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

Thursday, May 19
CSUN at Saint Mary’s, 3 p.m.

Friday, May 20
CSUN at Saint Mary’s (DH), 11 a.m.
CSUN at Saint Mary’s (DH), 2:30 p.m.
UC Riverside at No. 18 UC Santa Barbara, 5:30 p.m. E+
UC Davis at Cal Poly, 6 p.m. E+
CSU Bakersfield at UC Irvine, 6 p.m. E+
Cal State Fullerton at Long Beach State, 6 p.m. E+
Hawai’i at UC San Diego, 6:30 p.m. E+

Saturday, May 21
UC Davis at Cal Poly, 1 p.m. E+
Hawai’i at UC San Diego, 2 p.m. E+
Cal State Fullerton at Long Beach State, 3 p.m. E+
UC Riverside at No. 18 UC Santa Barbara, 4 p.m. E+
CSU Bakersfield at UC Irvine, 6 p.m. E+

Sunday, May 22
CSU Bakersfield at UC Irvine, 1 p.m. E+
Cal State Fullerton at Long Beach State, 1 p.m. E+
Hawai’i at UC San Diego, 1 p.m. E+
UC Riverside at No. 18 UC Santa Barbara, 1 p.m. E+
UC Davis at Cal Poly, 1 p.m. E+

Monday, May 23
Hawai’i at California Baptist, 6 p.m. E+

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

Thursday, May 12
CSUN 14, at Hawai’i 2

Friday, May 13
UC San Diego 15, at UC Davis 5
Dixie State 0, at No. 19 UC Santa Barbara 8
UC Irvine 13, at UC Riverside 1
Long Beach State 16, at CSU Bakersfield 2
Cal Poly 13, at Cal State Fullerton 4
CSUN 0, at Hawai’i 3

Saturday, May 14
UC San Diego 5, at UC Davis 6
Dixie State 6, at No. 19 UC Santa Barbara 7 (10 inn.)
UC Irvine 14, at UC Riverside 4
Cal Poly 6, at Cal State Fullerton 2
Long Beach State 4, at CSU Bakersfield 7

Sunday, May 15
Dixie State 7, at No. 19 UC Santa Barbara 8
UC Irvine 2, at UC Riverside 3
UC San Diego 5, at UC Davis 8
Cal Poly 2, at Cal State Fullerton 1
Long Beach State 5, at CSU Bakersfield 2
CSUN 1, at Hawai’i 10

Tuesday, May 17
UC Davis 5, at San Francisco 6 (10 inn.)
Cal Poly 14, at Pepperdine 6
USC 5, at No. 18 UC Santa Barbara 4
No. 23 UCLA 1, at UC Irvine 8

Big West wins in BOLD

What 2 Watch 4
No. 18 UC Santa Barbara has a four-game lead over Cal Poly at the top of The Big West table, with its magic number at two for clinching its second conference crown in three years and an automatic berth back into the NCAA Championship. Any combination of two Gaucho wins at home over UC Riverside or Mustang losses to UC Davis at their own Baggett Stadium, would wrap up a fourth overall title for UCSB ahead of the final week of the regular season.

Elsewhere, third-place Hawai’i heads to the mainland one final time in search of a seventh successive series victory at UC San Diego. Fifth-place UC Irvine hosts CSU Bakersfield and Long Beach State entertains Cal State Fullerton. All five Big West matchups have primetime Friday openers, while Sunday afternoon marks Senior Day in Irvine, Long Beach, La Jolla, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. Each of those series finales are slated for 1 p.m. first pitches. All 15 conference tilts this weekend are scheduled to air on ESPN+.

The penultimate week begins again on Thursday as CSUN kicks off a three-game non-conference set up north in Moraga with a matinee at Saint Mary’s of the West Coast Conference. That series concludes with a Friday doubleheader at 11 a.m. All three contests are on the WCC Network. UH plays in Riverside at California Baptist on Monday night at 5 p.m. PT on ESPN+ before returning to O’ahu. That is the lone midweek action remaining for 2022.

Poll Chatter
A 4-0 week moved UC Santa Barbara up another spot to No. 18 in Monday morning’s D1Baseball poll. The Gauchos advanced all the way to No. 5, from No. 9, in Collegiate Baseball’s listing. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) has UCSB down a position at No. 22. The Gauchos are rated No. 23 for a second straight week by Baseball America. They are up two rungs to No. 21 in USA Today’s rankings.

