« Baseball 2010

Daniel Bibona

School
UC Irvine
Position
Pitcher
Major
Sociology
AVG
-
R
-
H
-
FLD%
-
ERA
2.48
W-L
9-2
RBI
-

Classroom

Bibona was the 2010 Big West Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a 2009 UCI scholar-athlete. He has a 3.25 GPA and will be graduating June of 2010 with a sociology major and minor in education.

Character

Bibona, a team captain in 2010, struggled as a freshman, pitching just 26 innings; however, he worked hard and had success during fall ball prior to his sophomore season. One day before his first start against USC at home, he was informed that his mom was in the hospital and was diagnosed with cancer again. “When I received this news, I did not know what to do. My mom did not want anyone to know, not even me because she did not want me to be affected by the situation. She did not want the coaches to find out in case they would not let me play. I feel as though I got a lot of strength from her during that time and this is why I am the way I am to deal with difficult situations.”

Community

Bibona has visited with and played with the children at Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC). He has worked the youth baseball camps at UCI every year and also coaches a youth team with 2009 finalist, Ben Orloff. He is a member of a non-profit organization called American Home Dream, which is an organization that helps terminally ill children.

Competition

Bibona was the 2009 Big West Pitcher of the Year and a Collegiate Baseball Louisville Slugger first-team All-American. He garnered National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Baseball America second-team All-America honors and was a CollegeBaseballInsider.com All-America first-team selection. He was a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist and Collegiate Baseball Foundation National Player of the Week. Bibona was a 16th-round draft pick by St. Louis and posted a 12-1 record as a junior, tying for second in the UCI single-season records with a .923 win percentage. He is eighth in the UCI career annals with 22 victories, 12th with 36 career starts, and seventh with 230 strikeouts. He was undefeated in Big West games, posting a 7-0 mark and recorded his first career complete game against UC Davis to give the Anteaters the conference title outright. He concluded the season as the Big West leader in ERA (2.63), strikeouts (108) and wins (12) and was second in opposing batting average (.209), batters struck out looking (30) and fourth in innings pitched (106). He ranked 5th in the country in wins and 20th in ERA and ended the season 22nd in the nation in strikeouts and 15th in hits allowed per nine innings at 6.62. He was named to the Irvine Regional All-Tournament Team after recording a career-high 14 strikeouts against Fresno State in the first game of the postseason. He registered the win against then-No. 1 Cal State Fullerton, shutting out the Titans through eight innings. He enters this season as a Collegiate Baseball Louisville Slugger preseason third-team All-American, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association preseason third-team All-American.