UC Santa Barbara Picked to Win The Big West in 2024 Baseball Preseason Coaches' Poll

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Irvine, Calif. -- UC Santa Barbara has been picked by league head coaches to finish atop The Big West baseball race, as the conference released its 2024 preseason poll and team. It is the second year in a row that the Gauchos have been selected as the preseason favorites. 
 
UC Santa Barbara earned nine of the 11 first-place votes to total 99 points. The Gauchos, who won two of the last four Big West titles (2019, 2022) under 13th-year head coach Andrew Checketts, finished 2023 at 35-20 overall and tied for fifth in The Big West standings with an 18-12 league record. UC Santa Barbara is expected to compete nationally this season, appearing on several media outlets’ preseason NCAA rankings (17th by D1Baseball, 18th by USA Today and 24th by NCBWA).
 
The Big West coaches also voted on an 11-player preseason team and the Gauchos had three representatives in junior right-handed pitcher Matt Ager, sophomore left-handed pitcher Hudson Barrett and junior third baseman Zander Darby.
 
Ager finished last season with a 5-4 record in 15 appearances, throwing 92.1 innings for a 3.12 ERA and 115 strikeouts, the latter two stats ranking second in the league. The righty earned NCBWA All-America Third Team, ABCA All-West Region Second Team and All-Big West First Team accolades. With expectations for a repeat performance, Ager’s name is also featured on numerous outlets’ preseason All-America teams including D1Baseball (First Team), NCBWA (Third Team), and Perfect Game (Third Team). The Pleasanton product will also begin the upcoming year on the watchlist of the prestigious Golden Spikes Award.
 
Barrett had a monstrous rookie campaign at Santa Barbara, going 5-1 with an ERA of 1.92 in 61.0 innings, and racking up 82 strikeouts and six saves. The lefty also earned numerous national awards including NCBWA All-America Third Team and Freshman All-America from NCBWA (First Team), Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, Perfect Game (First Team) and D1Baseball (second Team), and collected ABCA All-West Region First Team, All-Big West First Team and Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year honors as well. Barrett joins Ager on the Preseason All-America squads for NCBWA (Second Team), D1Baseball (Second Team) and Perfect Game (Second Team).
 
Darby was the catalyst of the Gaucho offense last season, leading the team in hits (62), triples (3), walks (30), at-bats (215), sacrifice flies (5), and runs scored (45).
 
Outside of the trio that made the preseason team, UC Santa Barbara is reinforced by two returning 2023 All-Big West honorees in junior outfielder Ivan Brethowr (First Team) and sophomore right-handed pitcher Tyler Bremner (Honorable Mention), as well as the return of sophomore right-handed pitcher Ryan Gallagher, the 2022 Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year, who missed all last season due to injury.

UC Irvine is second in the poll with 89 points and received the remaining two first-place votes. Last year, the Anteaters went 38-17 for all games and placed fourth in the conference with a 19-11 league mark. UC Irvine joins the Gauchos in the preseason national polls, being rated No. 25 by Baseball America and receiving votes by USA Today and NCBWA.
 
The Anteaters took three slots on the Big West preseason team with junior third baseman Dub Gleed, senior outfielder Caden Kendle and sophomore first baseman Anthony Martinez.
 
Gleed hit .300 with 65 hits, 17 doubles, one triple, five home runs, 49 RBIs, and 36 runs scored en route to an All-Big West Second Team selection last year.
 
Kendle was the 2023 Big West Co-Field Player of the Year and an All-Big West First Team member after leading the league in runs (69), and being second in hits (77), RBI (56) and hit-by-pitches (16-tied), fifth in on-base percentage (.434), to go with a .355 batting average, .969 OPS, 16 doubles, eight home runs, 29 walks and seven stolen bases. The ABCA All-West Region Second Team honoree even caught the eye of pro scouts and was drafted in the 10th round of the 2023 MLB Draft by the St. Louis Cardinals but decided to return for a fourth season at UCI. 
 
Martinez, last year’s Big West Freshman Field Player of the Year, led the conference in several offensive categories as a true rookie, including batting average (.394), on-base percentage (.471), hits (91), RBI (60), total bases (143) and sacrifice flies (eight-tied), was second in OPS (1.090) and hit-by-pitches (16-tied), and third in slugging (.619), runs (54) and doubles (19-tied). The Anteater first baseman was named an All-American by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper (Third Team) and Freshman All-American by D1Baseball (First Team), Baseball America (First Team), NCBWA (First Team), and Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. The sophomore collected national Preseason All-America accolades from the NCBWA (Second Team) and D1Baseball (Third Team).
 
Outside of the three on the preseason squad, the Anteaters return multiple 2023 All-Big West performers with senior second baseman Jo Oyama (Second Team), junior outfielder Chase Call (Honorable Mention), and senior catcher Thomas McCaffrey (Honorable Mention). Ben Orloff, the 2021 Big West Coach of the Year after guiding UC Irvine to the conference crown that year, begins a sixth season in charge at the alma mater. 
 
Entering its fourth and final year of the reclassification period, reigning conference champion UC San Diego is predicted to finish third with 78 points. The Tritons finished last season 34-18 overall and 21-9 in league play and won its athletics department the first ever Big West title in any sport. UCSD was not eligible to compete in the postseason due to the NCAA transition rule.
 
Three Tritons were placed on the preseason team in junior right-handed pitcher Ryan Forcucci, junior third baseman Matt Halbach and senior left-handed pitcher Izaak Martinez.
 