Pair of Big West Showcases on ESPNU
On Wednesday, Feb. 16, The Big West announced two baseball telecasts on ESPNU for this spring featuring the top three teams from the preseason coaches’ poll. Reigning conference champion UC Irvine edged preseason favorite Long Beach State, 2-1, at Blair Field on May 1. Then on Friday night, May 6, nationally-ranked current league leader UC Santa Barbara blanked the host ’Eaters, 2-0. UCI and UCSB represented The Big West in the NCAA postseason in 2021.

Statistical Superlatives
Through games played on May 17, Cal Poly tops The Big West in batting (.288), UC Santa Barbara in pitching (3.87), and Long Beach State in fielding (.974). The Gauchos’ team ERA is 20th nationally, and they also comfortably pace the league by 14 with 65 home runs.

Mustang shortstop Brooks Lee leads The Big West in slugging (.651), OPS (1.122), runs (46-tied), hits (76), RBI (48), doubles (22), total bases (136) and walks (43). A school-record 19 of those bases on balls are of the intentional variety. He is tied for seventh in the country in doubles. Cal State Fullerton’s Austin Schell now has enough at-bats to qualify for The Big West’s best batting average (.415-fourth nationally) and on-base percentage (.496). Lee is second in OBP (.471) and third in hitting (.364) behind him. He continues his Triple Crown pursuit and has moved into a tie atop the home run chart with UCSB slugger Broc Mortensen at 12 apiece. CSU Bakersfield’s AJ Miller has 11 long balls and UC San Diego’s Bubba Filia and CSUN’s Gabe Gonzalez have 10 each. Other offensive category leaders include Cal Poly’s Ryan Stafford in runs (46) and at-bats (221), Gaucho Nick Vogt in triples (four), Gonzalez in hit-by-pitches (18), UC Irvine’s Taishi Nakawake in sacrifice bunts (13), Stafford and Cole Cabrera of Hawai’i in sacrifice flies (five), and UCSB’s Jordan Sprinkle in steals (21).

Cal Poly’s Drew Thorpe paces The Big West by 37 with his 127 strikeouts, which is second in the nation behind only Florida State southpaw Parker Messick (132). The right-hander is first in the conference in WHIP (0.84) and innings (90.2), and second in ERA (2.38), opposing batting average (.172), hits allowed per nine innings (5.46), strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.05) and strikeouts per nine innings (12.61). Thorpe is seventh in Division I in WHIP, 10th in hits allowed per nine innings, 27th in strikeouts per nine innings, 28th in ERA, and 31st in strikeout-to-walk ratio. He has eight wins, as does Mustang teammate Zach Button and UC Santa Barbara’s Cory Lewis. Lewis is first in opposing batting average (.155) and hits allowed per nine innings (4.99), second in strikeouts (90) and third in ERA (2.55). He is fourth nationally in hits allowed per nine innings. UC Irvine reliever Gordon Ingrebitson is tops among qualifiers in ERA (2.03), strikeout-to-walk ratio (10.20) and walks allowed per nine innings (0.78), second in WHIP (0.88), and fourth in opposing batting average (.215). Nationally, he is fourth in walks allowed per nine innings, fifth in strikeout-to-walk ratio, 14th in WHIP, and 17th in ERA. LBSU’s Juaron Watts-Brown is first in The Big West and 16th in Division I in strikeouts per nine innings (13.13). He is third in the league in strikeouts (88) and opposing batting average (.184). Gaucho closer Ryan Harvey has 10 saves, tied for 15th in the country.

Gaucho Closer Harvey on Stopper List
Ryan Harvey of UC Santa Barbara was among 62 bullpen standouts named on Wednesday, April 27, to the 2022 NCBWA Stopper of the Year Midseason Watch List. The Gaucho closer’s 10 saves lead The Big West and tie him with 10 others for 15th nationally. Fellow third-year sophomore right-handers Devereaux Harrison of Long Beach State and Jacob King of UC Irvine were on the 66-player preseason list back on Feb. 17.

