The top of the 2026 Pacific West Conference baseball preseason poll looks a lot like the 2025 version.
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Point Loma is the favorite by a razor thin margin over Westmont with 134 poll points to 129. But the Warriors had more first place votes (7) than the Sea Lions (4), setting up what looks to be another tight conference race.

In 2025, despite the poll prediction, Westmont would go on to win the PacWest regular season title by 1.5 games over Point Loma, and then would sweep to the PacWest tournament crown.
The preseason poll is voted on by the conference’s 12 baseball coaches.

Rounding out the top six is Hawaii Pacific in third (112), Jessup in fourth (99), Biola in fifth (96) and Concordia is sixth (84).

Another similarity between the top two teams is that both Point Loma and Westmont lost a lot of talented players to graduation. In both cases, the Sea Lions and Warriors lost more all-star players than they return in 2026.

Point Loma finished 39-18 last season and was 32-12 (second place) in the PacWest. The Sea Lions won two games at the NCAA West Region tournament before falling to eventual regional champ Northwest Nazarene, 3-2.

Head coach Justin James lost eight key players from that squad, including All-Americans Jake Entrekin and Luke Reece. But he does welcome back All-PacWest Second Team shortstop Matt Bernath and Josiah Rodriguez, who hit 11 home runs and drove in 48. James also welcomes Hawaii Hilo transfer Mason Cook, a Third Team All-PacWest pick last year.

Westmont lost a bushel full of players as well including PacWest Pitcher of the Year Ryan Humphreys. Head coach Paul Svagdis does return Jesse Di Maggio who hit .341 last year with ten home runs and 45 RBI. Noah Williams will also help, a CSU-Pueblo transfer outfielder who as an all-region selection.

The Warriors, the 2023 NAIA national champs, won the PacWest regular season and tournament titles in their first season of eligibility. They went 43-10 overall and won two games at the west region championships before falling to CSU Monterey Bay.

Landing in the poll’s third spot is Hawaii Pacific, who was perhaps the surprise of the 2025 season. The Sharks reached the title game of the PacWest tournament and finished 32-22 overall and 28-16 in conference play (third place). HPU was picked to finish fifth in the 2025 preseason poll.

Head coach Dane Fujinaka lost PacWest Player of the Year Noah Blythe and Newcomer of the Year Brandon Rivera, but returns all-conference selections Tyler Arnold (.343, 16 HR) and Kan Taguchi (.435), along with 20 total returnees. Fujinaka also secured the services of five Division I transfers to bolster the roster.

Picked to finish fourth is Jessup, now in their first season of Division II eligibility. The Warriors served notice a year ago by tying HPU for third in the conference and they finished 36-20 overall, but were not yet eligible for postseason play.

Head coach Trevor Paine returns 25 players from that roster, including All-PacWest selection Cody Antone (.374). Like HPU, Jessup also landed some solid transfers including four Division I players.

Biola is fifth with 96 poll points. The Eagles lost some big pieces in Noah Ruiz and Isaiah Leon, both all-region selections. But All-PacWest picks Adiel Torres and James Whitman are back for head coach Jesse Rodgers. Whitman hit 347 with 14 home runs and Torres batted .390 and drove home 39 runners.

Concordia is next. The Golden Eagles have the most returning all-conference players of any team in the league in First Team shortstop Isaiah Walz and outfielder Wyatt Madison, along with pitcher Matthew Kaiser, who tossed a no-hitter against Westmont and was named the national pitcher of the week. Head coach Joe Turgeon’s team finished seventh in the PacWest last season.

In seventh is Vanguard. Head coach Rob Pegg’s team had an impressive PacWest debut last year with a fifth place finish (24-20) and a 28-22 overall record.  Pegg returns 24 players from that team but did lose a pair of all-conference players to graduation in Chris Paruleski and Fred Buckson.

Azusa Pacific with 66 poll points follows in eighth. Head coach Kirk Nieuwenhaus can lean on Jacob Hayes, who was a First Team All-PacWest selection and was also the PacWest Freshman of the Year. Hayes hit .332 with 19 home runs and 46 RBI. The Cougars finished 22-28 overall last year.

Fresno Pacific is ninth. Veteran infielder Tejean Smith is back along with outfielder Chris Clement, a Third Team nod in 2025. But head coach Oscar Hirschkorn graduated a trio of players that have been Sunbird mainstays the last few seasons in Jordan Smith, Trent Mallonee and Connor Semone. FPU has 23 returnees from the 2025 squad that went 23-28.

Rounding out the final three spots are Chaminade (34 poll points), Hawaii Hilo (28) and Menlo (13). The Silverswords, in year three since restarting the program, returns seven starters. Head coach Chad Konishi has 24 returnees overall. The Vulcans have a new leader in Garett Yukumoto, who recently has been an assistant in Hilo but prior to that was the longtime coach at Hawaii Pacific. Menlo also has a new coach in Mike Givens, who was the highly successful golf coach for the Oaks and now takes over the baseball program.

Four teams in the PacWest landed on the Top 10 of the West Region, with Point Loma selected third, Westmont fourth, Hawaii Pacific sixth and Jessup eighth.

Nine conference teams get underway this coming weekend in three-game series starting on Friday (Jan. 30). Two of those match-ups have extra juice, with Point Loma hosting CCAA power CSU Monterey Bay and Concordia welcoming defending west region champ Northwest Nazarene.

Conference play begins on Friday February 13, which includes PLNU hosting Hawaii Pacific. The top four teams in the conference standings at the end of the regular season will journey to Santa Barbara for the PacWest Conference Championships, May 6-8.