2023 Big West Baseball Schedule | Standings | Stats | Week 13 Notes (.pdf)
What 2 Watch 4
Cal State Fullerton holds a two-game lead over reigning Big West champion and preseason favorite UC Santa Barbara heading into the final three weeks of the regular season. The Gauchos, winners of three straight and nine of their last 11, are at Long Beach State for this weekend’s featured series, highlighted by Saturday night’s middle contest in primetime on national television. First pitch from Bohl Diamond at Blair Field is slated for just after 7:30 p.m. on ESPNU. The entire set can be viewed on ESPN+. UCSB swept the Dirtbags by an aggregate score of 27-5 at home in 2022.
The Titans entertain third-place UC San Diego with coverage on ESPN+ on all three days. The Tritons took two of three in La Jolla last season, walking off the Sunday rubber game on a two-run blast by current senior second baseman Crew Robinson in the 10th inning.
Fourth-place CSUN and fifth-place UC Irvine await another key series in Northridge, with just Sunday’s 1 p.m. finale at Matador Field on ESPN+. The Anteaters enter as victors of three straight and nine of 10, while CSUN is 15-6 at home. The Matadors nabbed the first two of three in Irvine a season ago, both narrow two-run decisions in extras.
Back home from a season-long eight-game road trip on which it went 3-5, Hawai’i welcomes UC Davis to O’ahu for a series that will begin Thursday night and take a day off on Saturday. The Thursday and Sunday contests can be seen on ESPN+ on the mainland and Spectrum Sports locally. All three can be heard via ESPN Honolulu. The Rainbow Warriors won the 2022 matchup in Davis, two games to one.
CSU Bakersfield and UC Riverside match up at Hardt Field, where the Roadrunners are 11-12, with coverage on ESPN+ throughout the weekend. CSUB swept the Highlanders in Riverside in 2022 and have won five straight meetings. Cal Poly is the odd team out from conference play this week, with the Mustangs traveling to Salt Lake City, Utah, for three games against the Utah Utes of the Pac-12. All three contests will have a live video stream provided by Utah Athletics.
In a light midweek with the regular season winding down, UC Santa Barbara hosts California Baptist on Monday night at 5:05 p.m. to conclude that home-and-home set, the Lancers having taken a 6-4 decision in Riverside on May 2. Also on Monday, UC Irvine hosts Arizona at 6 p.m., looking to move to a still-perfect 9-0 against Pac-12 opposition in 2023. Both games can be watched on ESPN+.
Tuesday night sees the end of the second edition of the Trolley Series between city rivals UC San Diego and San Diego State, at SDSU’s Tony Gwynn Stadium at 6 p.m. on the Mountain West Network. The Tritons hold a 2-1 edge there, having won three out of four with the Aztecs a year ago. In earlier action, UC Davis is at San Francisco at 1 p.m. and Cal Poly hosts Fresno State at 5 p.m. on ESPN+.
Check listings to see which upcoming games will air on ESPN+.
Last Week, Today
The first weekend of May featured zero sweeps for the first time in 2023. Sunday rubber games went to UC Santa Barbara and CSUN on the road at UC Riverside and UC San Diego, respectively, and UC Irvine at home versus Hawai’i. All three clubs rallied to win their sets after dropping the Friday opener, with the Gauchos and Matadors both getting walked off 5-4 in 11 innings. CSU Bakersfield also overturned a one-game deficit from Friday to down Long Beach State at Blair Field. UC Davis took Sunday’s decider at home over Cal Poly. In non-conference action, Cal State Fullerton was felled at Big 12 foe TCU, 2-1.
Mason Grace drew a pinch-hit, five-pitch, walk-off walk in the 11th as UCR upset UCSB on Friday night, 5-4. The Gauchos left no room for any Sunday rubber-game drama by scoring four in the fourth and eight more in the fifth en route to an 18-4 romp. The Big West Field Player of the Week Jonah Sebring went 5-for-6 with two late home runs, four runs and five RBI. His two-out, two-run single got things going in the first.
After UC San Diego walked off the 5-4 victor on Friday night on a Matt Halbach single in the 11th and grabbed a single tally in the second inning on Saturday, CSUN scored 21 unanswered runs to take the series, 10-1 and 11-0. A seven-run seventh did the big damage on Sunday as the Matadors got home runs from Ali Camarillo, Mason Le, Kevin Fitzer and Jakob Simons, while Jon Mocherman (6.1 IP, 5 K) combined with three relievers on a three-hit shutout. Thomas Bainton had allowed just an unearned run while fanning seven on Saturday.
