The Big West will be represented at the 2026 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, with former CSUN pitcher Joe Ryan and former Hawai‘i pitcher Cade Smith participating Tuesday night. First pitch of the 96th annual Midsummer Classic is set for 5 p.m. PT from Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies. The game will be televised on FOX.
 
Ryan, the sixth-year Minnesota Twin, is currently 6-5 with a 3.36 ERA and 122 punchouts in 104.1 innings of work this season to earn a second-straight All-Star nod. The righty spent three seasons (2015-17) at CSUN, going 3-0 with a 1.48 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 30.1 frames as a freshman, and a 3.35 ERA in 40.1 innings as a sophomore, before getting injured as a junior and transferring to Division II Stanislaus State. Ryan was taken in the seventh round by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2018 MLB Draft.
 
Smith is in year three with the Cleveland Guardians and has compiled 26 saves with a 2.90 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 40.1 innings of work this season.  The former Rainbow Warrior (2018-20) acumulated 113 punchouts in 117.0 frames at Hawai‘i. Smith went undrafted in the 2020 MLB Draft.