AROUND THE HORN

10th - UC Irvine reached its 10th NCAA Regional, all since 2004, as coach Orloff's teams have finished with a winning record in all six of his seasons
11 - UC Irvine had a program-record 11 selected to the All-Big West team with Myles Smith earning Big West Field Player of the Year
.763 - The Anteaters went 45-14 with 43 regular season wins to tie a program record and the .763 winning percentage its highest as a Division I program
175 - UC Irvine hitters were hit by pitch 175 times in 2024 to set a new single-season NCAA record
 #21 - The Anteaters finish ranked top-25 in four different national polls, highest at #21 via NCBWA, highest ranking to end a season since 2021 when they were as high as #18

 
LEADING OFF
+ UC Irvine baseball reached its 10th NCAA Tournament as a Division I program, second time under head coach Ben Orloff. This is the eighth berth as an at-large for UCI earning automatic bids in 2009 and 2021 as Big West champions
+ UC Irvine remained in the national polls the entire season finishing the regular season in the top 25 from all five major polls with the highest at No. 20 in Baseball America.
+ UC Irvine stands among the national leaders leading the nation with 175 hit by pitch and setting an NCAA single-season record. Other stats the team finished in the top 50 were in on-base percentage (2nd), win percentage (4th), sacrifice flies (8th), runs per game (9th), hits (10th), runs scored (10th), doubles (10th), batting average (11th), walks (13th), sacrifice bunts (30th), strikeout-to-walk ratio (39th), triples (42nd), and ERA (46th)
+ Anteaters among the nation's best start with Woody Hadeen at 3rd in walks, 8th in runs per game, 9th in on-base, and 9th in runs scored, Myles Smith at 6th in on-base, 10th in walks per game, 14th in batting, and 45th in hits per game, Caden Kendle at 11th in sac flies, 19th in hits per game, and 32nd in batting, Anthony Martinez at 25th in RBIs, Nick Pinto at 22nd in wins, 51st in strikeouts, and 81st in walks allowed per nine innings, Jo Oyama at 9th in HBP, 17th in sac bunts, and 46th in triples, and Ricky Tibbett 14th in saves and 28th in appearances.
+ Anteater records fell quite a bit in the 2024 season
Þ Woody Hadeen broke two single-season records with 82 runs scored and 62 walks. He's the first Anteater to reach 80 runs in a season, first to reach 62 walks in a season, and broke a 36-year record set by Brady Anderson with 52 walks
Þ Anthony Martinez joined the single-season record breakers driving in 74 RBIs to break Jeff Malinoff's record of 65 in 1972
Þ The Anteater offense set a whole host of single-season records scoring 536 runs, nearly 100 more than the next-highest Anteater total, 66 home runs topping the 52 UCI hit last season, and 351 walks drawn topping the 304 from last season.
Þ UCI set the NCAA hit by pitch team record getting plunked 175 times to break the record set by Delaware State set in 2011 of 152 HBPs
+ Postseason awards were full of Anteaters
Þ Myles Smith was named an All-American on the ABCA/Rawlings Second Team
Þ Ricky Ojeda was selected to the NCBWA Freshman All-America Team on their Second Team
Þ Three Anteaters were part of the ABCA/Rawlings West All-Region Team with Smith on the First Team and Second Team honors for Woody Hadeen and Jo Oyama
Þ All-Big West honors were dished out with Myles Smith named Big West Offensive Player of the Year, third time in the last four years for the 'Eaters. He also earned three of the team's eight player of the week accolades
Þ Smith drew First Team All-Big West notoriety with Ojeda, Hadeen, Anthony Martinez, and Caden Kendle among the program record 11 'Eaters on the team joined by second-teamers Nick Pinto, Will Bermudez, and Oyama, and third-teamers Dub Gleed, Thomas McCaffrey, and Ricky Tibbett
+ The cardiac Anteaters erased 9th-inning deficits six times including three 3-run deficits. UCI was also 5-1 in extra innings walking off three of those wins, adding two 9th-inning walkoffs, and even had a walkoff on the road throwing out the tying run at home at LMU
+ Anteater starting pitching was run by the youth with true freshmen starting 34 of the team's 59 games in 2024 and another five starts from redshirt freshmen or 'Eaters with less than 10 career innings.
+ Fifth-year Anteater starter Nick Pinto is 1 of 4 Anteaters to reach 300 career strikeouts eventually breaking the program's all-time mark with 334. He led current Division I pitchers in career starts, and broke Craig Brink's program record starting his 62nd career game to open the Corvallis Regional.
+ Head Coach Ben Orloff returns to the postseason for the seventh time as an Anteater: 4 times as a player from 2006-09, once as an assistant coach in 2014, and now twice as the head coach. Orloff's Anteaters won 43 games in the regular season, tying the program's regular season record, and fifth overall 40-win regular season for UCI. Coach Orloff reached 200 career wins in just 243 career games coached. He stands third in program history after passing Gary Adams late in the regular season.
+ UCI's 22-8 Big West record was good for a second place finish. In 10 Big West series, UC Irvine went 8-2 with four sweeps. The 'Eaters went 21-4 in non-conference regular season action including four Q1 wins and a non-conference RPI of 18 toward its overall RPI of 27