2025 Hall of Fame Class: Daniel Bibona

Daniel Bibona is the latest from the Anteater baseball program to hear his name called as part of the UC Irvine Athletics Hall of Fame. Since it’s return in 2020, baseball has added a name to the UCI pantheon in each year, and from the ripe old age of eight, he’s always had his sights set on one thing.

“I want to pitch".

That was little Bibona’s request over and over to his little league coach until he finally got the chance. Growing up in Lake Forest with his older brother in baseball, Bibona knew he wanted to try it, too, and knew he wanted to get on that mound. “I just liked being out there and standing on that hill.” He didn’t disappoint throwing strikes right out of the gate and the rest is history.

While attending Santa Margarita Catholic High School, Bibona was low on the pitching rotation with older players earning their innings for the Eagles. He’d tell you he was more of an outfielder anyways hitting .400 his junior year. Even attending UCI’s camps, he was hitting and playing outfield while getting his pitching reps in. A pair of his SMCHS teammates were committed to colleges already including his friend, Jeff Cusick, heading to UC Irvine. With his friend’s backing and the trip to the camp, he was committed to UCI shortly thereafter.

Because of his late bloomer status and waiting in the pecking order, he didn’t really get a chance to shine until his senior season when he became the school’s No. 1 pitching. His development all came together as he was stronger, throwing harder, and put up good numbers for the school.

As a freshman Anteater, Bibona was in the mindset he would play and compete and pitch right away. “Coach Serrano always said, ‘this team’s going to Omaha,’ and I thought yeah let’s do it without knowing how to get there or what it entails.” He got his chance on opening weekend earning the Saturday starter role. “I didn’t really get flustered ever in scrimmages. An error would happen and I’d get the ball back and go back on the mound.” The first game was a microcosm of that with the team traveling up to Cal. The defense made three errors behind Bibona, but he just got the ball back and made the next pitch and left the game in the fifth inning in a 4-4 tie.

Bibona got his chances through the first three weekends before moving to Tuesdays and the bullpen. “I didn’t pitch great, my freshman year I was little overwhelmed, but I probably learned the most I’ve ever learned in that year.

It was quite a year to take in in 2007. Bibona made two more starts and 16 outings overall earning a win and a loss over 26.1 innings, but that 1/3 of an inning was the one he still remembers.

“I like to joke and say that the best 1/3 of an inning my whole pitching career was getting Brett Wallace out in the College World Series.”

The ‘Eaters were on the brink playing Arizona State in an elimination game in Omaha. A back-and-forth game until the Sun Devils busted out to take a 7-3 lead in the eighth inning and Bibona called upon to douse the flames.

“I was ready to go. Make the pitching change, throw my warmups, and back then the pitching coach got to stay out there while you warm up, so I throw them and everybody else comes back up to the mound. Coach Serrano is talking to me and goes, ‘Oh yeah and happy birthday.’” The relaxed birthday-boy got one of ASU’s most dangerous hitters on three pitches jamming him on a backed-up breaking ball, and still needing a diving play by Ollie Linton to end the inning. The offense roared back to tie it up the next half inning and eventually win in extra innings to keep the storybook 2007 College World Series run going.

“I remember the fun stuff like that, the teammates, the stories, much more than the individual stuff. My most fun year was my freshman year when I pitched the worst. But that’s where I learned how to be a teammate. That’s where I got to learn how to win, learn how to compete; that set me up for the success in the next three years.”

The next three years saw UCI maintain their success with a Super Regional trip in 2008 with Bibona right in the middle going 9-3 with 97 strikeouts in just over 100 innings. It all came together in 2009 with a Big West title, No. 1 ranking in the nation, the ‘Eaters hosting a Regional, and Bibona sparkling with an All-American season: 12-1 mark, 2.63 ERA, 108 strikeouts in 106 innings, Big West Pitcher of the Year status, a dazzling 14-strikeout performance when the team needed him most in the NCAA Regional in Anteater Ballpark.

“We thought that 2009 was just sort of the progression: darling of Omaha when nobody anticipated us going, the next year we are three outs away from going back, and the year after we’ve got Orloff back, all of us in the junior class, guys like Tony Asaro, Eric Deragisch, Sean Madigan, now we say to ourselves ‘hey, we’re real, let’s go do this again.’ We were checking off boxes we felt like we needed to do like winning the Big West, hosting a regional, all things that are special and that had never been done before.”

The magical 2009 season came to an abrupt end in the Irvine Regional, but the program was still on the rise. Bibona elected to come back despite hearing his name called in the MLB Draft, and his reason: the guys.

“We had a good class, just how tight-knit that group was. Cory Hamilton and I were the only two from our class to get drafted after that ’09 season. So then when all those guys are coming back, I wanted to come back as well and be here with them again.”

The 2010 Anteaters were back at it again in the postseason winning their 39th game by exacting a little revenge on LSU. Bibona claimed another All-American honor and second Big West Pitcher of the Year accolade, and on top of that added Big West Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the first Anteater to claim the Lowe’s Senior CLASS award.

“Coolest thing about that award was I got to get it in Omaha, fly out there with my dad, and do that during a game on the field. Started off in my freshman year at Rosenblatt and got to finish it there. Even my teammate Brian Hernandez was randomly there driving to summer ball with one of his buddies. He got to come and see it and make it even more special. It’s cool to win and cooler to get to go back to Omaha because that place is so special.”

UCI’s special status has resonated with Bibona where he’s back with the program as the pitching coach for a 13th year now. Especially knowing what’s going on in the head of a freshman who was in his same shoes. “I didn’t come here and just had four good years. Being able tell them ‘this is how it’s going to feel, this is how I felt, this is what we’ve got to do.’”

He remembers telling the likes of Trenton Denholm and Andre Pallante and getting crazy looks back. “Then they come back as sophomore in that first bullpen and say ‘you’re right, this is completely different.’ The comfortability, what is actually is good or not, that freshman year really gives them a chance to grow.”

Doesn’t hurt to know as an Anteater pitcher they’re now taking words of wisdom from a Hall of Famer, something that coach Bibona is not lost on what and who he is joining, specifically the 2025 class.

“It’s really cool that Ralph Cicerone and Dan Guerrero are both going in this time because without them, I wouldn’t be here, coach Orloff wouldn’t be here, this all wouldn’t be here. I never put any thought into Hall of Fame when I was a player here or even afterwards, but it’s cool to be recognized.”

The Anteater program has grown to these heights starting with the efforts of Cicerone and Guerrero, seeing the fruits of the labor with Bibona and his Anteater teams, and into the future where he will really feel the impact when players he has coached start entering the Hall of Fame. Bibona says there are more deserving than him that still need to hear their name called, but with nearly half of his life spent dedicated to UC Irvine and the baseball program’s foundation and success, he’s definitely deserving and its pretty cool.