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IRVINE, Calif. - The Big West revealed seven major award winners and its all-conference teams for the 2023 baseball season on Thursday.

The league’s 11 head coaches voted UC Irvine’s Caden Kendle and CSUN’s Jakob Simons, both junior outfielders, as The Big West Co-Field Players of the Year, while Long Beach State ace Nico Zeglin is The Big West Pitcher of the Year. Junior Long Beach State catcher Connor Burns is the repeat Big West Defensive Player of the Year. UC Irvine first baseman Anthony Martinez and UC Santa Barbara left-hander Hudson Barrett are The Big West Freshman Field Player of the Year and The Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year, respectively. Eric Newman is The Big West Coach of the Year for the first time after directing UC San Diego to a first Big West championship in any sport.

One of two Anteaters to start all 55 games, Kendle was first in The Big West in runs (69) by 12, second in hits (77), RBI (56) and hit-by-pitches (16-tied), fifth in on-base percentage (.434), and eighth in batting average (.335) and OPS (.969), with 16 doubles, three triples, eight home runs, 29 walks and seven stolen bases. The Huntington Beach native helped guide UC Irvine to fourth place at 38-17 overall and 19-11 in league play, and is tied for 29th in Division I in runs. Kendle is one of two members of the inaugural preseason All-Big West squad, alongside Burns, to make the postseason first team, and also represented The Big West on the preseason Golden Spikes Award watch list. Former teammate, Mike Peabody, likewise was The Big West Co-Field Player of the Year in 2021. Three ‘Eaters were recipients previously, beginning with current head coach Ben Orloff in 2009.

Simons aided CSUN, picked seventh in the preseason poll, to a mere tiebreak away from an NCAA Championship berth, as the runner-up Matadors lost out to Cal State Fullerton head to head but went 34-17 overall and 20-10 in The Big West in just the first season in charge for Eddie Cornejo. The centerfielder and leadoff hitter appeared in 48 games, starting each one, and hit .356, fourth in the conference. A second-year transfer from Chabot College and product of Pleasanton, Simons is No. 1 in the league in OPS (1.115), second in slugging (.665), tied for third in home runs (14), fourth in on-base percentage (.450) and runs (51), tied for fifth in steals (11), and seventh in hits (67-tied) and RBI (48). The only prior Matador to bring home Big West Field Player of the Year distinction was Eric Verbryke back in 2002.

Zeglin went 8-4 with impressive final marks of a 2.00 ERA and 0.99 WHIP over 15 appearances, all starts, and 94.2 innings. The right-hander struck out 117 against just 27 walks for a 4.33 ratio, with opponents hitting just .202. In The Big West, Zeglin is first in strikeouts, wins, WHIP and starts (tied), second in ERA and hits allowed per nine innings (6.37), fourth in strikeouts per nine innings (11.12), and fifth in strikeout-to-walk ratio. Nationally, Zeglin is seventh in ERA, tied for seventh in strikeouts and 12th in WHIP. Zeglin was one of five two-time Big West Pitcher of the Week selections, with the second of those awards coming after the Gonzaga graduate transfer was the architect of one of two nine-inning shutouts around the league in 2023. That effort (3 H, 2 BB, 10 K) came in a 1-0 home triumph on May 12 against UC Santa Barbara, and also earned Zeglin D1Baseball National Pitcher of the Week distinction. The native of Walnut Creek is the first Dirtbag to nab The Big West’s top pitcher award since Johnathan Lavallee shared it in 2021. LBSU now has 12 honors, including two each by Abe Alvarez (2002-03), Jered Weaver (2003-04) and Darren McCaughan (2016-17).

Burns fielded at a .991 clip this past season, getting charged with just five errors in 588 chances behind the dish and throwing out 15 of 32 would-be base-stealers (.469). While putting together another solid defensive performance, the Chino product improved dramatically at the plate, batting .307 and slugging .608 with 14 doubles, 14 home runs and 50 RBI. Burns was one of four Dirtbags to start all 55 contests, after hitting .162 with four doubles, one long ball and 15 RBI in 2022. The Buster Posey Award semifinalist is the first back-to-back Big West Defensive Player of the Year, since the initial award was presented in 2011. David Banuelos (2017) and current major-leaguer Garrett Hampson (2016) were previous LBSU recipients.