Forcucci went 4-1 in 14 appearances and nine starts last year. UCSD’s Friday night starter towards the end of the season recorded a 3.86 ERA with a team-best 68 strikeouts in 53.2 innings and earned All-Big West Second Team honors.
 
Halbach was a 2023 All-Big West First Team performer that slashed .306/.406/.500 with 63 hits, 15 doubles, a league-leading five triples and five home runs, and collected 41 runs and 39 RBIs. 
 
Martinez was an all-conference first team selection last season. The UCSD closer compiled a league second-best nine saves, with a 6-1 record, a 2.84 ERA and 63 strikeouts in 57.0 innings.
 
Bolstering the Triton lineup for 12th year head coach Eric Newman, last year’s Big West Coach of the Year, are sophomore outfielder Patrick Hackworth (2023 All-Big West Honorable Mention) and junior catcher Emiliano Gonzalez (2022 All-Big West Second Team).
 
Hawai'i (70), CSUN (65), Cal State Fullerton (59), Cal Poly (46), Long Beach State (42), UC Davis (25), Cal State Bakersfield (21) and UC Riverside (11) round out the poll.
 
Hawai'i finished 2023 at 29-20 overall and tied for fifth in The Big West with an 18-12 league mark. The Rainbow Warriors bring back three all-conference performers from the previous season in sophomore left-handed pitcher Harrison Bodendorf (First Team), senior infielder Stone Miyao (Honorable Mention) and senior infielder Kyson Donahue (Honorable Mention). Bodendorf was also a Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Freshman All-American last year. In 2022, Miyao (Second Team), Donahue (Honorable Mention) and senior catcher Dallas Duarte (Honorable Mention) were All-Big West members. Rich Hill enters a third year as the head coach at Hawai'i and 37th season overall in the NCAA (1998-93 at Cal Lutheran, 1994-98 at San Francisco, 1999-2021 at San Diego).
 
CSUN head coach Eddie Cornejo looks to build off a maiden voyage where the Matadors tied for second in The Big West with a 20-10 conference record and went 34-17 overall. CSUN graduate outfielder Jakob Simons earns a spot on the preseason team after earning Big West Co-Field Player of the Year, all-league First Team and ABCA All-West Region Second Team accolades last year. The Matador center fielder led The Big West in OPS (1.115), ranked second in slugging percentage (.665), tied for third in home runs (14), and was fourth in batting average (.356), on-base percentage (.450) and runs scored (51).
 
Outside of Simons, the Matadors return senior right-handed pitcher Joshua Romero, a 2023 All-Big West Second Team and ABCA All-West Region First Team honoree, and junior second baseman Shunsuke Sakaino, an all-conference honorable mention last year. Romero caught the eyes of the NCBWA with last season’s play and is expected for a repeat performance, being named to its Preseason All-America Second Team.
 
Cal State Fullerton was the lone Big West team to taste the postseason last year after tying for second in the conference standings with a 20-10 record and went 32-24 overall. The Titans earned the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship due to UC San Diego being ineligible and winning the tiebreaker over CSUN. The Titans went 1-2 at the Stanford Regional, getting a 9-5 win over San Jose State. Cal State Fullerton third-year head coach Jason Dietrich looks to rebuild after losing all eight of last year’s All-Big West honorees to graduation or the professional ranks.
 
Cal Poly junior catcher Ryan Stafford takes the final seat on the preseason team. Stafford hit .313 with a team-leading 20 doubles, seven home runs and 44 RBIs to earn an all-league second team selection. On defense, the Mustang backstop threw out 11 would-be base stealers and picked off three other runners and played on the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team over the summer. Stafford earned Freshman All-American accolades from Collegiate Baseball News and Baseball America in 2022.
 
Ten of the 11 preseason honorees were 2023 All-Big West performers, with Ager, Barrett, Halbach, Kendle, Simons, Anthony Martinez and Izaak Martinez on the first team on the first team, and Forcucci, Gleed and Stafford on the second team. Anger, Kendle and Stafford were all-league performers in 2022 as well.
 
Outside of Stafford, Larry Lee, the league’s longest-tenured head coach with 22 seasons at the reigns, returns senior first baseman Joe Yorke (2022 All-Big West First Team), senior shortstop Aaron Casillas (2023 All-Big West Second Team), junior second baseman Ryan Fenn (2023 All-Big West Honorable Mention) to the Cal Poly lineup.
 
Long Beach State will be under new leadership in 2024 as Bryan Peters, who spent the previous four years as associate head coach, was named interim head coach this past summer after the resignation of Erik Valenzuela.
 
UC Davis head coach Tommy Nicholson, Cal State Bakersfield head coach Jeremy Beard and UC Riverside head coach Justin Johnson are in their third, eighth and fourth years, respectively, at their schools. Aggie junior third baseman Alex Gouveia and Roadrunner junior utility Matt Kurata were All-Big West Second Team honorees last season and return for their 2024 campaigns. 
 
The 2024 Big West conference schedule consists of a 30-game slate, with each side facing all 10 opponents in three-game sets starting Friday, March 15. Check listings to see which contests air on ESPN+. 

The Big West regular-season champion (with the exception of UC San Diego) will earn the league’s automatic berth this year into the 64-team NCAA Division I Baseball Championship. The 2024 MCWS remains at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb., June 14-24. LSU is the defending national champion. 

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