Anteater baseball is weeks from its 47th season as a program and coming off a 10th NCAA Regional appearance earning an at-large bid following a 43-win regular season. The 2025 season projects more success, but there could be a different way it happens. Here's five things to look out for from head coach Ben Orloff about this upcoming season:

1. GOOD AND PLENTY
UC Irvine baseball is back in the mix as one of the formidable non-power league programs in the country. After the program was resurrected in 2002, it didn't waste any time becoming a successful outfit reaching the postseason in just three seasons, the College World Series six seasons in, and built a run of eight postseason berths in 11 years that included a No. 1 national ranking and regional host. After a brief dip from the limelight, the 'Eaters are right back there with two regional appearances in the past four seasons, and arguably a third that wasn't granted by the committee, and six straight winning seasons since head coach Ben Orloff took over in 2019. The 'Eaters have sustained their success, and begin the season back in the national rankings starting at No. 22 according to Baseball America.

UCI has done it anywhere and everywhere as well - the only program in 2024 to win 20 games at home and on the road. UCI finished with the third-best road record, a 25-7 mark when including neutral site matchups, and not a fluke after putting up the nation's best road record in 2023 and picking up 20 total wins away from home.

"We've scheduled difficult before", noted coach Orloff. "This is probably the toughest one we've ever had, which will be challenging with 20 new players. To be an at-large team in a non-power four league, there's only going to be a few at-large non-power four teams, so I think you have to schedule like this to give yourself a chance to be one. And the conference tournament makes it a little different where even if you start out slow, you've got a shot. It's fun, we're always trying to challenge ourselves. I think we were the only team in the country with 20 home and 20 road wins last year, top-3 road winning percentage two years in a row, nobody's doing that in California. We're doing that to try and chase RPI, chase being an at-large bid, to play the best teams we can."

The metrics speak for themselves with D1Baseball.com naming UC Irvine No. 51 of their top 100 programs list, and UCI's RPI over the last four seasons averages out to 41 which ranks fifth among West Coast schools and ninth among those non-power four leagues.

2. WE'VE GOT A NEW ATTITUDE
As coach Orloff made mention, the 40-man Anteater roster is half-full of new 'Eaters. 

"Every year is completely different and this year more than most because we have 20 new players. Last year's success doesn't mean this year will be a success. Going into a season, the focus can be on who we don't have and not who we do have. I think there's some new guys that people will know about really soon, some returning guys in bigger roles that are good players and now it's their time. The biggest thing is the dynamic of the newness. The group that we had had been here for a long time."

The 20 newcomers are represented by 11 freshmen and nine transfers. Some big-school movers like fifth-year pitcher Ryan Kysar from San Diego, fourth-year catcher Zach Crandall out of Utah, and two second-year hitters that had their freshman years shortened in Jacob McCombs from San Diego State and Zach Fjelstad of Ohio State. Another seven others come with a wealth of experience on the junior college level that could play key roles like Colin Yeaman figuring to hit in the middle of the lineup.

Even a lot of the names you know for the 'Eaters have still had very few chances to get in the lineup. Fourth-year catcher Blake Penso will get the chance to lock down things as the backstop. The leader and clubhouse presence still has just 36 career at-bats. Third-year Auggie Gutierrez's 63 at-bats are the fourth-most returning Anteater at-bats coming into the season as the team will rely on players that have waited their turn on the depth chart and finally get a lion's share of the innings.

3. TRIED AND TRUE
The veteran Anteater presence will be vital to the team's success in 2025. With all the new faces, there's some anchors that will continue to lead by example.

Anthony Martinez has been the offense's cornerstone ever since he set foot in campus and taken home Big West Freshman Field Player of the Year and more recognition on the national stage. He spent time with Team USA over the summer playing with and against the best, and is being talked about among top draft prospects that could go very high this summer. He has a few Anteater offensive marks within reach like the career marks in doubles, home runs, and RBIs.

Will Bermudez enters as the team's second baseman and the second-most at-bats, with plenty more plate appearances with the amount of hit by pitches he's collect which he's closing in on that Anteater record. Bermudez's story has become national news after he was named the CalHope Courage Award recipient last month, and his play on the field speaks for itself both statistically (6 errors in nearly 500 career chances) and the effort and hustle he demonstrates at every turn.

