Thankfully the baseball season is less than 2 months away, and that can't help but be interesting, maybe not as interesting as sub .500 basketball, but interesting

The 2024 non-conference schedule doesn't have any UCLA's on it but it has perhaps a wider variety of decent opponents. I'm only going to mention the teams they are playing at least 3 times.

SEATTLE UCD won 2 of 3 from the Redhawks on the road in 2023. For being a so-so program Seattle gets some excellent pitching recruits, often with interesting names like Tarik Skubal and Janson Junk. Those are even good baseball surnames.

BRIGHAM YOUNG BYU had a losing record in 2023. The Aggies last hosted BYU (losing 2 of 3) in 2010 according to the UCD athletics website. BYU was in the Mountain West at the time. They have changed conferences at least twice since then.

at Santa Clara The Broncos won the WCC and went to the NCAA tournament in 2023 but they split their two games with the Aggies. so who really knows what to think ? The West Coast Conference doesn't seem to be one of the stronger baseball conferences. Maybe it has something to do with the difficulties small private schools have with finding enough top-quality recruits who want to be massively in debt after graduating or have super-wealthy parents.

at CAL BAPTIST The Lancers also had a losing record in 2023. However, Cal Baptist swept the series from the Aggies in 2021 at Dobbins Stadium.

at Abilene Christian According to the schedules on the UCD athletics website these two teams have not played each other since 2003 at the Division II CWS at Kennesw State. The Aggies won that game. Abilene Christian was 35-24 according to their website. Then again they play in the WAC so...

Sacramento State Speaking of the WAC, the only reason the hornets are being mentioned is there are 3 games scheduled-all of them of the mid-week variety. Sac State went 30-26 in 2023 and missed the conference playoffs. To do that you have to finish lower than 6th, which is exactly what they did.

The Aggies have largely retained their depth from last season (more on that in a separate topic) but the hornets' roster was absolutely gutted. Their star freshman shortstop ditched them for Arkansas. They lost more than 20 players, most of them not seniors. I'm not an expert on this but I think losing over half your team is not a recipe for winning.

The Big West schedule is dull and not worth examining in depth. If the Aggies actually beat a team other than Bakersfield or UCR that may change.