A Look At The SCIAC Ahead Of The 2026 Baseball Season

La Verne dominated the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference last year. See how the 2026 baseball season is shaping up for the conference.

Jan 26, 2026 by Matt Cannizzaro

A Look At The SCIAC Ahead Of The 2026 Baseball Season

The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference made a statement last season with three of its nine teams advancing to the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship.

La Verne earned the SCIAC’s automatic bid as the conference's tournament champion, while Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer made it via at-large selection.

The postseason run for the SCIAC was shorter than hoped for the trio, so the arrival of the 2026 college baseball season means it finally is time for a long-awaited shot at redemption.

During the regional round of the playoffs, host La Verne was bounced from the bracket by Pomona-Pitzer, which then lost to McMurry, just missing a trip to a Super Regional. The Sagehens also lost to McMurry in the opening round of the double-elimination format.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps ended up in a different regional and made the deepest postseason run of the three teams. The Stags swept Wisconsin-La Crosse in a doubleheader in the Badger State to advance to the Super Regional in Beverly, Massachusetts.

That’s where things ended for CMS, however, as the Stags fell to Endicott 2-0 in the best-of-three series.

La Verne’s surge to the top of the SCIAC in 2025 was not unexpected, as the Leopards won the regular-season title for the third consecutive season and 24th time overall, but the team’s victory in the conference tournament was its first since 2015.

The Leopards rallied back from an early 5-0 deficit to defeat Pomona-Pitzer 9-7 for the trophy and automatic bid into the Division III playoffs.

Since the creation of the Division III Baseball Championship in 1976, the SCIAC has brought home the hardware on four occasions – 1995 (La Verne), 2003 (Chapman), 2017 (Cal Lutheran) and 2019 (Chapman). La Verne also claimed the NAIA World Series crown in 1972.

Is it time for the SCIAC to rise again?

With the 2026 campaign on the horizon, four SCIAC teams were recognized on the 2026 D3baseball.com/National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Preseason Top 25.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps landed at No. 12 (with one first-place vote), La Verne was No. 16, Pomona-Pitzer came in at No. 19 and Chapman received votes, just missing the top 25.

Three SCIAC players earned Preseason All-America recognition from D3baseball.com.

Last year’s SCIAC Athlete of the Year, Jack Gold of Pomona-Pitzer, was a first-team selection, NCAA Championship star Alex Henderson of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps made the second team and reigning SCIAC champion Ryan Vosika of La Verne grabbed a spot on the third team.

Did You Know: As a conference, the SCIAC leads all of Division III in MLB draft picks in the 21st century with more than 30.

Chapman leads Division III with 13 draft picks of current or recently graduated players since 2000, while California Lutheran ranks second with 11.

Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Baseball For 2026

2025 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Standings

Team: Conference Record, Overall Record

La Verne: 18-6, 35-11
Pomona-Pitzer: 16-8, 32-17
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps: 16-8, 35-15
California Lutheran: 16-8, 27-14
Redlands: 15-9, 27-16
Chapman: 10-14, 11-28
Whittier: 9-15, 17-23
Caltech: 5-19, 8-30
Occidental: 3-21, 10-30

The major SCIAC awards during the 2025 season were as follows:

2025 SCIAC Athlete of the Year – Jack Gold (Pomona-Pitzer)
2025 SCIAC Pitcher of the Year – Luke Wechsler (California Lutheran)
2025 SCIAC Newcomer of the Year – Rylan Morris (Redlands)
2025 SCIAC Coaching Staff of the Year – Scott Winterburn (La Verne)

About The Teams Of The SCIAC

Fast facts about each team in the SCIAC:

California Lutheran

California Lutheran held its own in the SCIAC last year, finishing in a three-way tie for third place during the regular season with a 16-8 record in conference play, but the team made a fast exit from the 2025 SCIAC Baseball Tournament.

The Kingsmen lost the inaugural No. 4 vs. No. 5 showdown to start the event, falling to Redlands, 5-3.

The win-or-go-home matchup brought added excitement and determined the final team for the traditional four-program double-elimination tournament.

Overall, Cal Lutheran was 27-14 in 2025, the fourth consecutive year the Kingsmen won 27 or more games since an uncharacteristic 9-12 performance in 2021.

Cal Lutheran will open the 2026 season with a three-game home series against McMurry on Feb. 6-7.

Caltech

Caltech baseball is a team of streaks, but the Beavers likely are hoping that their current run of two consecutive 10-wins seasons is just the beginning of what could be one of college baseball’s most epic turnarounds.

In 2013, the team won its first game in 10 years, ending a 228-game losing streak.

