The 2026 baseball season is set to open on Feb. 13 with a three-game series against the Seattle University Redhawks at Robert J. Heigart field.
The Matadors ended the 2025 season with a 15-34 win-loss ratio, finishing in the ninth seed of the Big West Conference.
Despite last season’s hiccups, returning utility player Will Linberg says the team overall is excited for their season opener against the Redhawks on Friday.
“We scrimmaged three, four times a week every single week,” Linberg said. “It’s been a lot of us fighting against each other, and I think it’ll be really cool when all 40 of us get to be on the same team, rather than 20 v 20.”
Linberg highlighted that last season there was some lack of leadership among the veteran players, but the team is now at its most cohesive since the two years he has been with the program.
“That fault fell on me. I was a second year guy but one of the more veteran players on the team,” Linberg said. “I think we didn’t have the north star leading us to where we should go. I think now we have a really good group of five to 10 guys that know what to do, where to be.”
This season is also bringing in approximately 25 to 30 new players, according to Linberg.
One newcomer is right-hand pitcher Adam Christopher, who joined the Matadors after being with Reinhardt University (43-13) and went to the NAIA World Series in 2024. Christopher said he loved Reinhardt’s culture, but at Northridge he’s a hometown kid. He also emphasized how smooth the transition has been.
“The coaches and everyone have been awesome,” Christopher said. “I think the team is structured really well. We have a really good core group of guys that are pulling from the same rope, so that’s easy to adjust to, especially coming from a program like Reinhardt.”
According to the Big West Conference Coaches’ Poll, CSUN is forecasted to place ninth once again.
“We understand people are going to rank us how they’re going to rank us, but at the end of the day, it matters what we do here in between the lines,” Christopher said. He believes the team has a “good shot to prove a lot of people wrong” this season.
Matchups to look out for this season include the first conference games against UC Irvine from March 6 to 8. A three-game series against last year’s Big West Conference champions, the Cal Poly Mustangs, is scheduled to begin on April 24.
The last home three-game series will take place from May 8 to 10 against the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos. The Gauchos are predicted to become Big West Champions this season, according to the preseason poll.
For a full schedule of games and more information about CSUN men’s baseball visit their website.
