SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - Big West regular season co-champions UCSB and Cal Poly each received major Big West honors.
UCSB Gauchos: It was hardly a straight path, but the UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (37-16, 22-8 Big West) is where they expected to be at the beginning of the season: top of the pile in The Big West and the no. 1 seed for the conference tournament. On Tuesday, the conference honored 11 of the men who helped them get there, with head coach Andrew Checketts named The Big West Co-Coach of the Year and ace right-hander Jackson Flora named The Big West Pitcher of the Year. Flora is one of three All-Big West First Team members in Santa Barbara, joined by second baseman William Vasseur and outfielder Rowan Kelly. Catcher Nate Vargas and shortstop Corey Nunez were named to the All-Big West Second Team, as were Santa Barbara natives Kellan Montgomery and Chase Hoover. Pitchers Nathan Aceves and Cole Tryba earned All-Big West Honorable Mention, alongside outfielder Liam Barrett.
(San Marcos High School alum Chase Hoover has a 2.98 ERA out of the bullpen Entenza Design).
(Dos Pueblos High School alum Kellan Montgomery is 8-3 as a starter. Entenza Design).
The newly well-decorated Gauchos will open their Big West Championship pursuit on Thursday, May 21 at 1 p.m. against either no. 4 seed Hawai'i or no. 5 seed Cal State Fullerton, who will meet in a single-elimination play-in game on Wednesday, with the winner moving on to face Santa Barbara.
ALL-BIG WEST HONOREESFor leading his team to the conference's top seed, Checketts earned his fourth career Big West Coach of the Year honor, this time sharing the award with his counterpart in San Luis Obispo, Larry Lee. Checketts, already UC Santa Barbara Baseball's leader in career wins and career winning percentage, surpassed 500 wins leading the Gauchos this season and has his team in a position to reach the NCAA Tournament for a 16th time. A big part of his success? The young man he has sent to the mound to open each of Santa Barbara's 14 series this season: The Big West Pitcher of the Year, Flora. The flame-throwing righty was lauded as the top pitcher in this year's Major League Baseball Draft class even before the season began, but he has spent the last 14 weeks backing up that claim. With an ERA of 1.03, Flora leads all qualified Division I pitchers and is on track to set the Gauchos' new single-season D-I ERA record. He is the crown jewel in a Santa Barbara pitching staff that ranks fourth nationally in team ERA and seventh in both hits allowed per nine innings and WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched).
Joining Flora on the All-Big West First Team are the top two hitters in the Gaucho offense that has supported that elite pitching staff: Vasseur and Kelly. For Kelly, 2026 has been confirmation that his stellar 2025, when he hit .355 in 29 starts, was not a fluke. The sophomore has started every game for the Gauchos this season and is hitting .348 while adding power with his first three collegiate home runs. He is the team's top RBI man and run-scorer, with 41 and 51 respectively. His 12 stolen bases also lead the squad. Vasseur, a newcomer, has made the second base position his own with excellent bat-to-ball skills and a knack for clutch hitting. The Memphis transfer is hitting .322 on the season and is the team's top bunter, with 10 sacrifices laid down. He can find the gaps too, with his 10 doubles second on the team.
Next to Vasseur in the infield and also making his first appearance on an All-Big West team is Nunez, an elite defensive shortstop whose breakout year at the plate earned him a spot on the all-conference second team. The senior's .300 average, .385 on-base percentage and .429 slugging percentage are all comfortably career highs, as are his five stolen bases. The Gauchos' other second-team hitter, Vargas, was an all-conference honorable mention last season but has finished this campaign as one of the hottest hitters in The Big West. Six of his team-leading 10 home runs have come in the last month, including one in each game of Santa Barbara's sweep of UC Riverside to secure the conference regular-season crown. Plus, the senior has managed the Gauchos' pitching staff brilliantly, catching in 37 of his 38 starts this year. On Sundays, that has meant catching fellow second-team honoree Montgomery. After transferring to his hometown team for his senior season, the Santa Barbara native has been a workhorse for the Gauchos, pitching more innings than anyone but Flora. He matched his career high in strikeouts twice this season, including a vintage outing of eight innings and those nine K's against UC San Diego on Apr. 12. Montgomery's homecoming also reunited him with childhood friend and rival and now fellow All-Big West Second Team pitcher Hoover. The left-hander out of San Marcos High School is enjoying the best season of his collegiate career as one of the firemen in the Gauchos' bullpen, especially lately. In the last month, Hoover has allowed just one run over 17 innings across seven games, and that was against No. 1 UCLA. He also has a career-best 53 strikeouts.