Three Big West Backstops on Buster Posey Watch List
Three Big West underclassmen were among 98 named on May 6 to the updated 2022 watch list for the Buster Posey Award, given annually by the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission to the top Division I collegiate catcher. They are sophomores Connor Burns of Long Beach State and Thomas McCaffrey of UC Irvine, and freshman Ryan Stafford of Cal Poly.

Beachy Day for Dirtbags in SLO
Long Beach State put together a historic team effort in San Luis Obispo on Saturday, April 9, as the Dirtbags defeated Cal Poly 28-2 behind a program-record 32 hits. Both the 28 runs and 32 hits were by far the most in a single game around The Big West in 2022, topping the 22 runs on 21 hits that UC San Diego produced at home against Seattle U on Feb. 19. Nationally, the 32 hits are the most in a Division I game this season, and the 28 runs are tied with six others for the 10th-best output. The hit tally fell one shy of matching the all-time Big West mark, as then-member Nevada had 33 against New Mexico State on April 18, 1999. Eight of the hits went for extra bases, with five of them home runs, including two by Charlie Loust, the first to lead off the contest just three pitches in. LBSU scored in each of the first eight innings, with a high of eight in the third. The result broke the Dirtbag standard for biggest scoring margin.

National Recognition for Cal Poly Pair
Two Cal Poly Mustangs have picked up national distinction for standout performances, with redshirt sophomore right-hander Drew Thorpe (3/28 and 5/16) and junior Collin Villegas (4/4) named among Collegiate Baseball National Players of the Week. Thorpe, also selected by the NCBWA as the Dick Howser Trophy National Pitcher of the Week on March 29, was honored for his 15-strikeout effort at UC San Diego (3/25). He scattered three hits over seven innings while combining on a 7-0 shutout. The strikeout total was a new career high, matched the program’s Division I-era standard, and is tied with nine others for the seventh-best single-game output around the country this season. Villegas batted .529 (9-for-17) with five doubles, a triple, six runs, 10 RBI and five walks during Cal Poly’s first 5-0 week in eight years. Thorpe later fanned 13 over 7.2 frames (4 H, 3 R, ER, BB) in a 13-4 victory at Cal State Fullerton (5/13).

Rare Feat by CSU Bakersfield’s Allanson
Andrew Allanson belted two grand slams, one from each side of the plate with the latter sailing over the scoreboard in left field in the ninth, in CSU Bakersfield’s narrow 10-9 home loss to Pepperdine on Tuesday night, March 22. The redshirt freshman designated hitter became the first Roadrunner to ever hit two grand slams in a contest, with his eight RBI breaking the single-game program record and serving as the most in The Big West this season.

 Last Week, Today
- Cal Poly posted the weekend’s lone league sweep, over Cal State Fullerton at Goodwin Field, to remain alive as the only team that could still catch UC Santa Barbara atop The Big West standings. The Gauchos would have clinched the title had the Mustangs lost that series. Hawai’i and UC Davis were Sunday rubber-game winners at home, against CSUN and UC San Diego, respectively, both of them rallying after suffering rather heavy defeats for openers. Long Beach State took its decider at CSU Bakersfield, and UC Irvine was the victor at UC Riverside. UCSB notched the non-conference home sweep over Dixie State.

- The six series openers saw the victorious teams outscore their opponents by the hefty aggregate margin of 79-14. Two of The Big West’s best arms, right-handers Cory Lewis of UC Santa Barbara and Drew Thorpe of Cal Poly, showed out on Friday night for their eighth wins.

- Lewis (7.0 IP, BB, 5 K) combined with Nick Welch (4 K) on a two-hit shutout (8-0) as the Gauchos’ seven-run first inning, capped by a two-run Zander Darby blast, was more than enough. The home side had a tougher time of it on Saturday and Sunday, eking out one-run affairs. UCSB walked off the Trailblazers 7-6 in 10 innings to clinch yet another series victory. Broc Mortensen’s two-out RBI single in the ninth extended the game, and after Dixie State hit a home run to lead off the 10th, Kyle Johnson provided the winning two-run single in the bottom half. DSU scored two in the ninth on Sunday and had runners at the corners when Alex Schrier finally got a flyout to center to save an 8-7 decision and complete the sweep.