In 2017, Caltech made headlines with a 4-3 walk-off win (a single) against Pomona-Pitzer. It was the Beavers’ first SCIAC victory since 1988 – you read that right – a 29-year winless streak that spanned more than 500 games.

The school has less than 1,000 students, which has created challenges for fielding competitive athletic teams.

Caltech will head into the 2026 campaign with momentum and a new head coach, though the pitching-minded Frank Craska is not new to the program. He joined the team in late 2024 as an assistant coach.

In his first year with the Beavers (2025), Craska helped the squad to the record-tying 10-win season, the program’s first win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and the lowest season ERA in team history (7.21).

The Beavers finished 2025 with a 10-30 overall record and 5-19 mark in SCIAC games, which landed Caltech eighth among the conferences nine teams. Only Occidental (3-21 in SCIAC) finished behind Caltech.

Caltech also won 10 games in 2024, going 10-30 overall and 1-23 in conference play under Kevin Whitehead.

The team graduated four seniors, but already was looking ahead toward 2026 with a talented group of returners and some promising additions.

All-time, Caltech, a founding member of the SCIAC in 1915, has reached the peak of the conference, winning a share of the conference title in 1922 and 1956. Only since 2013 has the SCIAC crowned a regular-season champion and a tournament winner.

So, why not do it again in 2026?

The season will kick off Jan. 30-31 with a three-game series against Bethesda.

Chapman

The Chapman baseball program has been around since 1926, and the team has enjoyed quite a bit of success, including two NCAA Division III national championships.

Most recently, under head coach Scott Laverty, the Panthers have collected 11 consecutive winnings seasons, from his debut in 2014 through 2024.

For his continued success, Laverty was named ABCA Division III Coach of the Year in 2019, D3baseball.com Division III Coach of the Year in 2019, ABCA West Region Coach of the Year in 2019 and SCIAC Coaching Staff of the Year (2019, 2021, 2022).

During his award-winning 2019 campaign, Laverty led the Panthers to the NCAA Division III national title, matching the team’s performance from 2003, along with a runner-up finish in 2011.

Something went wrong for the Panthers in 2025, however, and they struggled to an 11-28 record overall, while going 10-14 in conference play and finishing in the bottom half of the SCIAC standings.

The year did end with a three-game sweep of Caltech, but was the overall performance for the season just uncharacteristic, or was it the start of a trend the Panthers will want to end quickly?

Within the SCIAC, Chapman has claimed a pair of regular-season baseball championships (2019, 2022) and three SCIAC Baseball Tournament titles (2018, 2019, 2021).

Chapman was voted into the SCIAC for the 2011-2012 academic year after being an independent member of Division III since 1994.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps has a unique athletic history but hasn’t made much noise on the SCIAC baseball scene for a few decades.

That said, the Stags have come to life in recent seasons, winning a program-record 35 games in 2025 (35-15) and a bar-raising 32 games in 2024 (32-15). The only other time the team reached the 30 mark was a 30-9 performance in 1972.

On their way into the record book last season, the Stags made a push in the regular season and in the conference baseball tournament, but they fell short of titles on both accounts. They ended up in a three-way tie for second place in the standings, behind champion La Verne, and just missed a chance to play for the tournament title.

The Stags were forced to nervously wait to see if they’d done enough for an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship, and they had.

CMS made the most of the opportunity, advancing to Super Regional play, before falling to Endicott 2-0 in the best-of-three series. La Verne and Pomona-Pitzer also made it to the national tournament, but they did not make it out of the regional round.

If the Stags indeed are on an upward trajectory, winning a conference title would mark their first since 1990.

The CMS men have earned 230 SCIAC titles overall, and that includes SCIAC regular-season baseball championships in 1955, 1970, 1971, 1975, 1986 (shared), 1988 and 1990.

In 1947, after opening its doors in 1946, Claremont Men’s College joined with Pomona for athletics, becoming Pomona-Claremont. Pomona had been a member of the SCIAC since the conference’s inception in 1915.

Then, in 1958, Claremont moved on from Pomona and paired with Harvey Mudd College for athletics to become Claremont-Mudd.

The final change came in 1976, when Claremont-Mudd combined with Scripps College for athletics, creating the current iteration – Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

The 2026 campaign for CMS will get underway Feb. 6-8 with a three-game road series against Mary Hardin-Baylor in Texas.

La Verne

The La Verne baseball team pulled off the ultimate double in 2025, winning the SCIAC regular-season title and going on to also win the SCIAC Baseball Tournament.

The regular-season crown was the third straight for the Leopards, but the tournament victory was their first since 2015. They also became the first team since Chapman in 2019 to win both in the same season.

