 15-5, tying the game 3-3 with a three-run fifth and surging ahead through a four-run sixth. UCI nearly overcame a 12-2 deficit in the Sunday finale, combining to score eight times in the sixth, seventh and eighth, but finally succumbed to the Hawkeyes, 12-10.

- CSUN wrestled away Sunday morning’s rubber game with host McNeese State in Lake Charles, La., 6-4. CSU Bakersfield lost a three-game series at Pacific after producing an 8-5 victory for starters on Friday night behind a three-run James Bell home run to open the scoring in the third, while UC Riverside was swept by visiting Portland.

- UC Santa Barbara won a pair of neutral-site, non-conference meetings with Big West foe UC San Diego at The Diamond in Lake Elsinore, home of the Lake Elsinore Storm, a minor-league affiliate of the San Diego Padres. Cory Lewis was the victor in Friday night’s matchup of the two previous Big West Pitchers of the Week, going 5.0 innings in the 9-6 Gaucho triumph. The Tritons’ true freshman right-hander and then-reigning weekly honoree, Matthew Dalquist, tossed two scoreless frames to begin the contest and did not figure in the decision, as UCSB struck for six in the third after his departure to overturn a 1-0 deficit. That rally was bookended by a three-run Nick Vogt triple and a two-run Bryce Willits home run. Both players drove in four.

- In midweek action, CSUN prevailed 7-4 at local foe LMU on Tuesday night, as No. 9 hitter and fifth-year senior Brandon Bohning went 3-for-4 with his first home run of 2022, two runs and a career-high-tying four RBI. The Matadors totaled six extra-base hits. Cal State Fullerton began the ninth with four straight singles and scored twice to halve its deficit at San Diego. Following back-to-back walks to greet a new reliever and force in a third run to make it 11-10, a shallow popout, strikeout and flyout stranded the bases loaded as the Toreros barely hung on.

- Long Beach State defeated Connecticut on Wednesday night, 7-1, getting two-run singles by Long in the first and Peppi in the fifth en route to a third win in a row. The Dirtbags drew a single-game program-record 13 walks. Zach Voelker fired six no-hit innings with seven strikeouts and just a two-out walk against him in the fifth. The Huskies finally managed a single to lead off the seventh and an unearned run in the ninth.

Ranked Wins
Here is a look at Big West teams with wins over nationally-ranked non-conference opponents this season, based on the D1Baseball poll.

Feb. 18 - 
No. 24 Long Beach State 3, at No. 4 Mississippi State 0

Feb. 19 - 
No. 24 Long Beach State 13, at No. 4 Mississippi State 3
Cal State Fullerton 11, at No. 6 Stanford 0

March 4 -
CSUN 9, at No. 6 Stanford 3

March 6 -
UC Irvine 3, at No. 13 Oregon State 2 (10)

March 12 -
No. 25 Gonzaga 3, at Long Beach State 13

March 13 -
No. 25 Gonzaga 0, at Long Beach State 1