Anteater baseball is approaching its 48th season as a program and coming off a second straight trip to an NCAA Regional and second straight 40-win season. The 2026 season projects more success, and reigning Big West Coach of the Year
Ben Orloff envisions it like this with five key things to look out for:
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5 Things To Know from Coach Orloff
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1. League of Their Own: "We were a consistent group last season when you win the Big West regular season, there's a lot of fulfillment in that with a pretty new team coming off the 2024 season. To win 43 games, win the conference regular season, getting back to a regional final, all of that is stuff we're proud of. Individually, six players get drafted, seven with Penso signing, and we have seven UC Irvine alums that appeared in the big leagues, the most in any season."
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2. Extending A Hand: "This place means a lot to a lot of us. Going back to the large amount of draft picks in the top 10 rounds, nine over the last two years, seven of those came to UCI right out of high school, one was a junior college transfer, and that type of continuity as it pertains to the coaching staff is rare in 2026. The fact that coach Bibona, coach Bloodworth, we've been together for eight years. I think we're the only school around that's got three guys that have been together that long and that feeds into the consistency with this program, consistency with performance. It all starts with the players, but the fact that we've all been together so long and we're really fortunate to have those two coaches. I get too much credit, the assistant coaches don't get enough, but that's been a giant part of why we've been consistent year in and year out."
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3. Armed Forces: "Every year is a new team. Things our fans and people that follow the program will be aware of is the strength should be on the mound. Returning Trevor Hansen, 32 starts in two years, Ricky Ojeda, arguably amongst the most valuable pitchers in the whole country, Ryder Brooks who had a really good season mostly as the Sunday starter. Brought in Peyton Rodgers as a transfer from SDSU, freshman Cade Castles has been very impressive, that nucleus is going to give us a chance day in and day out.
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Pitching with the depth starting with Hansen, Ojeda, and Castles, and then there's more names - Danny Suarez, Finnegan Wall, Jack Ross, Tim Grack is back from injury - there's a lot of arms with not enough starts. Even a David Butler back, Hunter Manning's looked really good as a freshman. That's part of why we've scheduled like we have, we like the depth of the guys as we think of the top 12 guys, it's as good as we've felt about a group of 12 for it being the preseason. There will be opportunities for guys early, every game is so important. What's made us so good is relief pitching, and our guys know ow we feel about relievers. They help us win a couple times each week. What's made us good and consistent the last two years is we've had three losses when leading after the sixth so the ability to have really good options and pitch really good in those middle to late innings when the starter comes out will be important and we're excited to see how that shakes out.
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Tim Grack is a very exciting name because he missed last season. People forget he was the Sunday starter on a 45-win team two years ago. He's made of all the right stuff and he's going to be an X-factor as he continues to get further removed from surgery, he's someone we're going to take notice of.
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We're fortunate with those pitchers that there's nothing more important than winning the game. Every role is important and nobody's getting caught up in what day they're pitching, starting or relief, we need the best guys to pitch the most. When you look a the stats the last couple years,that's reflected that. Ricky is a reliever that threw 66 innings last year. Those best relievers for us historically have been in that role and are critically important."
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4. Batting Around: "We've been really happy with how the defense is being played. I think we should be a group that defends at a high level.
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I don't think we're going to see the over-the-fence team power that we've had the last couple of years, but there's other ways to win, and offensively we'll be really left-handed again which can present problems for the opponents. We've done a good job staying in the strike zone. There's not a lot of chase, not a lot of swing and miss, I think that stuff lends itself to being consistent.
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Our offense is exciting. Alonso Reyes and James Castagnola were two of our most consistent guys down the stretch, certainly in the regional. Those two carried us. Frankie Carney had his moments and he hit .330 in his first year as a full-time starter. Zach Fjelstad will step into a more consistent role. An exciting name to talk about is Tommy Farmer; local kid from Oaks Christian HS, went to the University of Texas for two years, had 200 plate appearances for them on an SEC Championship team. He's a candidate to be like a Yeaman or McCombs as a transfer that could take the next step and look like a star. His work ethic is amazing, high motor, wants to get better, that's part of why he came here. I think when you add him to that list of returners along with another 6-to-8 guys that are contributing on a regular basis and enough for us to have a productive, winning offense."
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5. Stepping Up to the Challenge: "I take a lot of pride in non-conference scheduling, that's the stuff we can control. I think it's good to test yourself against the best teams in the country. It's good for RPI and postseason standing.
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We're the only team in America that has 20 true road wins over the last two years so we challenge ourselves by playing good opponents and going on the road. That's what's helped as a non-power four league team to back-to-back at-large postseason berths.
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It's cool looking at it until you have to play it. Starting at Sacramento State, they've been a consistent performer, 30 wins or more in 12 of the last 13 years. Cal is our first home weekend. An ACC team now and it's a good thing for both programs. They consistently have high draft pick talent. Third week we're in Las Vegas against Vanderbilt, second straight year against them, SEC Tournament champion, No. 1 overall seed last year, then Oregon who was a regional host last year, and finish with Arizona who was in Omaha a year ago. In our Big West bye week we get Oregon State who was also in Omaha and someone we've always had good series with and looks like they could have the best starting pitching in the country. Grand Canyon coming in for two midweek games coaching by our first Anteater in the new era, Gregg Wallis, they're a consistent winner. We're playing new programs, good programs, more games in Anteater Ballpark, hopefully it prepares us for Big West and if we can win enough put us in consideration for an at-large."
