Editor’s note: All week long, the Union-Tribune is previewing San Diego’s college baseball teams. Up next: UC San Diego.
The wait is over. Finally.
UC San Diego’s five-year “transition” period from Division II to Division I has concluded.
This year, UCSD gets a reward for a good season — a chance to play in the Big West Tournament and potentially the NCAA Division I playoffs.
“It’s exciting,” UCSD head coach Eric Newman said. “We’re ready for the this. We’ve been preparing for this for a long time. Myself, the coaches, the players, we’re all champing at the bit to get going.”
UCSD earned the school’s first Big West championship two years ago, only to be left sitting at home because of the NCAA’s antiquated transition rule. UCSD’s transition period ended last summer, allowing the school’s teams to compete for the postseason in Division I for the first time.
“There’s a level of anticipation that wasn’t there last year,” Newman said. “Particularly, last year there may have been a little bit of a hangover from when we won it, couldn’t go and still were facing that same scenario (in 2024).
“This year, I have a really good sense of the group right now. They’re excited.”
UCSD opens the season this weekend with a three-game series at Pacific before playing its home opener Tuesday evening against San Diego State.
2024 record: 30-23 overall; 17-13 (fifth) Big West.
Top returners: C Emiliano Gonzalez (.317, 6 HR, 46 RBIs), a preseason all-Big West selection, is joined by OF Nick Costello (.247, 10 HR, 32 RBIs), OF Michael Crossland (.292, 3 HR, 26 RBIs), INF/OF Anthony Potestio (.318, 2 HR, 20 RBIs), RHP Matthew Dalquist (6-3, 4.71 ERA) and LHP Spencer Seid (5-2, 5.25 ERA).
Key additions: 1B Gabe Camacho (.247, 10 HR, 29 RBIs) is a La Costa Canyon High School graduate who transferred in after a standout freshman season at Pacific. Junior INF Noah Lazuka (San Marcos High School), a Palomar College transfer, also should make an impact. Candidates to join Dalquist and Seid in the starting rotation are Southwestern College transfer RHP Trevor Rector (Mar Vista High School), along with redshirt RHP Steele Murdoch and true freshman RHP Nathan Ries.
Outlook: The Tritons lost top pitchers Ryan Forcucci and Izaak Martinez to the draft and Anthony Eyanson to the transfer portal, but Newman feels like the innings can be replaced with a deep, though inexperienced, staff. Offensively, Newman believes it is one of the most talented groups in his 13 years as head coach. UCSD will have to prove being picked for fifth is low, which is what the Tritons did two years ago when they won the conference after being picked for eighth.
Preseason prediction: Big West coaches poll: 1. UC Santa Barbara (9 first-place votes), 2. UC Irvine (2), 3. Cal Poly, 4. Hawaii, 5 UC San Diego, 6. CS Northridge, 7. UC Davis, T8. CS Fullerton, T8. Long Beach State, 10. CS Bakersfield, 11. UC Riverside.
Big West Tournament: The top five teams from the regular season advance to the inaugural Big West championship hosted May 21-25 at Cal State Fullerton’s Goodwin Field. The winner receives the conference’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.
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