ALISO NIGUEL, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos baseball team had a program-best seven Cougars earn 2026 All-CCAA honors, while Zech Samayoa was named the conference's Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year by the league office on Monday.
 
Samayoa and Canon King were named to the first team while Jack Clark, Jacob Embleton and Stephen Espinoza were named to the second team. Zach Romero and Christopher Tampoya were honorable mentions.
 
Samayoa had one of the greatest regular seasons in CSUSM history as the redshirt senior from Cerritos broke the program's single-season home run and RBI records, and was twice named the NCBWA Division II West Region Player of the Week and CCAA Player of the Week. Primarily the team's designated hitter, the transfer from Long Beach State leads the conference with 19 home runs and 67 RBIs while nationally ranking fourth with an .882 slugging percentage, sixth with .42 home runs per game and 10th with 1.49 RBIs per game. Samayoa's .382 batting average is tied for the sixth best in the CCAA, while his 17 doubles rank third. He has tallied a team-best 20 multi-RBI games and 18 multi-hit games. Samayoa is CSUSM's second CCAA Player of the Year in three years, following Garrett Teunissen's 2024 run, and is the first Newcomer of the Year in program history.
 
King put together a solid freshman season for the Cougars, batting .340 while ranking fifth in the CCAA with 54 RBIs, fifth with a .693 slugging percentage and sixth with 12 home runs. The Los Angeles native led the team with three triples and 29 walks while tallying 51 hits, 44 runs, 11 doubles, a .479 on-base percentage and a 1.172 OPS. The outfielder also tallied the team's longest reached-base streak of the regular season at 22 games and the longest hitting streak at 14 games. King was also named the CCAA Player of the Week once in 2026. He is the first freshman in program history to earn All-CCAA first-team honors.
 
A year after being named an All-CCAA honorable mention as a freshman, Clark stepped up to the second team in his sophomore campaign. In 13 appearances and nine starts, the San Diego native recorded a 4.74 ERA, a 1.46 WHIP and 45 strikeouts in 49.1 innings while posting a 6-1 record and a save. Among qualified pitchers, Clark allowed the second-fewest hits per nine innings in the CCAA at 8.76 and was seventh for strikeouts per nine innings at 8.21.
 
Embleton earned second-team honors as an outfielder after hitting .318 with 48 hits, 40 runs, 28 RBIs, 15 walks, 10 doubles, five homers, a triple, a .497 slugging percentage, a .395 on-base percentage and an .892 OPS. The junior from El Cajon was the CCAA's 10th-toughest player to strikeout, going 10.1 at-bats between punchouts. Embleton tied for the second-most multi-hit games on the team with 15 while tying for the fourth-most multi-RBI games with seven.
 
After being named an All-CCAA honorable mention with San Francisco State in 2025, Espinoza jumped up to the second team in 2026. The redshirt senior from Lompoc hit .344 with 53 hits, 36 runs, 33 RBIs, 16 walks, five homers, five doubles, two triples, a .500 slugging percentage, a .410 on-base percentage and a .910 OPS as a shortstop. Espinoza tied for the second-most multi-hit games on the team with 15 and had the third-most multi-RBI games with eight.
 
Romero was named an All-CCAA honorable mention as a relief pitcher after making a team-high 18 appearances and recording a team-low 1.19 WHIP. The senior transfer from UC Davis tallied a 4-2 record, three saves, a 3.68 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 29.1 innings while holding opposing batters to a .229 average.
 
Tampoya was named an honorable mention as a second baseman after tying for the team lead in batting average at .382 while tallying 42 hits, 31 runs, 24 RBIs, 15 walks, 12 doubles, one homer, one triple, a .536 slugging percentage, a .493 on-base percentage and a 1.029 OPS. His OBP ranked fourth in the CCAA while his batting average ranked sixth. The freshman from Westlake Village was the seventh-toughest player to strikeout in the CCAA at 12.2 at-bats between strikeouts.
 
The second-seeded Cougars will make their third consecutive appearance in the CCAA Tournament on Thursday as they face third-seeded Cal Poly Pomona to open the double-elimination portion of the bracket at 2 p.m. at Fiscalini Field on the campus of Cal State San Bernardino.