- Thorpe reached double digits in strikeouts for the seventh time this season, fanning 13 over 7.2 frames to increase his league-leading total to 127. Brooks Lee’s grand slam punctuated a six-run sixth in the 13-4 rout. First-time Big West Field Player of the Week Joe Yorke drove in a career-high five runs, four different ways, via double, walk, two-run home run and ninth-inning single, as the Mustangs clinched their first ever series success at Goodwin Field on Saturday, 6-2. Matt Lopez’s home run to lead off the ninth gave Cal Poly the 2-1 triumph Sunday.

- Hawai’i picked up a sixth successive series victory and in the process continued a rather remarkable statistic. In taking Sunday’s rubber game, 10-1, the Rainbow Warriors have now outscored opponents 82-24 in their last five weekend finales. Of the six straight series wins, the past three have been in come-from-behind fashion. CSUN senior right-hander Blaine Traxel became the 10th in program history to reach the 200-strikeout mark for his career in Thursday night’s series opener, firing 8.0 innings in the 14-2 romp. UH evened the set Friday through a combined 3-0 shutout from Blaze Koali’i Pontes (6.2 IP, BB, 8 K) and three relievers. Kyson Donahue’s two-run double in the fifth and Jacob Igawa’s solo blast in the sixth was the offense.

- UC Davis tallied four runs in the bottom of the ninth and walked off UC San Diego, 6-5, to even that series on Saturday. Jonah Henrickson smoked an infield RBI single to first base to drive in Nick Leehey with the winning tally. All four scores were unearned after a leadoff error, as the hosts produced three straight RBI singles with two gone. The Aggies had already wiped out a 2-0 deficit with a two-run seventh before the Tritons went right back up through a three-run eighth. UC San Diego had rolled 15-5 in Friday afternoon’s first game. UCD held off the visitors in Sunday’s rubber contest, 8-5, for its first series victory of the Tommy Nicholson era.

- Long Beach State hit four long balls, all in the sixth and seventh frames, to cruise over CSU Bakersfield, 16-2, en route to its third consecutive series win. Though the Roadrunners leveled matters on Saturday, 7-4, the Dirtbags rallied from down 2-1 late to grab the finale, 6-2. They scored twice in the seventh, with Rocco Peppi providing the two-out, go-ahead RBI double, and Peyton Schulze tacked on a two-run single for insurance in the ninth.

- UC Irvine outscored UC Riverside over the first two meetings, 27-5. Rightfielder Nathan Church homered in both contests, a seventh-inning grand slam Saturday highlighting his 5-for-6 effort with three runs and four RBI. The ‘Eaters were then two outs away from completing the sweep on Sunday, but the Highlanders got a one-out RBI double from No. 9 hitter Nate Webb, and a two-out, first-pitch RBI single from Jacob Badawi, to walk off 3-2 victors.

- On Tuesday afternoon, Cal Poly bookended a five-run second and six-run ninth to dispatch Pepperdine in Malibu, 14-6, for a season-best eighth straight win. UC Davis got a game-tying home run from Raul Sandoval to lead off the ninth, but host San Francisco walked off a 6-5 winner in the 10th. That night, UC Irvine completed its home-and-home season sweep of No. 23 UCLA, 8-1, at Anteater Ballpark. Caden Kendle and Nathan Church had three hits and two runs apiece. The Bruins dropped their last four against Big West foes. UC Santa Barbara struck for three in the ninth but fell just short to visiting USC, 5-4. The games marked the non-conference finales for all four squads. CSU Bakersfield’s contest at Fresno State was canceled.
 

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

March 21 -
No. 25 Connecticut 7, at UC San Diego 8

April 26 -
UC Irvine 4, at No. 13 UCLA 2

May 3 - 
No. 8 UCLA 3, at Long Beach State 4 (12 inn.)

May 10 - 
No. 23 UCLA 2, at Cal State Fullerton 9

May 17 -
No. 23 UCLA 1, at UC Irvine 8

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.