Jared Quandt provided a two-run home run and an RBI triple ahead of a two-run Jacob Igawa double as UH knocked off a red-hot UCI squad at Anteater Ballpark to begin that set, 7-2. The ‘Eaters responded by allowing just one more run over the weekend in defeating the Warriors 6-0 and 6-1. Michael Stanford (7.0 IP, 5 K) and two relievers combined on a four-hit shutout Saturday. Caden Kendle and Thomas McCaffrey bookended the scoring with two-run shots. Third-time Big West Pitcher of the Week Nick Pinto took the ball and took care of business on Sunday, providing season bests of 7.2 innings and 11 strikeouts.
UC Davis posted its first series win over Cal Poly since 2015. The host Aggies saw Bryan Green (7.0 IP, 3 K) and Danny Carrion combine on a three-hit, 1-0 shutout on Friday, the lone run coming home on an Alex Gouveia sacrifice fly in the first. After Steven Brooks (7.0 IP, 7 K) helped the Mustangs even the series with an 8-1 decision Saturday, UC Davis again blanked them on Sunday, 8-0. Kaden Hogan (5.0 IP, 5 K) was followed by three relievers as Cal Poly managed just three singles. Leighton Helfrick’s bases-loaded double highlighted a six-run first.
Long Beach State smacked a season-high-tying four home runs, two by newcomer Jack Hammond, to get off to a good start Friday against the Roadrunners, 8-2. CSUB then got a go-ahead RBI single by James Bell in the top of the 10th Saturday and added an insurance score to level the set, 7-5. The ‘Runners notched a six-run fifth to overturn a 3-0 deficit in Sunday’s 6-3 win, Bell again the hero with a two-out, three-run double.
Cal State Fullerton took just the opener over TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, by the final of 2-1 as the Titans got back-to-back two-out RBI singles by Zach Lew and Caden Connor in the third and made them hold up. Tyler Stultz (6-3) was brilliant over 6.0 innings (5 K), while Jojo Ingrassia faced the minimum over the final two frames to earn his sixth save.
Highlights Tuesday in midweek action were UC Santa Barbara’s 7-4 home win over LMU as Christian Kirtley and Jared Sundstrom both hit solo blasts, UC Irvine’s 10-2 romp in its trip south to USD’s Fowler Park, and Cal Poly’s 11-3 rout of visiting Fresno State. The ‘Eaters thus swept all three meetings with the Toreros, while the Mustangs improved to 2-0 against the Bulldogs with one more showdown in San Luis Obispo. UCI scored the final 10 runs and broke open a 4-2 game with a six-run eighth, punctuated by a three-run Anthony Martinez homer. Cal Poly erupted for eight in the third, with Ryan Stafford going 4-for-5 with two doubles, a home run and three RBI.
Poll Chatter
First-place Cal State Fullerton fell out of Monday morning’s latest D1Baseball national poll after making its season debut at No. 24. The Titans are down from No. 12 to No. 18 in Collegiate Baseball’s top 30, with UC Santa Barbara falling from a season-best-tying No. 9 to No. 20. Fullerton also exited the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) listing (previously No. 29), but is still receiving votes outside of that top 30 along with UCSB and UC Irvine. The Titans are still gaining consideration beyond USA Today’s top 25. The latest RPI rankings have Fullerton at 42, UCSB at 44 and UCI at 45.
Top Big West Tilt Set for ESPNU
On Feb. 14, The Big West announced one baseball telecast on ESPNU this spring which features two of the top three teams in the preseason coaches’ poll. Defending conference champion and preseason favorite UC Santa Barbara, currently in second place, plays at Long Beach State in primetime at 7:30 p.m. PT in the middle game of their series this Saturday, May 13, at Bohl Diamond at Blair Field. The Gauchos represented The Big West in the 2022 NCAA postseason, with the Beach picked for a third-place finish in 2023. One of America’s premier amateur baseball facilities, Blair Field welcomed the addition this offseason of the new Bryson Financial Video Board, a state-of-the-art video display nearly 26.5 feet high and 50 feet wide in right center. 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.
