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Championship Central<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Interactive Bracket<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Purchase Tickets<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n The bracket is set for the 2026 Big West Baseball Championship, held May 20-23 or 24 at UC Irvine\u2019s Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark.\u00a0<\/p>\n UC Santa Barbara\u00a0(37-16)\u00a0and Cal Poly\u00a0(33-21)\u00a0were\u00a0crowned as\u00a0Big\u00a0West\u00a0regular-season co-champions with identical\u00a022-8\u00a0conference records. The Gauchos earned the No. 1 seed by sweeping the Mustangs\u00a0to open\u00a0the month of April. Incidentally, the\u00a0series\u00a0loss to UCSB stands as Cal Poly\u2019s only league series dropped in 2026, where they took at least two wins in the other nine.<\/p>\n This marks\u00a0UC Santa Barbara\u2019s\u00a0sixth regular-season title in program history\u00a0and a fourth since 2019. Their last came in 2024. For Cal Poly, the 2026 regular-season title is just a second in Mustangs\u2019 program history, with their lone championship coming in\u00a0the\u00a02014\u00a0campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Gauchos and Mustangs\u00a0were two of the three teams that did not have to face the postseason pressure on the final weekend, as they clinched playoff berths the week before. UC Santa Barbara\u00a0boasts a 3.45\u00a0team\u00a0ERA,\u00a0fourth in\u00a0the nation.\u00a0Right-handed Gaucho ace\u00a0Jackson Flora\u00a0is the conference\u2019s leader in wins (10), ERA (1.03)\u00a0and strikeouts (115).\u00a0Flora was recently named semifinalist for both USA Baseball\u2019s Golden Spikes award and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association’s Dick Howser Trophy.\u00a0Cal Poly has scored the most runs in the league as a team, with catcher\u00a0Ryan Tayman\u00a0tied at the\u00a0top\u00a0of\u00a0The Big West in home runs (16) and RBI (51).\u00a0The Mustangs\u2019 offensive firepower\u00a0comes from the entirety of the lineup,\u00a0hitting\u00a0.307\u00a0as a team to lead The Big West\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n UC San Diego\u00a0(24-26)\u00a0also punched their ticket in the penultimate weekend and claimed the No. 3 seed after going\u00a018-12\u00a0in Big West action. Triton junior first baseman\u00a0Gabe Camacho\u00a0finished the regular season with\u00a016\u00a0home runs and\u00a051\u00a0RBI, both\u00a0knotted atop\u00a0The Big West\u00a0leaderboard.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Hawai\u2018i\u00a0(27-22, 16-14 BW)\u00a0booked its ticket to Orange County with a win\u00a0over CSUN\u00a0on Wednesday\u00a0and secured the series win over the Matadors with a second the following day.\u00a0The\u00a0Rainbow Warriors also rely on strength from the bullpen, carrying a 3.44 team ERA,\u00a0in the top five nationally.<\/p>\n The final spot in the bracket came down to the final out of the regular season as\u00a0Cal State Fullerton\u00a0(23-30, 15-15 BW)\u00a0claimed the No. 5 seed\u00a0after a required victory at UC San Diego on Saturday to advance to the postseason.\u00a0Paul Contreras highlighted the day with a 5-for-5 outing at the plate with a double and two home runs in the 10-5 must-win\u00a0game.\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0Championship\u00a0will\u00a0begin\u00a0with fourth-seeded Hawai\u2018i facing\u00a0the\u00a0fifth-seeded\u00a0Titans\u00a0in a single-elimination play-in matchup on Wednesday, May 20 at 6 p.m. Expect to see an excellent pitching duel between Rainbow Warrior righty\u00a0Isaiah Magdaleno\u00a0(7-4, 2.33 ERA, 112 K, 89.0 IP) and Titan lefty\u00a0Mikiah Negrete\u00a0(8-4, 2.87 ERA, 87 K, 91.0 IP) who are both top five in the league in all four major pitching categories of wins, ERA, strikeouts and innings pitched.\u00a0In the\u00a0regular-season\u00a0series,\u00a0Hawai\u2019i took two out of three on O\u2019ahu\u00a0including an extra-inning affair in the rubber match.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Then, the bracket moves\u00a0to a four-team double-elimination format on Thursday, May 21 with top-seeded\u00a0UC Santa Barbara\u00a0playing the winner of Wednesday\u2019s game at 1 p.m.\u00a0Interestingly, the Gauchos went 1-2 in the regular season against both potential Thursday foes.<\/p>\n Second-seeded\u00a0Cal Poly\u00a0will take on third-seeded UC San Diego at 6 p.m.\u00a0The Mustangs and Tritons met up in La Jolla in mid-April, with Cal Poly coming out on top in the first two contests before UCSD got a walk-off two-run\u00a0single off the bat of Camacho for the 16-15 win in the finale.\u00a0<\/p>\n The winning teams from Thursday’s games\u00a0will play each other on Friday, May 22 at 1 p.m., while\u00a0the losing teams will take the field at 6\u00a0o\u2019clock\u00a0in an elimination game.\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0non-advancing team from\u00a0Friday\u2019s first game\u00a0moves to the elimination bracket to play\u00a0the winning team from the\u00a0nightcap on\u00a0Saturday, May 23 at 1 p.m.,\u00a0for the opportunity\u00a0for each team\u00a0to\u00a0play themselves back into title contention.\u00a0The\u00a0Championship\u00a0game then\u00a0follows at\u00a06 p.m.\u00a0If the undefeated team\u00a0out of the winner\u2019s bracket\u00a0takes a loss, an if-necessary game will be played on Sunday, May 24 at noon, stretching the event to a fifth day from Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark. The winner of\u00a0the 2026 Big West Baseball Championship will receive the\u00a0league\u2019s automatic bid into the 2026 NCAA Division I Baseball\u00a0Championship to begin the Road to Omaha.\u00a0<\/p>\n All-session\u00a0tickets\u00a0to the 2026 Big West Baseball Championship\u00a0are $125 and provide access to all four (or five) days of the event. Single-session general admission tickets are also available starting at $15 for adults and $10 for youth (12 and under).\u00a0For\u00a0additional\u00a0details or to\u00a0purchase\u00a0tickets, visit\u00a0BigWest.org\/BASEtix<\/a>.\u00a0For fans not able to attend, each game will be broadcast live from Irvine on ESPN+.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n