In all, the Leopards now have 24 regular-season titles and two tournament championships, though the tournament wasn’t introduced until 2013.

Unfortunately for La Verne, the run of good fortune ended there, and the Leopards were ousted from their own NCAA regional event with consecutive losses to McMurry and Pomona-Pitzer after defeating Whitworth in the double-elimination format.

La Verne finished 2025 with a 35-11 overall record and 16-8 mark in the conference prior to the tournament.

The Leopards’ journey to run it back in 2026 begins at home Feb. 13 against Whitworth.

They’ll also be eyeing their third national title to go along with a NAIA win in 1972 and a Division III championship in 1995.

Occidental

Occidental struggled on the baseball field in 2025, posting a 10-30 record that included a 3-21 mark in SCIAC games, but the Tigers never give up.

In fact, Occidental is one of the five original SCIAC schools and one of two to have uninterrupted membership since the conference was created in 1915 (with Redlands).

Along the way, the Tigers have left their mark on SCIAC baseball, winning 21 conference titles from 1925-1968, including 12 across the 1950s and 60s.

The team went quiet until winning again in 1982, then added one more shared regular-division title (with Cal Lutheran) in 2016. The latter was the only one that came after the conference added a championship tournament to the schedule in 2013.

In 2025, The Tigers closed their campaign with 14 consecutive losses and finished at the bottom of the nine-team SCIAC standings. They also said goodbye to nine seniors.

The last time Occidental had a winning season was the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, when the Tigers were 9-6. The year prior, they were 28-14 and finished tied for second in the conference with a 16-8 record in SCIAC games.

Post-COVID, the most games the team has won in a season is 13, which happened in 2022.

With nowhere to go in the SCIAC except up, the Tigers will kick off their 2026 season with a three-game nonconference visit from Centenary College (Louisiana) on Feb. 6-7.

Pomona-Pitzer

Though the Pomona-Pitzer athletic program has changed and evolved over the years, Pomona College also was one of the five founding members of the SCIAC in 1915 and even won the first five SCIAC baseball championships. The team has six regular-season titles.

In 2024, the Sagehens had a record year, winning the conference tournament for the first time – the event debuted in 2013 – and finished the season as one of the eight teams left standing to battle in the final portion in the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship.

There, consecutive losses to eventual national champion Misericordia and Endicott sent the Sagehens home with nothing more than experience.

During the regular season overall, Pomona-Pitzer has been a little quiet, with the team’s last regular-season title coming in 2010. It was the second in a row and third in four seasons.

Last year, the Sagehens finished in a three-way tie for second place in the SCIAC, but it was enough to reach the conference tournament and, eventually, the big Division III championship bracket.

With the trophy on the line at the 2025 SCIAC Baseball Tournament, Pomona-Pitzer jumped out to a 5-0 first-inning lead over La Verne but saw the advantage disappear and end in a 9-7 loss, allowing the Leopards to escape with the regular-season title and tournament hardware.

The Sagehens got some revenge during regional play, eliminating host La Verne from the tournament, but McMurry handed Pomona-Pitzer the same fate shortly after.

Pomona-Pitzer finished the season at 32-17 overall, which included a 16-8 record in SCIAC action.

The new campaign for the Sagehens will get underway at home Feb. 6-7 with a three-game series against Pacific University.

Redlands

Redlands disappeared into the middle of the SCIAC pack last year, despite doing 27-16 overall and 15-9 in conference play. The 27 wins was tied for the third-most under head coach Aaron Holley.

Holley has been in charge since 2013, a promotion that came after being an assistant coach for seven of the previous eight seasons.

He has helped the Bulldogs to seven 20-win seasons, but there also have been a few duds along the way, including a 5-11 performance in the shortened 2021 campaign.

In 2025, they benefitted from a change in the format of the SCIAC Baseball Tournament, taking advantage of a play-in game for the No. 5 seed by defeating No. 4 Cal Lutheran to earn one of the four spots in the main tournament for the first time since 2021.

The run was short-lived, as the Bulldogs lost to eventual champion La Verne and then Pomona-Pitzer in the double-elimination format.

Redlands has shared the regular-season SCIAC title in 1949, 1953, 1985 and 2018 and won it outright in 1931, 1940, 1948, 1960, 1965, 1991, 2006 and 2011, but the Bulldogs have not been able to break through in the conference tournament.

The Bulldogs’ 2026 season will begin Feb. 6-7 with a three-game home-and-home series with Whittier. The opener will be at Whittier, and they’ll play a doubleheader Feb. 7 at Redlands.