Gaucho Power Hour
UC Santa Barbara comfortably tops The Big West for the third straight year in home runs with 73. Long Beach State is closest with 52. Eight of its long balls came in a late-April sweep at UC San Diego, including a season-high-tying five in the finale, a mark UCSB has reached four times in 2023 and three times since April 2. Among those five was a titanic blast by newcomer Jared Sundstrom that actually smacked off the side of a trolley moving right to left above the left field fence, and was estimated to have traveled 470 feet. The first-pitch solo shot went viral on social media, with nearly 300 thousand views on Twitter alone. Sundstrom is the league’s home run leader with 13. Seniors Christian Kirtley and Broc Mortensen are also in double digits with 12 and 10, respectively. Mortensen sits one off of matching the program standard with 41 career homers. Matt Wilkerson hit 42 from 2002-05.
Surveying Some Stats
UC Santa Barbara paces the league and is seventh in the country with a team ERA of 3.85. CSUN tops The Big West with a .302 batting average, good for 35th nationally, with UC Irvine now the best fielding club at .977. The Matadors are also second in both pitching (4.53) and fielding (.976). The Anteaters are tied for second in Division I in sacrifice flies (36) and tied for eighth in hit-by-pitches (99). UCI true freshman first baseman Anthony Martinez is the individual batting leader at .397. Fellow rookie Hudson Barrett of UCSB is No. 5 in the country in ERA (1.81) and 17th in hits allowed per nine innings (5.98). The southpaw is also No. 1 in The Big West in opposing batting average (.192). Teammate Matt Ager is first in innings (76.2), WHIP (1.03) and strikeouts (95), followed in all three categories by Long Beach State newcomer Nico Zeglin (72.1 IP, 1.05 WHIP and 94 K). Cal State Fullerton’s Fynn Chester has the best walks allowed per nine mark in the country now of 0.68, having issued just four free passes over 52.2 frames. The senior righty is also fifth in strikeout-to-walk ratio (8.75). Gaucho newcomer Jared Sundstrom has a league-best 13 home runs, and is also No. 1 in slugging (.722) and OPS (1.151).
Success Versus Pac-12
In back-to-back weeks, UC Santa Barbara (Feb. 24-25) and UC Irvine (March 3-5) produced impressive three-game road sweeps of traditional Pac-12 powerhouses in then-25th-ranked Oregon (currently No. 24) and Arizona State (second place in Pac-12), respectively. The Gauchos outscored the Ducks, 20-3, while the Anteaters held a decisive run advantage of 33-17 over the Sun Devils. The ‘Eaters are now 8-0 (UCLA and USC twice each; Washington State) against the Pac-12 in 2023, and still host Arizona on May 15. They swept a home-and-home series with UCLA for the second year in a row. UCI routed the then-22nd-ranked Bruins on the road on April 18, 12-4, behind an eight-run fifth, and then scored in all eight of its turns at the plate to again cruise 12-3 in Irvine on May 2 in front of 2,469 fans, the seventh-largest crowd in Anteater Ballpark history (biggest since 2009). The ‘Eaters are winners of a remarkable 13 straight against Pac-12 foes going back to a 9-5 loss at then-13th-ranked Oregon State on March 5, 2022.
Collegiate Baseball Weekly Awards
Three Big West baseball standouts have been named among Collegiate Baseball National Players of the Week in 2023. Most recently it was UC San Diego’s Brandon Larson (.375, 5 R, 10 RBI, 1.125 slugging) on May 1, after the true freshman hit home runs in all four games during a 3-1 road week, and drove in three runs on each day of a sweep at Cal Poly. UC Santa Barbara redshirt senior Christian Kirtley was selected on April 17, having produced four home runs alongside a double, nine runs and four RBI while batting .389 (7-for-18) over five games. The Gaucho leftfielder had a pair of two-home-run efforts, all solo with a walk-off blast on April 10 versus San José State. Earlier on April 3, Long Beach State’s Jonathon Long was chosen among seven (four field players) CB National Players of the Week. The junior first baseman hit .444 (8-for-18) and slugged 1.167 during a 4-0 home week for the Dirtbags, providing four runs, a double, four home runs and six RBI, with two of those long balls of the walk-off variety, both solo shots in the ninth inning against California Baptist on March 28 and Cal Poly on April 1.
Three Big West Arms on Stopper List
Freshman southpaw Hudson Barrett of UC Santa Barbara (four saves), fourth-year junior right-hander Jacob King of UC Irvine (seven) and junior righty Joshua Romero of CSUN (league-best nine) were among 56 bullpen standouts named on April 26 to the 2023 NCBWA Stopper of the Year Midseason Watch List. The award is given annually to the top relief pitcher in NCAA Division I baseball. King was joined by Gauchos Matt Ager and Carter Benbrook on the 81-member preseason watch list, with Ager now a starter. King also made the 2022 preseason list.
