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The Big West is proud to announce its six major award winners and its all-conference teams for the 2024 baseball season.
 
The league’s 11 head coaches voted UC Irvine junior outfielder Myles Smith as The Big West Field Player of the Year, while UC Santa Barbara junior righty Ryan Gallagher is The Big West Pitcher of the Year. Cal Poly redshirt junior catcher Ryan Stafford is The Big West Defensive Player of the Year. Cal Poly infielder Alejandro Garza and righty Griffin Naess are The Big West Freshman Field Player of the Year and The Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year, respectively. Andrew Checketts is The Big West Coach of the Year after directing UC Santa Barbara to a Big West championship.
 
Smith led the league in batting average (.405) and OPS (1.154), and was second in base on balls (44), base on balls per game (1.0), hits per game (1.55) and on-base percentage (.529), to go with eight home runs, 43 RBI and 50 runs scored. Nationally, the Torrance, Calif. product is ninth in on base percentage, 12th in batting average and 15th in drawn walks. Smith joins teammate Caden Kendle (2023), Mike Peabody (2021), Keston Hiura (2017), Taylor Sparks (2013) and current head coach Ben Orloff (2009) as Anteaters who have won the conference’s Field Player of the Year award.
 
Gallagher went 9-1with an ERA of 2.27 and WHIP of 0.82 over 13 appearances, all starts, and 83.1 innings. The Granite Bay, Calif. product led the league in ERA, WHIP, opponent batting against  (.159) and hits allowed per nine innings (4.97). The Gaucho righty accumulated a conference third-most strikeouts (93), fourth-best strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.23) and sixth-least walks allowed per nine innings (2.38). Nationally, Gallagher is sixth in ERA, fifth in hits allowed per nine innings and 16th in wins. Gallagher is UC Santa Barbara’s second-ever Big West Pitcher of the Year after Rodney Boone won the program’s first honor in 2021.
 
Stafford fielded at a .990 clip this past season, getting charged with just five errors in 495 chances behind the dish and throwing out 23 of 45 would-be base-stealers (.511). The Mustang backstop helped Cal Poly to a league-leading and national third-best .982 fielding percentage. While putting together a solid defensive performance, the redshirt junior batted .368 and sluged .568 with 23 doubles, six home runs, 46 RBI, 49 runs. The Folsom, Calif. product was one of two Mustangs to start all 57 contests. Stafford joins four other Mustangs have won The Big West Defensive Player of the Year honor in Myles Emmerson (2021), Nick Meyer (2018), Peter Van Gansen (2015) and Chris Hoo (2014).
 
Garza appeared in 56 games with 52 starts as a rookie and batted .346 with 28 RBI and 27 runs. The Bakersfield, Calif. native was the toughest batter to strikeout in The Big West, third nationally, with only 10 Ks on the season and ranked eighth in the league in sacrifice bunts with eight. Garza joins Brooks Lee (2021), Nick Meyer (2016), Mitch Haniger (2010) and Matt Jensen (2009) as Mustangs who have won The Big West Freshman Field Player of the Year honor.
 
Naess had an undefeated pitching record on the mound (7-0) in 15 appearances, 12 starts, with a 3.58 ERA and 1.19 WHIP. The Mustang freshman hurler compiled 62 strikeouts in 73.0 innings of work. The righty finished top 10 in the league in multiple stats categories including ERA, hits allowed per nine innings (7.64), pitching wins and WHIP. Naess is Cal Poly’s first-ever Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year.
 
Checketts helmed UC Santa Barbara to a 42-12 overall record and won The Big West title by four games with a 26-4 conference mark. The 13th-year head coach guided the Gauchos to top the league in home runs (79), slugging percentage (.487), hits allowed per nine innings (7.54), strikeouts per nine innings (9.5) and opponent batting average (.227), and have the second-ranked batting average (.299), runs scored (415), RBI (394), ERA (3.94), WHIP (1.25) and strikeouts (517). UC Santa Barbara was a mainstay in the national poll for the majority of the season and is rated 13th in the latest D1Baseball.com rankings heading into the NCAA postseason. Checketts has now won three Big West Coach of the Year awards (2019, 2022, 2024). Including Al Ferrer (1986) and Bob Brontsema (1996, 2001) it is the sixth time that a Gaucho skipper has won the league’s top coaching honor.
 
Five other Gauchos join Gallagher on the 15-member All-Big West First Team in junior catcher Aaron Parker, senior second base Nick Oakley, junior designated hitter Ivan Brethowr, junior utility Brendan Durfee and sophomore starting pitcher Tyler Bremner. Four other Anteaters outside of Smith made the First Team list in sophomore first base Anthony Martinez, redshirt junior shortstop Woody Hadeen, Kendle and freshman relief pitcher Ricky Ojeda. Cal Poly senior outfielder Jake Steels and redshirt sophomore Jakob Wright join Garza and UC San Diego closer Izaak Martinez took the final slot on the First Team.
 
Brethowr, Kendle, Anthony Martinez and Izaak Martinez are repeat First Team honorees. Kendle now has three All-Big West First Team honors. 
 
The 16-player All-Big West Second Team features three Gauchos (Justin Trimble, Jessada Brown, Matt Ager), three Anteaters (Will Bermudez, Jo Oyama, Nick Pinto), three Rainbow Warriors (Jordan Donahue, Austin Machado, Alex Giroux), two Mustangs (Stafford, Joe Yorke), two Highlanders (Cole Koniarsky, Bubba Rocha), one Matador (Jakob Simons), one Triton (Anthony Eyanson) and one Roadrunner (Ryan Verdugo).

Stafford is now a three-time All-Big West honoree after earning a First Team nod in 2022 and Second Team accolade last season. Ager and Simons now have two All-Big West honors after earning First Team distinctions in 2023. Pinto returns to the All-Big West Second Team list for the first time since 2021. 

Beyond the 31 All-Big West first and second squads, 26 of whom hail from California, 23 more conference standouts picked up honorable mentions for their 2024 performances. UC Santa Barbara had the most first-teamers with six, followed by UC Irvine with five and Cal Poly with three. UCSB put the most student-athletes on the first and second teams combined, with nine total.