NCAA Division I baseball opens around the Bay Area

Cal opens under the lights of Evans Diamond Friday night at 6:05 p.m., hosting the Broncos in the first of a five-game series. Friday’s other two home openers are afternoon games, with Saint Mary’s hosting Creighton at Gallagher Stadium at 2 p.m., and USF hosting Western Illinois at Benedetti Diamond at 2 p.m.

San Jose State opens Friday at Long Beach State. Stanford opens Friday against University of Arizona, in tournament play in Arizona.

Today, the Daily Journal begins a two-day Bay Area baseball preview, with a quick overview of the West Coast Conference.

Saint Mary’s Gaels

The Gaels proved the most surprising team in Bay Area college baseball last season, winning 36 games, the third most in program history. Saint Mary’s also claimed just its second-ever West Coast Conference tournament title, the first one coming in 2016.

Gaels manager Eric Valenzuela touts a core four of returning players through the middle, including senior shortstop Jared Mettam (Half Moon Bay) and sophomore catcher Ian Armstrong (Serra). It also includes senior Cody Kashimoto slated as the starting second baseman.

“I feel really good about where we are,” Valenzuela said. “Guys like Cody, and [Friday night starting pitcher John Damozonio] and Mettam, and a lot of our seniors that have been through the trenches of this thing, and really growing this thing as well, is going to help us this season.”

Mettam is a fourth-year starter as short, who personified Saint Mary’s last surge in 2025. The Half Moon Bay native suffered a broken nose March 8, 2025, when he got hit in the face by a pitch against Utah Tech. The Gaels posted a 3-5 record while he was sidelined before returning March 28. Come the middle of April, the team turned its season around, rolling to a 13-5 win April 15 at San Jose State to spark of streak spanning into May of winning 10 of its next 11.

“With our seniors back, and ... up the middle back, with that experience that we have, I feel like we’re in a really good place,” Valenzuela said.

Armstrong was a breakout star as a freshman, slashing .364/.402/.576 while earning All-WCC Second Team honors, and being named to the WCC All-Freshman Team.

Also in the mix is 2025 Serra graduate Ian Josephson, a natural middle infielder whose most likely path to the starting lineup is at third base. Sophomore right-hander Sam Kretsch (Serra) made 20 appearances, including four starts last season as a true freshman. He finished with a 3-2 record and a 5.89 ERA.

Santa Clara Broncos

Ninth-year manager Rusty Filter’s Broncos have backtracked since 2023, when the program enjoyed its winningest season since 1997. Last season, Santa Clara went 20-30 overall, while finishing in the cellar of the WCC, tied with Pepperdine, with a 7-17 conference mark.

Santa Clara will open the season with Friday-night starter Max Bayles (Cathedral Catholic-San Diego), a bright spot for Santa Clara in 2025. The right-hander was three-time WCC Pitcher of the Week and was named to the coveted Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List.

Junior infielder Ben Cleary (Serra) has risen through the collegiate ranks, as a WCC All-Freshman in 2024 and an All-WCC honorable mention last season. The Half Moon Bay native hit .302 with an outstanding contact rate in 2025, striking out 18 times against 26 walks in 182 at-bats.

“Ben has always been a contact hitter,” Filter said. “Really low strikeout percentage, but also a little more defensive approach, offensively, where ball in play in important, and was really good with two strikes. The thing that we mentioned to him and our entire team is we’re looking to increase our slugging percentage overall. .. He has shown more power in the fall, but we’ll see how things go.”

Cleary has previously split time between second base and shortstop, but is tabbed as the Broncos’ starting shortstop this year after rehabbing a minor arm injury in the offseason.

One other Bronco of San Mateo County interest is true freshman right-hander Nick Chow. A Redwood City native, Chow was a two-time All-West Catholic Athletic League pitcher at St. Francis-Mountain View.

USF Dons

University of San Francisco rallied back to respectability over the last week of the 2025 season, finishing the regular season on a five-game winning streak. The hot streak gave third-year manager Rob DiToma his winningest season, with the Dons totaling 18 wins in 2023, 21 wins in 2024, and finished 2025 with a 26-30 overall record.

The program settled for a sixth-place finish in the WCC with a 9-15 conference record, before its season ended in the WCC tournament opener with a 9-4 loss to Saint Mary’s. The Dons did play well at home, though, posting an 18-15 record at Benedetti Diamond.

“We have the luxury of some of teams we’ve really struggled with, in our league especially, coming to our field this year, which we’re really trying to harp on,” DiToma said. “We have a unique place to play, and we need to have an advantage here, and we need to believe that things are going to happen at our field.”

USF has one player on roster with San Mateo County ties, junior right-hander Gino Rossi, a Pinole native and first-year transfer from College of San Mateo.