Chase Call is the last of the offensive triumvirate that has 371 career at-bats in addition to a 50-walk season and team leader in home runs once as well. On top of the all that, the former catcher has turned himself into a top-tier right fielder as well where he will patrol in 2025. Call continues to potentially do his best work off the field with his extensive contributions to the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and his continuing role as the team's laundry attendant.

4. ARMED AND READY
With the 2024 team rallying around the offense, this year's squad will likely lean on its pitching staff. With all the gaudy offensive numbers, UC Irvine's staff has been the most consistent over the past four seasons finishing as high in the national rankings as 22nd in 2023 and as low as 46th.

The most experienced returner when it comes to innings as an Anteater is sophomore Trevor Hansen. As a freshman, he made every weekend start collecting 74 strikeouts over 74.1 innings and really showing his best on the big stage with four no-hit innings in Dodger Stadium and one of his single-season high strikeout totals in the NCAA Regional start against Oregon State.

The most experience in terms of years come from fourth-year righties Danny Suarez and Finnegan Wall. Both have fought through injuries with Suarez missing large chunks of each of his three seasons putting together 47.1 career innings. Wall missed the entirety of 2024 with Tommy John surgery, and will come along slowly to start likely on midweeks until his strength fully returns. He's totaled just over 50 innings in his two years, but came back from a promising summer in the Cape Cod League prior to the injury in the summer of 2023.

The hype still belongs to Riley Kelly who has also been cut down by injuries in each of his first two seasons tossing just 20.1 innings. The renowned prospect was drafted out of high school before becoming an Anteater, and the devastating, high-RPM curveball has lived up to the hype in the short stints, and now his biggest obstacle will be the numerous other arms on the Anteater staff all deserving of starts and innings.

Two other sophomores have thrown their hat into the ring in terms of weekend starters in Ricky Ojeda and Ryder Brooks. The duo outperformed their first-year titles in 2024 and became more than your typical left-hander. Ojeda as a true freshman threw over 50 innings out of the bullpen and nearly led the team in strikeouts and has only continued to rise in the offseason. Brooks in his second year with the program found his footing rather quickly and proved to be a reliable arm getting outs and not giving up the free pass. Each has made coach Orloff's and Bibona's jobs tough ones as to decide how to piece together this staff.

"The starting pitcher candidates comes down to the group of Ryder Brooks, Ricky Ojeda, Trevor Hansen, Danny Suarez, and Riley Kelly. They're the five that we've been trying to see who will be the three on weekends. Ricky and Ryder have really separated themselves by how well they've pitched recently. There will be three weekend starters from that group. The two that aren't will be the two guys in the bullpen that are pitching the most. They've all pitched good enough to where we want to see if we can get five or six innings out of them."

"My philosophy on pitching is that we need our best guys to pitch the most. You're trying to forecast with that group of guys who can do it. I think all of those guys will fall in the 50-80 inning range, we're trying to figure out what's the best way they can do that and how that puzzle fits together."

A puzzle that also includes Anteater arms ready to be that new face that handles the pressure this year like David Butler who has made waves in the offseason after 10 solid innings in half a season on the mound in 2024, or Brandon Luu who made the most of his opportunities early in 2024 to rise into the starter role and claim some big non-conference wins. Max Martin was thrust into the closer role early in his career, and some in his sophomore season, but he looks to have the edge on that role heading into 2025.



5. FIELDING A WINNER
The position player group was a big focus toward the success of the 2024 squad. The team that returned every at-bat, a lot of season veterans, but also the emergence of players like Myles Smith who became the Big West Field Player of the Year, and key contributions from James Castagnola and Frankie Carney that got the squad through tough mid-season injury times.

"Last year's team, what gets overlooked is it's so easy to see the offensive stats and, not to minimize that, but I think what made us so good was the defense was so good as a whole. The experience and understanding how to play, we're missing that end of it more than the stats necessarily. I think this group will have a good balance of a lot of our best hitters play good defense."

The Anteater defense has always been formidable and important to any successful UCI season. Over the past four years, UCI's gloves have on average finished among the top 20% of programs in the country.

"This offense, there's a good offense in here, and I actually think there might be more power in this lineup than last year's. What might be lacking is the tough at-bat."

UC Irvine has finished top 16 in on-base percentage three of the last four seasons, and especially the hit-by-pitch stats where the team over the last four seasons has finished 16th, third, second, and first in the country setting the NCAA single-season record in 2024 with 175 HBP.