Historic No-Hitter Nets Numerous Honors for Watts-Brown
Redshirt freshman right-hander Juaron Watts-Brown made Long Beach State history by twirling a no-hitter in a 4-0 win over UC Riverside on May 8 at Blair Field. It was the storied program’s second-ever no-hitter, and the very first of the complete-game variety, with the other one a combined effort by two other freshmen in Chris Mathewson (7.0 IP) and Darren McCaughan, also at home in a 4-0 Sunday victory, over Wichita State on March 1, 2015. It was the first no-hitter in The Big West since Cal State Fullerton’s Colton Eastman on March 29, 2018, the 19th in conference history, and 13th nine-inning no-no. Watts-Brown struck out 16, which is the most across the league in 2022, tied with three others for the third-best output in Division I, and one shy of Dirtbag great and three-time Major League Baseball All-Star Jered Weaver’s program standard. The outing unsurprisingly earned the Hanford native a slew of weekly honors. In addition to being the unanimous Big West Pitcher of the Week, Watts-Brown was one of nine Collegiate Baseball National Players of the Week, as well as the D1Baseball Player of the Week, College Baseball Foundation Pitcher of the Week, NCBWA Dick Howser Trophy National Pitcher of the Week, and Perfect Game/Rawlings Pitcher of the Week. He also garnered the Golden Spikes Award Performance of the Week, and the top spot on NCAA Baseball’s Plays of the Week. Watts-Brown retired the first 11 Highlanders, issued a two-out walk in the fourth, and set down the next 16 to complete his 114-pitch masterpiece.

USA Baseball on Tuesday, April 5, announced its 45-player midseason Golden Spikes Award watch list, continuing the process of identifying the top amateur baseball player in the country for the 2022 season. Three of the 45 standouts came from The Big West, in Cal Poly right-hander Drew Thorpe, Mustang shortstop Brooks Lee and UC Santa Barbara shortstop Jordan Sprinkle. The Big West is one of five collegiate athletic conferences boasting three or more selections. Lee, who was also chosen to the D1Baseball Midseason All-America First Team, is a member of the Golden Spikes midseason watch list for the second year in a row. He, Sprinkle, and Long Beach State right-hander Devereaux Harrison were on the initial 55-player preseason list back on Feb 15. The winner of the 44th Golden Spikes Award will be announced on Friday, June 24, on ESPN.

At least 18 former Big West Baseball student-athletes made 2022 Opening Day rosters around Major League Baseball. That ranked in the top five among all college conferences, behind the likes of the SEC, ACC and Pac-12.

Cal State Fullerton was best-represented with seven alums, including veteran catcher Kurt Suzuki and Michael Lorenzen still in Southern California with the Los Angeles Angels, and Justin Turner likewise with the 2020 World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Matt Chapman is in his first season for the Toronto Blue Jays, J.D. Davis is with the New York Mets, Dustin Garneau with the Detroit Tigers, and Noé Ramirez with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Long Beach State had its quartet of Matt Duffy (Angels), Garrett Hampson (Colorado Rockies), Jeff McNeil (Mets) and Bryan Shaw (Cleveland Guardians). Cal Poly’s trio featured Mitch Haniger, who homered in his first at-bat of the season to account for both Seattle Mariner runs during a 2-1 win in Minnesota on April 8 after a career-high 39 long balls a year ago, alongside pitchers Justin Bruihl of the Dodgers and Spencer Howard of the Texas Rangers.

Former UC Santa Barbara ace, 2020 American League Cy Young Award winner and two-time All-Star Shane Bieber earned his third straight Opening Day start for the Cleveland Guardians, while Dillon Tate, a fellow standout member of the Gaucho pitching staff in 2014 and 2015, is with the Baltimore Orioles. Former UC Irvine slugger Keston Hiura remains with the Milwaukee Brewers, while Andre Pallante made his MLB debut for the St. Louis Cardinals by throwing the seventh inning of a home loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday, April 10.

Hawai’i great Kolten Wong is also among the Brewer infielders, with CSU Bakersfield’s Austin Davis on the Boston Red Sox, but both of them wrapped up their college careers while those programs were in the Western Athletic Conference. At least two Big West alums began the new campaign on injured lists, in Dirtbag Evan Longoria and Titan Dylan Floro for the San Francisco Giants and Miami Marlins, respectively.

Long Beach State alum Brandon Hyde is in his fourth year in charge of the Orioles, while Cal State Fullerton legend Mark Kotsay is in his first season as an MLB manager, in charge of the Oakland Athletics. He earned career victory No. 1 in Philadelphia, 4-1, on Sunday, April 10. There are numerous other Big West products on MLB staffs.