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baseball, Big West Conference, Cal State Northridge Matadors, Cal State University Northridge, College Baseball, CSUN Baseball, ESPN, Irvine, Los Angeles, Northridge, Pac-12 Conference, Santa Barbara, UC Irvine Anteaters, UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, UCI Baseball, UCLA Baseball, UCLA Bruins, UCSB Baseball, University of California Irvine, University of California Los Angeles, University of California Santa Barbara, University of Southern California, USC Baseball, USC Trojans
UC Irvine ball players showing support from their dugout. Photo courtesy of twitter.com
OUR LOOK AT THE BEST COLLEGE BASEBALL TEAMS THAT SO CAL HAS TO OFFER THIS SEASON, PLUS USC AND UCLA
At a glance…
UC IRVINE ANTEATERS
Current Record: 28-8, 11-4 and tied for first place in the Big West Conference
Rank: 12th
Last Game: Beat San Diego State, 7-5, on April 21st
Next Game: at UCLA on April 23rd
Team Leaders:
- BATTING AVERAGE: Caden Kendle, .408
- HOME RUNS: Thomas McCaffrey, 6
- RUNS BATTED IN: Anthony Martinez, 45
- PITCHING: Nick Pinto, 7-2, 3.05 ERA
- SAVES: Ricky Tribbett, 8
UC SANTA BARBARA GAUCHOS
Current Record: 25-10, 11-4 and tied for first in the Big West Conference
Last Game: Beat UC Davis, 4-1, on April 21st
Next Game: at Loyola Marymount on April 23rd
Team Leaders:
- BATTING AVERAGE: Aaron Parker, .402
- HOME RUNS: Justin Trimble and Ivan Brethowr, 8 each
- RUNS BATTED IN: Trimble and Nick Oakley, 33 each
- PITCHING: Tyler Bremmer, 7-0, 2.93 ERA
- SAVES: Jackson Floro, 5
CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE MATADORS
Current Record: 23-14, 11-4 and tied for first place in the Big West Conference
Last Game: Beat Cal State Fullerton, 7-5, on April 21st
Next Game: at Fresno State on April 23rd
Team Leaders:
- BATTING AVERAGE: Kevin Fitzer, .404
- HOME RUNS: Jakob Simons, 14
- RUNS BATTED IN: Simons, 49
- PITCHING: Joshua Romero, 7-2, 1.98 ERA, 6 saves
USC TROJANS
Current Record: 19-21, 10-7 and tied for fifth place in the Pac-12 Conference
Last Game: Lost to Sacramento State, 5-4, on April 21st
Next Game: at Cal State Fullerton on April 23rd
Team Leaders:
- BATTING AVERAGE: Jacob Galloway, .315
- HOME RUNS: Austin Overn, 7
- RUNS BATTED IN: Galloway, 30
- PITCHING: Fisher Johnson, 3-1, 1.50 ERA
- SAVES: Josh Blum, 5
UCLA BRUINS
Current Record: 13-24, 6-15 and 11th (LAST!) place in the Pac-12 Conference
- Currently on a five game losing streak
- Have lost – eight out of their last nine, nine of their last 11, and 11 of their last 14 (!)
Last Game: Lost to Arizona State, 13-1, on April 21st
Next Game: vs UC Irvine on April 23rd
Top Players:
- BATTING AVERAGE: AJ Salgado, .297
- HOME RUNS: Duce Gourson, 5
- RUNS BATTED IN: Gourson and Mulivai Levu, 22
- PITCHING: Michael Barnett, 3-2, 4.91 ERA
- SAVES: Rashad Ruff, 6
“The Surge”, UC Santa Barbara’s Student Section supporting their baseball Gauchos. Photo courtesy of twitter.com
USC Trojan ballplayers giving their “Victory” sign after a win. Photo courtesy of twitter.com
Cal State Northridge players getting instruction from their coach. Photo courtesy of twitter.com
UCLA players taking in the action. Photo courtesy of twitter.com
A Few Thoughts…
This is a statement that I feel I need to make right off the bat…
I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD SEE A UCLA BASEBALL TEAM THAT IS THIS BAD IN MY LIFETIME.
Or at least, since I was accepted to my alma mater as a student over three and a half decades ago;
Having lost five straight and 11 out of their last 14 contests, including getting their a***s absolutely whipped by Arizona State this past weekend as the Sun Devils toyed with them,
Even though, in fairness, their pitching staff is like a MASH unit for the second straight year with all the injuries,
I feel it’s more than justified to call that bunch the Bad News Bruins, as their semi-namesake from that classic movie series would probably beat them at this point.
Heck,
UCLA is so bad this year, Charlie Brown would probably pitch a no-hitter against them.
Normally in a situation like this I would be calling for coach John Savage to be let go,
But after a little thought, if I were the athletic director I would give him one more year – 2025 – to turn things around,
Or at least show some solid improvement in the name of a winning season and contending for what will be the Big Ten Conference title,
Before giving him the pink slip.
As such,
After doing a little research, I found that their worst record in recent memory was a 15-41 record in 2005, Savage’s first year in Westwood.
With fifteen regular season games left, going 3-12 and avoiding a most dubious kind of history shouldn’t be too difficult to achieve.
I’d like to see them win at least five more contests and finish with twenty wins – that would be a start!
Meanwhile…
That Big West Conference season’s getting quite exciting, what with three teams,
One of which I attended for graduate school (Cal State Northridge) with another school being the one that my mother wanted me to go to (UC Santa Barbara),
Which I applied to and was accepted, only to turn it down for UCLA,
Tied for first place with just a few weeks to go in their schedule.
It’s clear that UC Irvine’s Anteaters are the class of So Cal college baseball this year – I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they blew out the Bruins in Westwood in their next game.
With them being the only ranked team in the area, how could I say otherwise?
I just took a peek at the Big West’s composite schedule on their website,
And found that CSUN will be having showdowns against the two UC schools the last two weekends, Santa Barbara on the weekend of May 17th and Irvine on the weekend of May 24th,
Which if things hold until then will go a long way to decide the conference’s champion.
If ESPN televises any games involving those Anteaters, Gauchos and Matadors,
I will certainly try to check them out, because those will be good clashes.
One of the places where all of these college ballplayers hope to be one day – Dodger Stadium…