Martinez led The Big West in several offensive categories, including batting average (.394), on-base percentage (.471), hits (91), RBI (60), total bases (143) and sacrifice flies (eight-tied). The true freshman out of Fairfield is also second in OPS (1.090) and hit-by-pitches (16-tied), and third in slugging (.619), runs (54) and doubles (19-tied). Martinez belted 11 home runs. Like Kendle, Martinez started all 55 of UCI’s games. The left-handed slugger was the D1Baseball National Player of the Week on March 6 after hitting .556 with 10 runs, three home runs and 10 RBI during a 5-0 week. Nationally, Martinez is tied for 15th in hits and 31st in batting average. Martinez is just the second ‘Eater to garner Big West Freshman Field Player of the Year recognition, after future Milwaukee Brewer Keston Hiura in 2015.

Barrett excelled both out of the bullpen and in a limited starting role as a first-year collegian, leading the nation in ERA for a portion of the season and currently ranking fifth at 1.92. The product of Bakersfield is also 14th nationally in hits allowed per nine innings (6.20) and 23rd in strikeouts per nine innings (12.10). Barrett is fifth in the league in saves, sixth in strikeouts and eighth in WHIP (1.21). The southpaw went 5-1 with a team-high six saves, tossing 61.0 frames over 21 appearances, four of them starts, and striking out 82. Barrett is the Gauchos’ second successive Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year, following Ryan Gallagher, who missed the entire 2023 campaign. The program now has four such honorees, with earlier awards going to Rodney Boone in 2019 and Mario Hollands in 2008.

In a 12th season in charge down in La Jolla, Newman took a team picked to place eighth that had gone a combined 48-60 (34-36 Big West) over its first two years in the league, and led it to an outright Big West crown at 34-18 overall and 21-9 (.700) in conference play. The Tritons opened on national television on MLB Network at the MLB Desert Invitational in Arizona, before reeling off seven straight victories to begin The Big West slate and cap a season-best 12-game win streak. They ultimately took six of 10 conference sets, all in sweeps, but still sat in third heading into a season-long seven-game road stretch to conclude the schedule, 3.5 games back of Fullerton. Newman’s squad promptly won all seven, starting with a sweep of the Titans, continuing with a 5-3 decision at Mountain West co-champion San Diego State to clinch that four-game rivalry series for a second year in a row, and finishing with another sweep at UC Riverside. The Tritons were 21-9 at home.

Joining Barrett, Burns, Kendle, Martinez, Simons and Zeglin on the 17-member All-Big West First Team were the champion UC San Diego trio of seniors Michael Fuhrman and Izaak Martinez, and true sophomore third baseman Matt Halbach, as well as three of Barrett’s teammates in sophomore ace Matt Ager and newcomers Ivan Brethowr and Jared Sundstrom. Rounding out the list are Hawai’i hurlers Harrison Bodendorf and Harry Gustin, CSUN shortstop Ali Camarillo, Cal State Fullerton outfielder Nate Nankil, and Cal Poly utility Collin Villegas.

Kendle is the only repeat All-Big West First Team choice. Ager and Villegas made it onto the second team a year ago. Fuhrman is a two-time all-league performer, having been named to the 2021 second team. Zeglin was honored earlier Thursday by Collegiate Baseball as a second-team All-American, while Anthony Martinez and Izaak Martinez were on the third team.

The 16-player All-Big West Second Team features another Triton trio of Ryan Forcucci, Brandon Larson and Michael Mitchell, as well as three Matadors in Lucas Braun, Kevin Fitzer and closer Joshua Romero. Cal Poly (Aaron Casillas, Ryan Stafford), Fullerton (Caden Connor, Jojo Ingrassia) and UCI (Dub Gleed, Jo Oyama) each had a pair of representatives. The remaining honorees were Long Beach State corner infielder Jonathon Long, UC Davis second baseman Matt Gouveia, UH outfielder Matt Wong, and Matthew Kurata of CSU Bakersfield.

Stafford was the 2022 All-Big West First Team catcher, with Braun and Connor on the second team. Mitchell is a two-time second-teamer with an initial designation in 2021.

Beyond the 33 All-Big West first and second squads, 29 of whom hail from California, 21 more conference standouts picked up honorable mentions for their 2023 performances. UC Santa Barbara had the most first-teamers with four, and UC San Diego put the most student-athletes on the first and second teams combined, with three on both for six total.

Cal State Fullerton (31-22) is the No. 3 seed at the Stanford Regional of the 2023 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship, and begins its Road to Omaha this Friday night, June 2, against second-seeded and 25th-ranked Texas A&M (36-25). The primetime first pitch inside Klein Field at Sunken Diamond is slated for 7 p.m. PT on ESPN2 and ESPN+.