IRVINE, Calif. --- The Big West released their 2023 Preseason Coaches Poll and Team with UC Irvine projected to finish second.

UCI's 84 votes did not include a first-place vote which saw eight go to projected champion UC Santa Barbara and the remaining three going to teams project lower than the 'Eaters including third-place Long Beach State, fifth-place Cal State Fullerton, and sixth-place Hawai'i. The Anteaters are coming off a sixth-place finish in 2022 when projected to finish second in the preseason.

In addition to the poll, The Big West revealed a Preseason Coaches Team for the first time in conference history. The 11-player team was unveiled with junior outfielder Caden Kendle representing UC Irvine coming off All-Big West honors in 2022 after leading the program in hitting, on-base, and slugging.

D1Baseball.com put out its Big West preview with UC Irvine projected to finish third behind UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach State. The publication also ranked the top draft prospects for the 2023 and 2024 drafts. UCI had the No. 1 draft prospect for the conference in 2023 in outfielder Caden Kendle. UCI also appeared as the No. 3 prospect in shortstop Woody Hadeen of the top 25. Two Anteaters appeared in the top 20 2024 draft prospects with third baseman Dub Gleed at No. 9 and Chase Call at No. 14. D1Baseball.com previewed the Big West's top 15 impact freshmen pitcher Riley Kelly listed at No. 2 and first baseman Anthony Martinez listed at No. 7

TEAM OUTLOOK
With the 2023 Anteaters, like every year the sky's the limit. After a 2021 season that saw a return to an NCAA Regional, the 2022 'Eaters fell to sixth in the Big West despite putting up a fourth winning record in four seasons under head coach Ben Orloff. The head coach gave his thoughts on the team he has in front of him and the challenge his schedule poses.

"The strength of the team is going to be the offense and the position player group. It's a deeper group of guys than we've probably had; 12 guys that could all be starting players. We're going to hit for some more power and have some big innings, and the defense is also going to be good and do some things on offense like steal a base or bunt for a hit or get an add-on run that's definitely going to be the strength of this year's team."

UC Irvine's defense is dotted with veterans led by a strong junior class of Woody Hadeen, making the move from second base to shortstop, outfield cogs Caden Kendle and Luke Spillane, and a pair behind the dish of Thomas McCaffrey and Abraham Garcia-Pacheco.

The strong sophomore class will hold many key positions in the field including All-Big West honoree Dub Gleed at the hot corner and expanded roles for catcher Blake Penso and outfielders Myles Smith and Chase Call.

The Anteaters roster includes five fifth-years including Andre Antone in his sixth year, all with the Anteaters, and Michael Stanford in his sixth year of college ball, third at UCI. All five are pitchers with Texans Tanner Brooks and Stanford each in their third years with UCI. Brooks takes on an even larger role at the back end of the bullpen teaming up with closer Jacob King. Stanford was key as a midweek starter in 2022, and will return from injury as a key clubhouse voice and just as key on the mound. Nick Rincover returns for his second season at UCI after three JC seasons. The lefty built up his stamina as the 2022 played on after he threw scoreless ball in this first 10 outings.

UC Irvine loses some key pieces including current pros Nathan Church and Troy Taylor to the draft and Taishi Nakawake as a free agent signing. Gordon Ingebritson locked down the bullpen in his sixth season and has moved on. Power hitters Ben Fitzgerald and Justin Torres finished up their college careers as well with a large void in the middle of the order that UCI will need to fill. Connor McGuire also moves on after 113 games as the sure-handed third baseman for the 'Eaters.

"We've got three good guys behind the plate with veterans Abraham Garcia-Pacheco, who showed us he's a good college player down the stretch last year, and Thomas McCaffrey in the mix. Blake Penso has taken a big jump. Defensively last year, he probably wasn't ready to be an everyday guy and now he's ready for that and the power is starting to show up in games."

On the mound, two weekend starting roles return led by fourth-year Nick Pinto firmly in the Friday night role. Pinto is 10-12 with a 3.45 career ERA and is approaching 200 innings and strikeouts to start the year. He led the Big West in strikeouts looking in 2022 with 34. David Vizcaino slotted into the rotation down the tail end of 2022 and looks to build on a 5-0, 1.93 redshirt-freshman campaign

Riley Kelly will have a lot of eyes on him as the Sunday starter much like 2022 was with freshman Danny Suarez in that role. Kelly was selected in the 20th round last year and projected as one of the nation's best at his position and overall out of high school.

"Four starters we would like to run with would be David Vizcaino, Nick Pinto, Danny Suarez, and Riley Kelly. There are really eight starting options when you add in Andre Antone, Cooper Robinson, Finnegan Wall, and Ryder Brooks. Freshman Brooks is built up to go at least three innings so he will be in the starting mix early in the season. Tanner Brooks and Jacob King at the end of games with the two best guys that can get it to them are Cameron Wheeler and Max Martin. Martin is a guy that can get some important outs in the sixth, seventh, maybe eighth innings when it's close to get through it. Grad transfer Sean Higgins once he's healthy he will be one of our better guys in relief."

The transfer portal opened with four joining the Anteaters. Sean Higgins joins on the mound and as a grad transfer after collecting his sociology degree at Columbia of the Ivy League. He was limited from injuries and a COVID seasons, but put it together in 2022 as the team's Friday starter and lights-out work in two NCAA Regional appearances against Gonzaga and Virginia Tech.

Three others join at the plate including outfielder Jacob Stinson from Nevada who hit .312 and .313 in two years there, middle infielder Will Bermudez who was an award winner at the junior college level and returns to the Division I level after a year at UC Davis and denied a scholarship at Air Force, and contact extraordinaire Jo Oyama who went to Merced College from Japan and set all sorts of records over the summer with the Wenatchee Apple Sox of the West Coast League.

