Baseball 5/16/2026 5:43:10 PM

Five-Team Field Set for 2026 Big West Baseball Championship

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The bracket is set for the 2026 Big West Baseball Championship, held May 20-23 or 24 at UC Irvine’s Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark.

UC Santa Barbara (37-16) and Cal Poly (33-21) were crowned as Big West regular-season co-champions with identical 22-8 conference records. The Gauchos earned the No. 1 seed by sweeping the Mustangs to open the month of April. Incidentally, the series loss to UCSB stands as Cal Poly’s only league series dropped in 2026, where they took at least two wins in the other nine.

This marks UC Santa Barbara’s sixth regular-season title in program history and a fourth since 2019. Their last came in 2024. For Cal Poly, the 2026 regular-season title is just a second in Mustangs’ program history, with their lone championship coming in the 2014 campaign.

The Gauchos and Mustangs were two of the three teams that did not have to face the postseason pressure on the final weekend, as they clinched playoff berths the week before. UC Santa Barbara boasts a 3.45 team ERA, fourth in the nation. Right-handed Gaucho ace Jackson Flora is the conference’s leader in wins (10), ERA (1.03) and strikeouts (115). Flora was recently named semifinalist for both USA Baseball’s Golden Spikes award and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's Dick Howser Trophy. Cal Poly has scored the most runs in the league as a team, with catcher Ryan Tayman tied at the top of The Big West in home runs (16) and RBI (51). The Mustangs’ offensive firepower comes from the entirety of the lineup, hitting .307 as a team to lead The Big West

UC San Diego (24-26) also punched their ticket in the penultimate weekend and claimed the No. 3 seed after going 18-12 in Big West action. Triton junior first baseman Gabe Camacho finished the regular season with 16 home runs and 51 RBI, both knotted atop The Big West leaderboard.

Hawai‘i (27-22, 16-14 BW) booked its ticket to Orange County with a win over CSUN on Wednesday and secured the series win over the Matadors with a second the following day. The Rainbow Warriors also rely on strength from the bullpen, carrying a 3.44 team ERA, in the top five nationally.

The final spot in the bracket came down to the final out of the regular season as Cal State Fullerton (23-30, 15-15 BW) claimed the No. 5 seed after a required victory at UC San Diego on Saturday to advance to the postseason. Paul Contreras highlighted the day with a 5-for-5 outing at the plate with a double and two home runs in the 10-5 must-win game.

The Championship will begin with fourth-seeded Hawai‘i facing the fifth-seeded Titans in a single-elimination play-in matchup on Wednesday, May 20 at 6 p.m. Expect to see an excellent pitching duel between Rainbow Warrior righty Isaiah Magdaleno (7-4, 2.33 ERA, 112 K, 89.0 IP) and Titan lefty Mikiah Negrete (8-4, 2.87 ERA, 87 K, 91.0 IP) who are both top five in the league in all four major pitching categories of wins, ERA, strikeouts and innings pitched. In the regular-season series, Hawai’i took two out of three on O’ahu including an extra-inning affair in the rubber match.

Then, the bracket moves to a four-team double-elimination format on Thursday, May 21 with top-seeded UC Santa Barbara playing the winner of Wednesday’s game at 1 p.m. Interestingly, the Gauchos went 1-2 in the regular season against both potential Thursday foes.

Second-seeded Cal Poly will take on third-seeded UC San Diego at 6 p.m. The Mustangs and Tritons met up in La Jolla in mid-April, with Cal Poly coming out on top in the first two contests before UCSD got a walk-off two-run single off the bat of Camacho for the 16-15 win in the finale.

The winning teams from Thursday's games will play each other on Friday, May 22 at 1 p.m., while the losing teams will take the field at 6 o’clock in an elimination game.

The non-advancing team from Friday’s first game moves to the elimination bracket to play the winning team from the nightcap on Saturday, May 23 at 1 p.m., for the opportunity for each team to play themselves back into title contention. The Championship game then follows at 6 p.m. If the undefeated team out of the winner’s bracket takes a loss, an if-necessary game will be played on Sunday, May 24 at noon, stretching the event to a fifth day from Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark. The winner of the 2026 Big West Baseball Championship will receive the league’s automatic bid into the 2026 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship to begin the Road to Omaha.

All-session tickets to the 2026 Big West Baseball Championship are $125 and provide access to all four (or five) days of the event. Single-session general admission tickets are also available starting at $15 for adults and $10 for youth (12 and under). For additional details or to purchase tickets, visit BigWest.org/BASEtix. For fans not able to attend, each game will be broadcast live from Irvine on ESPN+.

2026 Big West Baseball Championship
Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark; Irvine, Calif. | Championship Central >>>