And yet, Hoover is not the Gauchos' only elite left-handed relief option. Tryba's season was shortened by an injury, but since he was activated in mid-March, he has fired 52 strikeouts en route to an All-Big West Honorable Mention. Only Hoover has thrown more relief innings than Tryba for Santa Barbara this season, and the two lefties are tied for the team lead with four saves each. Rounding out the Gauchos' All-Big West pitching corps for 2026 is the right-hander Aceves, who finished the regular season as one of the six toughest pitchers to hit in the conference. The sophomore showed just how good his stuff can be in a commanding February outing against Utah, allowing just one hit over 6 1/3 innings while striking out a career-high 10 Utes. He finished the regular season with 63 K's and a .229 batting average against. Last but certainly not least, likely the only thing keeping Barrett from a second or even first-team selection is his slow start to the season. But, once he broke into the Gauchos' everyday lineup in early April, the sophomore has been irreplaceable and made the leadoff spot his own. In 99 at-bats, Barrett is batting .333 with an OPS of .969. His eight doubles rank third on the team, and he owns the impressive distinction of having more walks than strikeouts.
(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics)
Cal Poly: How successful has the 2026 season been for the Cal Poly baseball team? Good enough to tie another school record, this time for the most players honored with postseason awards by the Big West.
A total of 11 Mustangs, four on both the first and second teams and three more on the honorable mention list, collected All-Big West honors Tuesday in a vote by the conference's 11 head baseball coaches, equalling the hardware haul by the 2014 Mustang squad.
Coincidentally, both the 2014 and 2026 teams captured Big West regular-season titles and Larry Lee earned Coach of the Year honors both times as well.
Topping the list this year are junior catcher Ryan Tayman and fifth-year center fielder Casey Murray Jr. Tayman was named Big West Co-Field Player of the Year along with Cal State Fullerton junior outfielder Paul Contreras while Murray captured Big West Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Tayman led the conference in several offensive categories, including home runs (16), RBIs (53) and slugging percentage (.673). On defense, he led the league in throwing out 16 would-be base stealers along with recording 465 putouts and 523 total chances.
A transfer from Cal, where he played his first two collegiate seasons, Tayman has compiled a team-leading .351 batting average and 48 runs scored en route to a spot on the All-Big West first team behind the plate.
Twice this season the Arroyo Grande High School graduate was named Big West Field Player of the Week for his performances following the UC Riverside and Long Beach State series. Tayman went hitless only six times in Cal Poly's last 36 regular-season games, lifting his average 65 points.
Tayman is Mustang No. 7 to claim the Big West Field Player of the Year award, joining Kyle Blumenthal (2005), Grant Desme (2007), Mitch Haniger (2012), Mark Mathias (2014), Alex McKenna (2018) and Brooks Lee (2021 and 2022).
Murray is the sixth Cal Poly player to be named the conference's defensive player of the year and the second non-catcher. Former winners were shortstop Peter Van Gansen (2015) and catchers Chris Hoo (2014), Nick Meyer (2018), Myles Emmerson (2021) and Ryan Stafford (2024).
Murray committed just two errors on 350 total chances over three seasons in center field and notched four outfield assists in his Mustang career. At the plate this year, he hit .315 with 20 extra-base hits (10 doubles, five triples, five home runs) and drove in 25 runs while leading the club in walks with 27. His batting average has never been below .300 since March 13.
Lee has guided Cal Poly to 30-win seasons 14 times in his 24-year tenure as head coach, including five of the last six seasons. He earned his 1,200th career victory in 40 seasons at Cal Poly and Cuesta College with an 8-6 triumph at UC Irvine on May 3 and is 746-573-2 with the Mustangs and, combined with his 16 seasons at Cuesta College (460-241-3), is 1,206-814-5 overall as a head coach.
Lee guided Cal Poly to the Big West tournament crown in 2025 with a 4-1 mark and his program's fourth trip to the NCAA postseason, going 2-2 in the NCAA Eugene Regional. The Mustangs earned their second Big West regular season title by sweeping Long Beach State last weekend inside Baggett Stadium. The other was in 2014 when Cal Poly hosted the NCAA San Luis Obispo Regional.
(Article and graphics provided by Cal Poly Athletics)
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