Whittier College

Whittier ended the 2025 season with five wins in its final six games, but that surge was only enough to get the squad to 17-23 overall and 9-15 in conference play.

It was an improvement from a 15-win 2024, but the Poets still haven’t been above .500 since going 24-16 in 2018.

In their quest to continue the upward trajectory, the Poets recently promoted Cameron Vollmer to a full-time role as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. He has been working with the program since 2023.

Whittier’s head coach is Mike Rizzo, who assumed the top spot in 1999 after more than a decade as an assistant. He picked up his 400th win during the 2024 season.

As a program, Whittier was one of the original five members of the SCIAC in 1915, left briefly in the 1940s and owns 13 SCIAC titles, but none since 1969.

The quest to add another trophy begins Feb. 6-7 with a SCIAC showdown against Redlands.

When Does The 2026 College Baseball Season Start?

The 2026 college baseball season is slated to begin Feb. 13 with the Shriners Children’s College Showdown, which gets the NCAA action rolling for the Division I teams.

For Division II and Division III, the action is set to begin Jan. 30 for most programs.

When Does The 2026 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship Start?

The first/regional round of the 2026 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship will be May 14-17, with times and locations TBD.

The NCAA Super Regional action will be held May 22-24, again, with times and locations TBD.

The last eight teams standing in the 2026 Division III Baseball Championship will head to Classic Park in Eastlake, Ohio, from May 29 through June 4 to battle through a combination of double-elimination and best-of-three competition until a champion emerges.

How To Stream Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Baseball Games In 2026

Every SCIAC baseball game will stream live on FloCollege and the FloSports app.

Game replays, highlights and breaking news also will be available on both platforms.

How To Watch More Of The 2026 College Baseball Season On FloCollege

College baseball in 2026 will be streamed on FloCollege and the FloSports app for select Division I preseason tournaments and for much of the Division II and Division III seasons.

2026 D3baseball.com/National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Preseason Top 25

The first Top 25 of the regular season will be posted Feb. 24, 2026.

Team (first-place votes) – 2025 Record, Points (Previous Ranking)

UW–Whitewater (18) – 49-6, 598 points (Previous: 1)
Endicott (3) – 45-6, 577 points (Previous: 2)
Denison – 41-7, 528 points (Previous: 4)
Kean (1) – 41-11, 515 points (Previous: 7)
Salisbury – 34-10, 452 points (Previous: 11)
Lynchburg (1) – 41-9, 439 points (Previous: 10)
Messiah – 39-16, 431 points (Previous: 3)
Rowan – 38-12, 427 points (Previous: 5)
Trinity (Texas) – 41-10, 417 points (Previous: 8)
Salve Regina (1) – 36-9, 414 points (Previous: 9)
Johns Hopkins – 44-5, 395 points (Previous: 6)
Claremont–Mudd–Scripps (1) – 35-15, 387 points (Previous: 12)
Cortland – 31-13, 339 points (Previous: 20)
Case Western Reserve – 30-14-1, 265 points (Previous: 13)
Webster – 37-9, 253 points (Previous: 22)
La Verne – 35-11, 241 points (Previous: 17)
Centre – 32-11, 220 points (Previous: 18)
UW–Oshkosh – 35-16, 161 points (Previous: 15)
Pomona–Pitzer – 32-17, 146 points (Previous: 24)
Adrian – 30-18, 111 points (Previous: RV)
Penn State Harrisburg – 34-13-1, 80 points (Previous: RV)
McMurry – 35-13, 75 points (Previous: 16)
UW–La Crosse – 35-11, 70 points (Previous: 14)
Keystone – 37-11, 61 points (Previous: 23)
East Texas Baptist – 31-16, 58 points (Previous: RV)

Others receiving votes: Belhaven 50, Baldwin Wallace 47, Brockport 46, Chicago 42, Babson 32, Misericordia 30, Washington (Mo.) 30, Randolph-Macon 28, Chapman 27, Whitworth 15, Concordia (Texas) 13, Elizabethtown 9, North Central (Ill.) 9, Emory 8, Gust. Adolphus 8, Maryville (Tenn.) 8, Stevens 7, Mount Union 6, Coast Guard 5, Lycoming 5, Montclair St. 5, Transylvania 4, Coe 3, MSOE 3, Penn St.-Behrend 3, Wash. & Jefferson 3, Arcadia 2, Bridgewater St. 2, Lebanon Valley 2, Middlebury 2, Buena Vista 1, Centenary (La.) 1, Earlham 1, Rutgers-Camden 1.

When Is The 2026 MLB Draft?

The MLB Draft begins the Sunday of MLB All-Star Week, which is being held in Philadelphia from July 11-14.

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