Bibona returns to UCI

For UC Irvine All-American pitcher Danny Bibona, a shot at a national championship and a college degree are worth more than the more than $100,000 signing bonus offered by the St. Louis Cardinals.

So, the lethal left-hander, drafted in the 16th round by the Cardinals (No. 489 overall) in June after earning Big West Conference Pitcher of the Year laurels, made it official Monday that he will anchor the Anteaters’ rotation in 2010.

“When I decided I was going to come back to school [in mid July], I sent texts to all the guys [on the team] saying ‘Let’s go. We’re going to win a national championship,’ ” Bibona said over the phone, moments after the 9 p.m. deadline to sign 2009 draftees had elapsed.

Bibona said representatives from the Cardinals spoke with him throughout the week, including Monday morning. And, despite what Bibona said was a thoroughly fair offer for someone chosen in the 16th round, he said the Cardinals never matched his undisclosed asking price.

“I was asking for a lot more money than [$100,000],” Bibona said, “so that definitely made it a lot more difficult. [The final offer] just wasn’t life-changing money, especially when you consider that my family has instilled in me how important a college degree is.

“We were actually pretty close to making a deal around early July. But after I thought about it a while and talked to a lot of people who advised me, I felt like coming back to school was the best thing for me.”

Bibona is on track to obtain his degree in sociology next spring. Beyond that, however, he hopes to complete a quest that he and several other returning teammates — some of whom also bypassed or were denied professional opportunities after being selected or ignored in the draft — have maintained since they helped UCI advance to the College World Series as freshmen in 2007.

“There are a lot of guys coming back with a chip on their shoulder,” Bibona said of a handful of those either undrafted or drafted in a late round after last season. “There are a lot of people disappointed about how [the draft] turned out and those guys want to come back and prove everyone wrong who doubted them.”

There is little doubt about Bibona’s mound prowess. He was 12-1 with a 2.63 earned-run average as a junior and is 22-5 with a 3.30 ERA, with 230 strikeouts in 234 2/3 collegiate innings.

He needs just 98 strikeouts, 10 fewer than he recorded in 2009, to surpass Scott Gorgen’s school career record.

Bibona said Newport Beach super agent Scott Boras was among those he consulted. And, Bibona said, he has no second thoughts about leaving behind a substantial paycheck.

Bibona said he had not picked up a baseball for some light throwing Monday, after taking about a complete month off.

“I’m just starting to get back into things,” said Bibona, whose presence on the UCI roster should help the defending Big West champions, who were 45-15 and ranked No. 1 nationally for six weeks last season, get back into the thick of a national title race in 2010.