Big West coaches rooting for one another

Andrew Morales led UC Irvine to one of four Big West victories on day one of the NCAA tournament Friday.

On the first day of NCAA Tournament Regional action, the Big West looked pretty darn good. Cal Poly, Long Beach State, UC Irvine, and Cal State Fullerton all won their opening games.

After their win, Cal Poly’s Larry Lee talked about the camaraderie coaches from the Big West share.

“Rick Vanderhook sent a text to myself, Mike Gillespie, and Troy Buckley two days ago and we all responded,” said Lee after Friday night’s victory over Sacramento State. “His initial text was, ‘Let’s show ’em what the Big West is all about,’ paraphrasing, and we all sent back our own little texts back to the group. It was actually a big sense of pride. Usually you root against those teams… . I get along with all of those coaches and we all have respect for each other and I just kind of got a kick out of [it]. This is a pretty cool thing.”

Cal Poly is one of only two regionals played in western states, which means teams from the Big West and Pac 12 Conferences are spread-out around the country this week.

“As soon as Washington didn’t get a host site, I knew that the West coast was going to do some damage, because we’ve got some really good teams out here and we like playing against teams outside of the West,” said Lee. “We beat up on each other all the time out here and our practices are geared for stopping the offenses out here, so when we go elsewhere, it’s time to let it loose and they’re not really accustomed to playing against teams like Long Beach and Fullerton and Irvine.”

Stanford and Oregon of the Pac 12 also won decisively on day one, making it a pretty good day for West coast baseball overall.

“A lot of pride in the Big West,” said Lee. “Hopefully we can continue to be successful in these regionals.”