Six Big West Backstops on Buster Posey Watch List
Six Big West catchers were among 74 named on March 31 to the 2023 watch list for the Buster Posey Award, given annually by the Wichita Sports Commission to the top Division I collegiate backstop. They were junior Connor Burns of Long Beach State, senior Dallas Duarte of Hawai’i, sophomore Aaron Parker of UC Santa Barbara, redshirt junior Angel Saldivar of CSU Bakersfield, sophomore Ryan Stafford of Cal Poly, and redshirt sophomore Graysen Tarlow of CSUN. Burns, the 2022 Big West Defensive Player of the Year, along with Stafford and UC Irvine’s Thomas McCaffrey, made the watch list a season ago.
Cal Poly Triple Play
A notable occurrence took place in the fourth inning of Cal Poly’s 7-4 home loss to Santa Clara on April 11, as the Mustangs turned the only triple play around The Big West in 2023, one of just nine nationally in Division I. With Broncos at first and second, Tanner Sagouspe got Efrain Manzo to line out to shortstop Aaron Casillas, who threw to second baseman Tate Shimao for the second out, with the relay to Joe Yorke at first in time to get the runner trying to return there. It was the first triple play by a Big West club since Hawai’i in 2016. CSU Bakersfield produced one while still in the Western Athletic Conference in 2017. It was the first triple play in Cal Poly’s 29-year NCAA Division I history.
Big West Record for Mustang Villegas
Cal Poly utility and cleanup hitter Collin Villegas tied The Big West single-game record of four doubles in a 12-4 victory at CSU Bakersfield on April 14. The senior finished 4-for-5 with a hit-by-pitch, one RBI and a Big West single-game high (tied) for 2023 of five runs. The four doubles are a new program standard. Villegas also incidentally owns The Big West’s top single-game walks mark this season of five in the Mustangs’ opener on Feb. 17 versus Missouri State. Harvey Hill hit four doubles for Fresno State against Saint Mary’s on March 13, 1987, when the Bulldogs were league members, and Ryan Haag produced four two-baggers for CSUN at UC Riverside on April 7, 2002.
Perfect Game Midseason All-Americans
The Big West had three student-athletes recognized when Perfect Game USA unveiled its midseason All-America teams on April 4. UC Santa Barbara ace Mike Gutierrez and Long Beach State newcomer Graham Osman were two of the six starting pitchers on the Midseason All-America Third Team, while Gaucho reliever Hudson Barrett made the Midseason Freshman All-America First Team.
Coaches’ Corner
CSUN features the lone first-year skipper in the conference in Eddie Cornejo, who has taken over for the retired long-time college baseball leader, Dave Serrano. The Matadors’ 20-5 home romp over visiting Stony Brook on Opening Day on Feb. 17 gave Cornejo a first win as a college head coach. On Feb. 13, UC Santa Barbara announced a contract extension that will keep Andrew Checketts, The Big West Coach of the Year for a second time in 2022, with the Gauchos through 2029. UCSB’s 6-5 walk-off victory in 11 innings versus UC Davis on April 28 marked Checketts’ milestone career win No. 400. Larry Lee, the league’s longest-tenured head coach in a 21st season at Cal Poly (630 career wins), was selected by USA Baseball in January to manage the 2023 Collegiate National Team this summer. Second-year Hawai’i head coach Rich Hill has the most wins overall of any of the 11 current Big West managers, now at 1,129 across a 35-plus-season career.
2022 Season Rewind - Gauchos Go the Distance
UC Santa Barbara went 44-14 overall and a dominant 27-3 in The Big West a season ago to cruise to its second conference title in three years by a full five games over runner-up Cal Poly. It was UCSB’s fourth league crown in all. Not only did the Gauchos take all 10 league sets with seven sweeps, they didn’t drop a single non-conference series of more than two games. UCSB went 1-2 at the NCAA Stanford Regional with a 9-4 victory over Binghamton in between defeats to Texas State and the host Cardinal. Andrew Checketts was voted by peers as The Big West Coach of the Year for a second time. Cal Poly’s duo of shortstop Brooks Lee and right-handed ace Drew Thorpe were unanimous choices for Big West Field Player and Pitcher of the Year, respectively, with both then becoming day-one MLB draft choices who signed pro contracts.
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