SAN BRUNO, Calif. – After capturing the West Coast Conference baseball regular season championship, Gonzaga claimed four of the five major individual awards and placed five on the 2026 all-conference first team as the conference announced the 2026 West Coast Conference all-conference honors on Tuesday.
Highlighting Gonzaga's major award winners was Player of the Year Mikey Bell, who won the award for the second straight year. Pitcher of the Year went to Karsten Sweum, while Freshman of the Year went to Landon Hood and Mark Machtolf was selected by his peers as Coach of the Year. In addition, San Diego's Jayden Lobliner won West Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight year.
All five individual awards – along with the all-conference teams – were voted on solely by the league’s 10 head coaches. This year's all-conference first team was comprised of nine positions players and five pitchers for a 14-member first team. The second team was a 13-member team with no position designation.
In conference games, Bell ranked first in slugging percentage (.719), hits (52), runs (35) and doubles (17). His efforts helped the Bulldogs garner a conference record of 22-5 and clinch the regular season championship. In the regular season finale, Bell tied a program record with five hits for the third time this season. Bell is the first Gonzaga player to repeat as Player of the Year. The last time the West Coast Conference featured back-to-back conference players of the year was James Meador of San Diego in 2009 and 2010.
Earning Coach of the Year for the first time since winning back-to-back years in 2021 and 2022, Machtolf has the Bulldogs in this week's Conference tournament as the No. 1 seed after closing out the regular season on a seven-game winning streak, including sweeps over San Francisco and Seattle U to clinch the regular season championship. The Bulldogs have been garnering national recognition in the second half of the conference season, recording votes in the national top-25 polls. This is the sixth time overall that Machtolf has won conference coach of the year.
Sweum became the first Gonzaga pitcher to win West Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year honors since Alek Jacob in 2021. In conference games, Sweum put an exclamation mark on Gonzaga winning the regular season championship by delivering a no-hitter at San Francisco. Sweum's 2.62 ERA in conference games led the league and his seven wins in conference play tied for a conference best along with his teammate Justin Feld. Sweum's 80 strikeouts also led the conference.
Gonzaga had multiple strong arms on the mound this year with Hood winning Freshman of the Year. Hood produced a 2.56 ERA on the year in conference play with a 4-1 record in 15 appearances. His five saves were a league best. Hood often times entered games in pressure situations and not only got out of the jam, but did so by collecting strikeouts. He won conference Freshman of the Week six times. The last time Gonzaga won Freshman of the Year was Cade McGee in 2022.
Not only did Lobliner win Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight year, but this also marks the third straight year that a Torero has won the award (Ariel Armas in 2024), Lobliner was stellar defensively behind the plate all year for USD. He boasted a .986 fielding percentage with only six errors. The catcher threw out runners trying to steal on 12 occasions.
Four first-team honorees - Bell, Ian Armstrong (Saint Mary's), Max Bayles (Santa Clara) and Diego Castellanos (Saint Mary's) picked up all-conference first team accolades after previously being named to the 2026 all-conference preseason team. Bell earned all-conference first team recognition for the second straight year.
The West Coast Conference Baseball Tournament runs from May 20-23 from Scottsdale Stadium. Click
here to view the tournament central home page.
2026 West Coast Conference Baseball All-Conference Awards
| COACH OF THE YEAR |
| Mark Machtolf |
Gonzaga |
| PLAYER OF THE YEAR |
| Mikey Bell |
Gonzaga |
Jr. |
| PITCHER OF THE YEAR |
| Karsten Sweum |
Gonzaga |
So. |
| FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR |
| Landon Hood |
Gonzaga |
Fr. |
| DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR |
| Jayden Lobliner |
San Diego |
Sr. |
ALL-CONFERENCE FIRST TEAM POSITION PLAYERS
| NAME |
SCHOOL |
POSITION |
YEAR |
| Ian Armstrong |
Saint Mary's |
C |
So. |
| Mikey Bell |
Gonzaga |
INF |
Jr. |
| Diego Castellanos |
Saint Mary's |
OF |
Jr. |
| Andrew Gauna |
San Diego |
OF |
Gr. |
| Maddox Haley |
Gonzaga |
INF |
Jr. |
| Payton Knowles |
Seattle U |
UTL |
Jr. |
| CJ Moran |
San Diego |
INF/OF |
So. |
| Jake Tandy |
Pacific |
INF |
Sr. |
| Ryder Young |
Gonzaga |
INF |
Jr. |
ALL-CONFERENCE FIRST TEAM PITCHERS
| NAME |
SCHOOL |
POSITION |
YEAR |
| Max Bayles |
Santa Clara |
RHP |
Jr. |
| John Damozonio |
Saint Mary's |
RHP |
Sr. |
| Justin Feld |
Gonzaga |
RHP |
Sr. |
| Tommy Scavone |
Pepperdine |
RHP |
Gr. |
| Karsten Sweum |
Gonzaga |
LHP |
So. |
ALL-CONFERENCE SECOND TEAM
| NAME |
SCHOOL |
POSITION |
YEAR |
| Ben Cleary |
Santa Clara |
INF |
Jr. |
| Jace Gillmore |
Santa Clara |
RHP |
Jr. |
| Tanner Griffith |
Saint Mary's |
OF |
Jr. |
| Landon Hood |
Gonzaga |
RHP |
Fr. |
| Ian Josephson |
Saint Mary's |
INF |
Fr. |
| Will Labonte |
Portland |
P |
Fr. |
| Jayden Lobliner |
San Diego |
C |
Sr. |
| Brendan O'Sullivan |
Pacific |
INF |
Sr. |
| Robert Orr |
Pacific |
UTL |
Jr. |
| Garret Plata |
Pacific |
LHP |
Jr. |
| Ricky Sanchez |
Gonzaga |
INF |
Sr. |
| Makoa Sniffen |
Saint Mary's |
INF |
So. |
| Trey Swygart |
Portland |
UTL |
So. |
ALL-CONFERENCE FRESHMAN TEAM
| NAME |
SCHOOL |
POSITION |
| Phoenix Brant |
San Diego |
UTL |
| Leo Cote |
Portland |
INF |
| James Dell'Amico |
Pepperdine |
INF/OF |
| Diego Gonzalez |
San Diego |
INF |
| Jayton Greer |
San Diego |
C |
| Landon Hood |
Gonzaga |
RHP |
| Ian Josephson |
Saint Mary's |
INF |
| Will Labonte |
Portland |
RHP |
| Alex Via |
Portland |
P |
| Joshua Woodworth |
Pepperdine |
UTL |
ALL-CONFERENCE HONORABLE MENTION
| NAME |
SCHOOL |
| Casey Euper |
Pepperdine |
| Diego Gonzalez |
San Diego |
| Diego Gutierrez |
San Diego |
| Jacob Johnson |
Saint Mary's |
| Johnny Luetzow |
Santa Clara |
| Noah Meffert |
Gonzaga |
| Daniel Patterson |
Pepperdine |
| Quentin Pohorski |
San Francisco |
| Zack Ramppen |
San Francisco |
| Carson Revay |
Pacific |
| Braeden Schnabel |
Pacific |
| Zach Tood |
Pacific |
| Alex Via |
Portland |
| Lucien Wechsberg |
Pepperdine |
| Joshua Woodworth |
Pepperdine |
| Jacob Wrubleski |
Gonzaga |
| Kai Yovanovich |
San Francisco |