Big West At A Glance

• The Big West sent three teams to the 64-team NCAA Baseball Championship for the first time since 2009.  Big West Champion Cal State Fullerton, Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara represented the league at this year’s event.

• All three teams representing the Big West Conference - Cal State Fullerton, Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara - in the 2013 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship opened regional play with a victory for a perfect 3-0 record.  The last time the Big West registered three wins to open NCAA Regional play was in 2008 and the last time the league was 3-0 on opening day was in 2003.

• Six Big West teams concluded the regular season with an overall winning percentage above .500 - Cal Poly, Cal Sate Fullerton, Cal State Northridge, Long Beach State, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara.  The last time the league ended the year with six teams above the .500 threshold was back in 2006.

• The 2013 baseball season was a record-setting year for the Mustangs, as they produced a school Division I record 40 victories while posting their second straight second-place finish in the Big West Conference.  Cal Poly also earned its second NCAA regional bid.  Individually, pitcher Joey Wagman set a new school mark with 13 victories and fellow hurler Reed Reilly collected a school-best 14 saves.  Brian Mundell set the school Division I freshman record with 11 home runs and Cal Poly’s 3.40 staff ERA is the best in the school’s Division I history.

• Cal Poly ended its 2013 season by going 1-2 in the Los Angeles Regional at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Mustangs beat San Diego 9-2 in the first round Friday, let a 4-0 lead slip away in a 6-4 loss to UCLA in the winners bracket final Saturday and fell 8-5 to San Diego in Sunday’s elimination contest. The win over San Diego was Cal Poly’s first in regional play.

• The Cal Poly Mustangs paced the conference with six selections  in the 2013 Major League Baseball First-Year Draft.

• The 2013 season marked the 35th year the Titans have competed in the NCAA Regionals - 27th as a Big West member.  It was also the 22nd consecutive year Cal State Fullerton, who earned the No. 5 national seed in this year’s event,  had received a postseason berth, marking the third-longest active consecutive streak in the nation behind Miami (41 years) and Florida State (36 years).

• The Titans (51-10), who claimed their 27th overall conference championship with a 23-4 mark, won their respective NCAA Regional that featured No. 2 Arizona State, No. 3 New Mexico and No. 4 Columbia.  Cal State Fullerton swept the regional, downing Columbia and Arizona State twice.  Cal State Fullerton then welcomed eventual 2013 national champion UCLA to Goodwin Field for the Super Regionals.  Unfortunately the Bruins defeated the Titans, 5-3, in 10 innings, and 3-0 to advance to the College World Series. 

• Titan pitching staff ranked fourth in the nation with a 2.47 ERA.  It also led the nation in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 4.98 and walks allowed per nine innings (1.41).

• Michael Lorenzen concluded the 2013 season with 19 saves on the season, ranking him second in the Big West annals.  Long Beach State’s Gabe Gonzalez owns the top spot with 20 saves (1995).  Lorenzen's 35 career saves also places him fourth all-time in the conference.

• Freshman pitching duo - Thomas Eshelman and Justin Garza - rewrote the history books. Eshelman (115.2 IP) finished his first year with a 1.48 ERA and Garza (115.0 IP) owns a 2.03 mark.  Both marks shattered the current Big West freshman ERA record (100+ IP) of 2.40.  Their 12 victories each tied them for third among all Big West freshmen, with Nevada’s Darell Ranser (2000) and Fresno State’s Erik Schullstrom (1988) owning the top spot with 14 wins.  Garza is one of three freshman pitchers in Big West history to hold a perfect record, but his impressive 12-0 mark powers over the other two hurlers who hold a 5-0 mark.

• Cal State Northridge finished the season with its best record since 2002 and earned a fourth-place finish in the Big West Conference.

• Long Beach State finishes the season with a 29-27 overall record, the third consecutive winning season under Troy Buckley, and a 15-12 conference mark to place the Dirtbags in a three-way tie for fourth place in the standings.

• The Anteaters were ranked nationally throughout most of the season, with the highest ranking of No. 19 (April 29). 

• The UC Irvine pitching staff under first-year coach, Danny Bibona, was fourth in the country with a 3.27 strikeout-to-walk-ratio and finished the regular season 18th with a 1.19 WHIP average.

• Junior Andrew Morales became the first Anteater to conclude the season undefeated on the mound after finishing with a 10-0 record.  Morales, a three-time Big West Pitcher of the Week selection,  pitched 95.1 innings and struck out 85 while allowing 20 earned runs.  The right-hander held opposing teams to a .227 batting average and ended the season with a 1.89 ERA to finish third in the UCI single-season records as well as second in the Big West.


• UC Santa Barbara closed out the 2013 regular season on a hot streak, winning six consecutive series to boost its conference record to 17-10, tying the Gauchos for second place in the Big West Conference.  Over the course of the last 14 regular season contests, the Gauchos posted an 11-3 mark.

• UC Santa Barbara received the No. 3 seed in the Corvallis Regional, along with host and No. 1 seed Oregon State, No. 2 seed Texas A&M and No. 4 seed UT San Antonio.  The Gauchos opened regional play with a victory over Texas A&M, before dropping the next two contests to the Beavers and the Aggies.  Outfielders Luke Swenson and Joey Epperson were named to the all-regional team.

• The Gauchos’ at-large selection into the Corvallis Regional marked the school’s first appearance in the postseason since 2001.  The 12-year drought was UCSB’s longest since going 20 years between Regional appearances from 1952 and 1972. 

• Austin Pettibone paced the Gaucho pitching staff in 2013, tossing a conference-high 117.2 innings for a 2.98 ERA while collecting 10 victories.