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

Gauchos Are The Big West Champs!
No. 17 UC Santa Barbara (40-12, 24-3 Big West) wrapped up its second Big West title in three years with a 6-0 shutout at home over UC Riverside on Saturday. The Gauchos entered the penultimate weekend with their magic number at two, and erased it by defeating the Highlanders on Friday night in come-from-behind, walk-off fashion, 9-8, ahead of Saturday’s clincher. They became the second of 31 automatic NCAA Championship qualifiers, after Coppin State won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Tournament earlier Saturday. This is UC Santa Barbara’s fourth all-time Big West championship, with prior crowns in 1972, 1986 and 2019. The Gauchos notably won each of their first nine conference sets, with six sweeps. They conclude the regular season at CSU Bakersfield this Thursday through Saturday. UCSB will represent The Big West in the NCAA tournament for the third year in a row, 13th time overall, and sixth in head coach Andrew Checketts’ 11 seasons. The Gauchos have one College World Series appearance, that coming in 2016. The selection show for the 64-team 2022 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship will air on ESPN2 from 9-10 a.m. PT on Monday, May 30. The 16 regional hosts will be unveiled one night prior this Sunday, May 29.

Thursday, May 26
Long Beach State at UC Davis, 2:30 p.m. E+
UC San Diego at CSUN, 3 p.m. E+
No. 17 UC Santa Barbara at CSU Bakersfield, 6 p.m. E+
UC Riverside at California Baptist, 6 p.m. E+
UC Irvine at Cal State Fullerton, 7 p.m. E+
Cal Poly at Hawai’i, 9:35 p.m. E+

Friday, May 27
UC San Diego at CSUN, 2 p.m. E+
Long Beach State at UC Davis, 2:30 p.m. E+
California Baptist at UC Riverside, 6 p.m. E+
UC Irvine at Cal State Fullerton, 6 p.m. E+
No. 17 UC Santa Barbara at CSU Bakersfield, 6 p.m. E+
Cal Poly at Hawai’i, 9:35 p.m. E+

Saturday, May 28
UC Irvine at Cal State Fullerton, 1 p.m. E+
No. 17 UC Santa Barbara at CSU Bakersfield, 1 p.m. E+
Long Beach State at UC Davis, 1 p.m. E+
UC San Diego at CSUN, 1:10 p.m. E+
UC Riverside at California Baptist, 2 p.m. E+
Cal Poly at Hawai’i, 4:05 p.m. E+

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

Thursday, May 19
CSUN 19, at Saint Mary’s 2

Friday, May 20
CSUN 5, at Saint Mary’s 1 (7 inn.)
CSUN 7, at Saint Mary’s 3
UC Riverside 8, at No. 18 UC Santa Barbara 9
UC Davis 0, at Cal Poly 11
CSU Bakersfield 3, at UC Irvine 7
Cal State Fullerton 4, at Long Beach State 5
Hawai’i 7, at UC San Diego 4

Saturday, May 21
UC Davis 0, at Cal Poly 7
Hawai’i 9, at UC San Diego 5
Cal State Fullerton 3, at Long Beach State 4
UC Riverside 0, at No. 18 UC Santa Barbara 6
CSU Bakersfield 8, at UC Irvine 7 (12 inn.)

Sunday, May 22
CSU Bakersfield 3, at UC Irvine 6
Cal State Fullerton 3, at Long Beach State 0
Hawai’i 4, at UC San Diego 0
UC Riverside 2, at No. 18 UC Santa Barbara 14
UC Davis 3, at Cal Poly 6

Monday, May 23
Hawai’i 4, at California Baptist 6

Big West wins in BOLD

What 2 Watch 4
The final week of the 2022 Big West Baseball season is upon us and runs Thursday, May 26, through Saturday, May 28. Conference champion UC Santa Barbara will try to go 10-for-10 in winning Big West sets, on the road at CSU Bakersfield. Cal Poly looks to extend the longest win streak around the league this year of 11 games, further away from home on O’ahu against another in-form squad in Hawai’i, which has notched seven consecutive series triumphs. Just one victory for the Mustangs would lock up second place ahead of the Rainbow Warriors.

CSUN hosts UC San Diego to send off the retiring Dave Serrano. UC Irvine, tied with the Matadors for fourth, is at Cal State Fullerton. Sixth-place Long Beach State travels north to UC Davis in search of a fifth straight triumphant weekend. UC Riverside has wrapped up its league slate, and will contest its three-game Crosstown Showdown set with city rival California Baptist. The opener and finale are both at CBU’s Totman Stadium, with Friday night’s middle affair taking place at UCR’s Riverside Sports Complex. The reclassifying Lancers (33-20, 18-12 WAC) placed second in the seven-team Western Athletic Conference West Division, and are not yet eligible for the WAC Tournament. All 18 games are scheduled to air on ESPN+.

