2025 All-Big West Baseball Team & Awards
Big West Baseball Individual Awards History
All-Time All-Big West Team
The Big West is proud to announce its six major award winners and its all-conference teams for the 2025 baseball season on the eve of the 2025 Big West Baseball Championship, presented by Ontario International Airport.
The league’s 11 head coaches voted UC Irvine junior shortstop
Colin Yeaman and left-handed pitcher
Ricky Ojeda as the Field Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year, respectively. Cal State Fullerton senior shortstop
Maddox Latta was tabbed the Defensive Player of the Year, and third baseman
Carter Johnstone was selected as the Freshman Field Player of the Year. Hawai‘i right-handed pitcher Cooper Walls is the Freshman Pitcher of the Year.
Ben Orloff earns The Big West Coach of the Year honor after directing UC Irvine to a Big West regular-season title.
For the regular season, Yeaman led the league in total bases (140), was second in OPS (1.088), hits (77), runs scored (54) and slugging (.639), and third in triples (4) and RBI (54). The junior from Saugus, Calif. is the seventh Anteater overall, third in a row, to be named the Big West Field Player of the Year. Yeaman joins the likes of Myles Smith (2024), Caden Kendle (2023), Mike Peabody (2021), Keston Hiura (2017), Taylor Sparks (2013) and current UCI head coach Ben Orloff (2009) as Anteaters who have won the award.
Ojeda finished the regular season with the most wins in the league and a perfect 12-0 record. The sophomore was amongst the league’s top five in hits allowed per nine innings (2nd, 6.14), opposing batting average (2nd, .196), strikeouts per nine innings (3rd, 11.97), ERA (5th, 3.22), WHIP (5th, 1.11) and strikeouts (5th, 78). Ojeda also has two saves on the season. This marks the seventh time that an Anteater has taken home the league’s top pitching honor with Trenton Denholm (2019), Andrew Morales (2014), Matt Summers (2011), current assistant coach Daniel Bibona (2010, 2009) and Scott Gorgen (2008).
At a demanding shortstop position, Latta fielded at a .977 clip during the regular season, getting charged with just five errors in 215 chances. While putting together a solid defensive performance, on offense the Titan middle infielder is slashing .361/.485/.508 with 69 hits, 50 runs, 27 RBI, three home runs, 35 walks and 14 stolen bases. The Granada Hills, Calif. native joins Richy Pedroza (2013) as the only two Titans to have been named the league’s top defensive player.
Johnstone slashed .341/.432/.537 and is in the conference’s top 10 in hits (T-8th, 70) and runs scored (T-10th, 47). The third baseman also added 40 RBI and 30 walks to Johnstone is the third Titan to be named the best rookie field player from the conference after Sahid Valenzuela (2017) and Michael Lorenzen (2011).
Walls had a 3-3 record with a 3.67 ERA, 1.38 WHIP and 44 strikeouts in 56.1 innings The Hawai‘i rookie had several shutout outings during the regular season including 7.0 innings against UC Santa Barbara and 5.0 innings against Oregon State. Walls is the second-ever Rainbow Warrior (Dylan Thomas, Hawai‘i) to win The Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year honor.
Orloff guided UC Irvine to a 39-13 overall record and won The Big West regular-season title with a 24-6 conference mark. The seventh-year head coach helmed the Anteaters to the top of the league in several statistical categories including runs scored (427), RBI (397), hit by pitch (129) and on-base percentage (.418). UC Irvine was a mainstay in the national poll for the majority of the season and is rated 20th in the latest D1Baseball.com rankings heading into the postseason. Orloff has now won two Big West Coach of the Year award (2021). Including Mike Gerakos (1987) and Mike Gillespie (2009), it is the fourth time that an Antaeter skipper has won the league’s top coaching honor.
A total of 20 student-athletes were named to the All-Big West First Team. Outside of Ojeda and Yeaman, three other Anteaters made got the nod in senior catcher
Blake Penso, sophomore outfielder
Jacob McCombs and sophomore starter
Trevor Hansen. Cal Poly had four first-teamers with senior first baseman
Zach Daudet, redshirt senior second baseman
Ryan Fenn, sophomore third baseman
Alejandro Garza and sophomore starting pitcher
Griffin Naess. Cal State Fullerton sophomore closer
Andrew Wright joins Johnstone and Latta on the list. Hawai‘i took two slots with sophomore utility
Itsuki Takemoto and sophomore closer
Isaiah Magdaleno. UC Santa Barbara took three spots with senior outfielder
LeTrey McCollum, junior starting pitcher
Tyler Bremner and sophomore starting pitcher
Jackson Flora. UC San Diego junior third baseman
J.C. Allen, sophomore outfielder
Michael Crossland and sophomore designated hitter
Gabe Camacho round out the All-Big West First Team.
The 19-player Second Team includes features four Anteaters (
Chase Call,
Riley Kelly,
Max Martin,
Anthony Martinez), three Mustangs (
Nate Castellon,
Jack Collins,
Jaccob Torres), two Aggies (
Bryan Green,
Mason Lerma), two Dirtbags (
Kyle Ashworth,
Albert Roblez), two Matadors (
Roberto Gonzalez,
Kyle Panganiban), two Rainbow Warriors (
Matthew Miura,
Ben Zeigler-Namoa), two Titans (
Matthew Bardowell,
Andrew Kirchner), one Gaucho (
Jonathan Mendez) and one Triton (
Matthew Dalquist).
Beyond the 39 first and second team honorees, 19 more conference standouts picked up honorable mentions for their 2025 performances.