"Tony Martinez will play first base as a freshman who you could make a case is our best hitter. Really highly acclaimed high school hitter, more so for contact, but he can do everything offensively. Will Bermudez will play second, switch-hitting transfer and will probably leadoff. Takes a really good at-bat, hard to strike out, doesn't leave the strike zone, can hit for extra bases. Woody Hadeen will be our shortstop and looks a lot stronger. He looks like a really offensive threat right now especially from the left side. He's taken his game to the next level. Dub Gleed at third was really good down the stretch for us, is as good a defensive third baseman as there is in addition to hitting a home run, hit with two strikes, hits off-speed. Jo Oyama had a really good January and February. Slow in the Fall, did have two home runs at the USD exhibition, but a really dynamic player. He can really run, change the game with his speed, and he has power to hit the ball over peoples' heads; he's a really fun player to watch."

"Outfield is the deepest group. Caden Kendle will certainly play and hit in the middle of the lineup. Him or Hadeen can make the case for best player in our league. He'll play in the corners if Spillane isn't on the field and will take over center when Spillane isn't out there. Big power, runs and throws, gets hits, doesn't strikeout, he's the real deal. Luke Spillane is much improved offensively and as good a defensive center fielder as there is. Myles Smith has been a lot more consistent, some nights he's the best player on the field, but now as a sophomore we're working on the consistency, but he can be fun to watch – physical, manages the strike zone, can run. Chase Call is similar to Myles' year as a freshman last year. Big tools, just about the consistency, and brings a dimension to the offense where he can change the game in one swing. Jacob Stinson is different than the rest in that he does everything well. Performed for two years at Nevada, can get a hit, gets the bunt down, plays pretty good in the outfield, accurate with throws, he's just steady and good."

The coaching staff got a little shake-up with volunteer assistant Mitchell Holland joining the LMU staff and operations director Bryce Stowell joining UCI's development staff. Ryan Johnston returns after two years at Concordia to join UCI as the volunteer assistant. Blake Hawksworth is the new Director of Operations with MLB experience and successful coaching stints with Cal State Fullerton, Grand Canyon, and JSerra High School. The newest athletic trainer comes from within the conference after years at Cal State Fullerton and now an Anteater is Justin Hostert.

FORECAST OF FOES
The 'Eaters have an ambitious schedule for 2023 featuring opponents from the Pac-12, WCC, Big 12, Big Ten, Mountain West, and American Athletic. Of UCI's 13 non-conference opponents, five were top-75 RPI teams in 2022 with four reaching the NCAA Tournament with all 13 combining for a .523 winning percentage.

"Tulane has been set up for a while. That's a historically good program that we like to get for home-and-homes that has a lot of similarities with ours. Top-25 team that's not in a Power 5 conference. Weeks 2 and 3 were late adds after things fell through in 2022 that ended up working out in rescheduling starting with the Tony Gwynn Legacy. A big matchup against Washington State from the Pac-12 with a real good Friday night starter to start, USD for a third time this season which went to a regional in 2022 and beat Vanderbilt, and one of the better offenses Sunday in an offensive park in UNLV that is a preseason pick to win their league. Trip to Arizona State is return in a sense after they played here twice in the midweek in 2022. Another historically great program that's looking to turn it around in one year through the transfer portal. Gonzaga with a big year last year and had a big draft class, but returns key players up the middle of the diamond and some in the weekend staff will make them good again and having to play at their place. Four really challenging weekends with three away from home that we'll have our hands full for. Fresno State and Michigan coming in new on a Tuesday are both fun home games with two more programs that are primed for a good year. Kansas State comes back here after winning the series there last year with some star athletes on the other side like Nick Goodwin who will go high in the draft and beat us with a big home run last year, and getting a Big 12 team out to our place."

Under coach Orloff, UCI is 22-15 against the Pac-12 which would be fourth-best in the conference. UCI went 5-2 in 2022 including three wins against ranked programs. The 'Eaters are 103-84 against the conference since returning in 2002. The 2023 season will feature one series traveling to Arizona State in early March in addition to home-and-home midweeks with USC and UCLA

The 2023 season features a nine-game homestand, the third-longest in the history of Anteater Ballpark. UCI opened the park in 2002 with 13 consecutive home games losing the first three but closing out an 8-5 record on the homestand that featured a seven-game win streak. In March of 2015, the 'Eaters had an 11-game homestand that went 10-1. UCI won the first nine games that was the tail end of a 15-game win streak. This 2023 stretch will feature weekend series vs. UC San Diego and Long Beach State sandwiched around a midweek with Fresno State. Just like the 2015 homestand, this year's will began with USC and end with USD visiting Cicerone Field.

"UC Santa Barbara will be good again. They lost a lot of position players but they return two guys that are old and hit for a lot of power in Christian Kirtley and Broc Mortensen; some guys on the mound like Mike Gutierrez and Matt Ager and Michael Rice and a good freshman class that will be good. Long Beach State is tough to know what to make out of them with the new guys that they have, but knowing the guys like Connor Burns, Rocco Peppi, Jonathon Long, and Eddie Saldivar are a really good place to start for them on offense. Cal State Fullerton is experienced in position players that should make a jump with Nate Nankil, Zach Lew, Cole Urman, Brendan Bobo and some veteran, weekend starting pitcher in Fynn Chester, Tyler Stultz, and Trevor Hinkel – I think Fullerton could have a really good year. Cal Poly coming off a really good 2022, and with Joe Yorke and Ryan Stafford that's going to be a really good team. The league is going to be good again and a challenge every week."