Saturday afternoon is Senior Day in Fullerton, Bakersfield, Davis, Northridge and Honolulu. That day’s first pitch at Matador Field has been pushed back to 1:10 p.m., as CSUN will honor Serrano alongside its eight seniors. UCR will recognize its senior class on Friday night.

Poll Chatter
UC Santa Barbara inched another spot up to No. 17 in Monday morning’s D1Baseball poll. The Gauchos also advanced one further rung to No. 4 in Collegiate Baseball’s listing. A second successive 4-0 week moved Cal Poly back into that top 30 for the first time since April 25, at No. 18. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) has UCSB up three positions to No. 19, with the Mustangs among others receiving votes beyond the top 30. The Gauchos are rated No. 23 for a third straight week by Baseball America. They are up three spots to No. 18 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. UC Irvine, the 2021 conference victor, edged preseason favorite Long Beach State, 2-1, at Blair Field on May 1. Then on Friday night, May 6, nationally-ranked league champion 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 24, Cal Poly tops The Big West in batting (.292), UC Santa Barbara in pitching (3.84), and Long Beach State in fielding (.974). The Gauchos’ team ERA is 13th nationally, and they also comfortably pace the league by 17 with 69 home runs.

Mustang shortstop Brooks Lee leads The Big West in slugging (.694), on-base percentage (.476), OPS (1.170), runs (53), hits (83), RBI (54), doubles (24), home runs (15), total bases (154) and walks (44). A school-record 20 of those bases on balls are of the intentional variety. He is tied with four others for fifth in the country in doubles. Long balls in eight of his past 14 games, including each of the last four, have moved Lee two clear of UCSB slugger Broc Mortensen (13) atop that leaderboard. He remains in Triple Crown contention, second only to Cal State Fullerton’s Austin Schell (.390) in batting average (.374). Other offensive category leaders include Cal Poly’s Ryan Stafford in at-bats (232), Gaucho Nick Vogt with five triples, CSUN’s Gabe Gonzalez in hit-by-pitches (19), UC Irvine’s Taishi Nakawake in sacrifice bunts (15), Stafford and Jordan Sprinkle of UCSB with six sacrifice flies apiece, and Sprinkle in steals (25) by 10. Nakawake is tied for third in Division I in sacrifice hits.

Cal Poly ace Drew Thorpe paces The Big West by 40 now with his nation-leading 139 strikeouts. The right-hander is also first in the conference in innings (96.2), opposing batting average (.173), wins (nine) and hits allowed per nine innings (5.49), and second in ERA (2.23), WHIP (0.86), strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.79) and strikeouts per nine innings (12.94). Thorpe is sixth in Division I in hits allowed per nine innings, seventh in WHIP, tied for 10th in victories, 15th in strikeouts per nine innings, 18th in ERA, and 32nd in strikeout-to-walk ratio. UC Irvine reliever Gordon Ingrebitson is tops in ERA (1.88), WHIP (0.85), pitching appearances (30), strikeout-to-walk ratio (11.20) and walks allowed per nine innings (0.72), and fourth in opposing batting average (.211). Nationally, he is second in walks allowed per nine innings, third in strikeout-to-walk ratio, sixth in WHIP, tied for 13th in appearances, and 13th in ERA. UC Santa Barbara’s Cory Lewis is second in opposing batting average (.175) and hits allowed per nine innings (5.74), and third in strikeouts (93). He is 13th nationally in hits allowed per nine innings. LBSU’s Juaron Watts-Brown is first in The Big West and 12th in Division I in strikeouts per nine innings (13.23). He is second in the league in strikeouts (99) and third in opposing batting average (.202). Gaucho closer Ryan Harvey has 10 saves, tied for 19th in the country.

Mustangs Lee and Thorpe Semifinalists for Dick Howser Trophy
Shortstop Brooks Lee and right-handed ace Drew Thorpe of Cal Poly were also named on May 19 among 40 semifinalists for the NCBWA’s Dick Howser Trophy, which goes to the outstanding player in college baseball. The Big West is one of six conferences with multiple semifinalists. Tennessee is represented by four student-athletes, with Cal Poly one of nine schools with two standouts on the list. The Dick Howser Trophy recipient will be unveiled on MLB Network ahead of first-day action at the 75th College World Series on Friday, June 17, during the 7 a.m. PT hour. Long Beach State great Jered Weaver was the 2004 winner.

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 19th 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.

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
- UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly and Hawai’i all posted three-game sweeps at the top of The Big West standings, with the Gauchos and Mustangs at home over UC Riverside and UC Davis, respectively. Cal Poly outscored the Aggies, 24-3, with a pair of shutouts for openers. UH won a seventh straight series at UC San Diego. UC Irvine took Sunday’s rubber game at home over CSU Bakersfield, while Long Beach State clinched a fourth consecutive conference weekend success with a pair of one-run decisions Friday and Saturday at Blair Field against Cal State Fullerton. CSUN swept its non-conference set at Saint Mary’s.

- UC Santa Barbara celebrated a second Big West title in three years in front of the home crowd following its 6-0 shutout over UC Riverside on Saturday, as closer Ryan Harvey got Cole Pofek to foul out to third baseman Bryce Willits to end a 1-2-3 ninth. Mike Gutierrez scattered six singles over the first eight innings, and Christian Kirtley, Broc Mortensen and John Newman Jr. backed him up with home runs. The Gauchos scored five times over the final two frames to overturn an 8-4 deficit and walk off as 9-8 victors in Friday night’s series opener. Jordan Sprinkle’s sacrifice fly sent Mortensen home with the decider. UCSB swiped 10 bases, the high around The Big West for 2022, and got a first collegiate blast from Mason Eng, in completing the sweep and reaching the 40-win mark for the third full season in a row on Sunday. Sprinkle stole two bags, and drove in a season-high four runs for the second time in three games.

- Ace Drew Thorpe struck out 12 more, reaching double figures for the eighth time in 2022 and his second start in a throw, over six scoreless frames while combining with three relievers on an 11-0 shutout. Thorpe took back the national lead in strikeouts, with 139, and earned his league-best ninth win, now at 9-1. The Mustangs blanked the Aggies again on Saturday to clinch the set, 7-0, as fifth-year junior southpaw Travis Weston (5 H, 0 BB, 9 K) faced three over the minimum in firing a complete-game shutout. Star shortstop Brooks Lee homered in both contests to take over sole possession of the top spot in The Big West. Saturday’s result gave Cal Poly the first double-digit win streak around the conference in 2022. The Mustangs earned a 6-3 decision Sunday to round out a second straight 4-0 week. Lee in fact produced a long ball in all four games, with eight runs and eight RBI, to garner Big West Field Player of the Week recognition for the second time this year and fifth for his career.

- Hawai’i defeated host UC San Diego 7-4 on Friday night behind junior starter Blaze Koali’i Pontes, who moved to 5-0 on the year by fanning seven without a walk over six strong frames. The result clinched the Rainbow Warriors’ first winning Big West campaign, tying the program high of 16 league triumphs. UH got a two-run Cole Cabrera homer eight pitches in and led for the duration. Saturday’s 9-5 decision behind a five-run fourth capped by a three-run Matt Wong shot, meant another series victory for first-year head coach Rich Hill’s club. Three arms combined on a five-hit, 4-0 shutout on Sunday, despite just three knocks for Hawai’i.

- UC Irvine allowed a three-run second to CSU Bakersfield but scored seven unanswered from there for a 7-3 series-opening win. Justin Torres began the fightback with a two-out, two-run double in the fourth. The Roadrunners rallied from 6-3 down and outlasted the ‘Eaters in 12 innings on Saturday, 8-7. Cody Hendriks drew a two-out, seven-pitch walk at the bottom of the order to force Matt Kurata home with the final tally. Sunday’s rubber contest went the way of the home side, which broke a 3-3 tie with single runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth.

- The Dirtbags clinched a fourth straight series success with a come-from-behind 4-3 victory on Saturday, having trailed 3-1 after four and a half frames. Juaron Watts-Brown fanned 11 over 7.0 innings, reaching double figures for the third time in his last four starts. Devereaux Harrison handled the final six outs, three on strikes, for his fourth save. First-time Big West Pitcher of the Week Fynn Chester twirled a three-hit shutout, facing just one over the minimum, as Cal State Fullerton salvaged the Sunday finale, 3-0. LBSU had grabbed the first game, 5-4, with Eddie Saldivar’s two-run home run in the seventh accounting for the decisive tallies.

- CSUN bombarded Saint Mary’s in Thursday afternoon’s opener, 19-2, producing season highs of 19 runs and 20 hits and a pair of seven-inning frames in the fourth and eighth to bookend the scoring. Lucas Braun (5 H, 0 BB, 7 K) tossed a seven-inning complete game as the visitors clinched the set with a 5-1 win in the first game of Friday’s doubleheader. CSUN registered the sweep by taking the nightcap, 7-3, behind starter Diego Gutierrez’s five scoreless frames.
 

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

Cal Poly Duo Among Golden Spikes Semifinalists
Cal Poly redshirt sophomores Brooks Lee and Drew Thorpe are among 31 semifinalists for USA Baseball’s Golden Spikes Award, which identifies the top amateur baseball player in the country for the 2022 season. Out of 26 universities represented, Cal Poly is one of five with two on the list. Semifinal fan voting goes through June 6 at GoldenSpikesAward.com, with the finalists announced two days later. Southpaw Matt Imhof (2004) is the Mustangs’ only previous Golden Spikes Award semifinalist. Lee and Thorpe were joined by UC Santa Barbara shortstop Jordan Sprinkle on the 45-player midseason watch list on April 5. The Big West was one of five collegiate athletic conferences then to boast three or more selections. Lee, who was also chosen to the D1Baseball Midseason All-America First Team, was 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.

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.

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.