April 25, 2002
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THIS WEEK
San Diego State, in first place in the league entering the week, resumes Mountain West Conference action with three home games against second-place Utah beginning Friday (April 26) at 6:00 p.m. (PDT) at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
The series continues with contests scheduled for Saturday (April 27) at 6:00 p.m. (PDT) and Saturday (April 28) at 1:00 p.m. (PDT).
DIETZ'S FINAL WEEKEND
Head coach Jim Dietz will be honored throughout the weekend, his final three-game series at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
Commemorative pins will be given away at Saturday's game with a Jim Dietz baseball card being handed out to all fans in attendacne at Sunday's contest.
A special ceremony hosted by Tony Gwynn will be held prior to Sunday's game beginning at 12:30 p.m.
GETTING NOTICED
San Diego State is ranked 25th in the nation this week by Baseball America and 27th by Collegiate Baseball.
It marks the first time the Aztecs have been ranked since the 1997 season. That season they were rated as high as 22nd in Baseball Weekly/ESPN, 23rd in Collegiate Baseball, and 25th in The Sporting News.
SERIES RECORD
San Diego State leads the series with University of Utah, 67-11. The teams first faced each other in 1964 with a majority of their contests coming while both were members of the Western Athletic Conference.
The Utes captured two of the three contests between the teams when they met in Salt Lake City earlier this season (March 29-31).
SDSU is 6-1 against the Utes in San Diego since both schools joined the Mountain West Conference two seasons ago.
SCOUTING THE UTES
Utah enters the series with an overall record of 25-19. The Utes are 9-9 in the Mountain West Conference, tied for second place with Brigham Young, six games behind San Diego State.
The Ute offense is led by second baseman Adam Castleton (.380, 12 2B, 34 RBI), outfielder Mike Basham (.333, 23 RBI), 17 SB) and outfielder Brit Pannier (.328, 20 2B, 46 RBI). As a team, the Utes are hitting .319.
The Utah pitching rotation for this weekend is expected to be Jason Wylie (4-6, 6.37), Cheyenne Rushton (6-3, 4.86) and Mitch Maio (7-1, 3.84). The team's top reliever is Jared Snyder, who has made 13 appearances and has a 3.74 earned run average with three saves. The Utes' team ERA stands at 5.83.
SDSU ROTATION
The Aztecs pitching rotation this weekend will have Chris Dunwell (7-3, 3.22) starting the first game of the series on Friday followed by Rory Shortell (7-2, 3.33) on Saturday.
Sunday's starter will be either Joe Carque (6-2, 4.98) or Mike Moat (3-2, 4.93).
MOST RECENTLY
San Diego State traveled to USC this past Tuesday where they were defeated, 10-8, by the Trojans.
The Aztecs scored five times in the second inning and led 6-4 in the eighth only to see USC rally for six runs in the bottom of that inning.
Taber Lee led the Aztec attack, going 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles and three RBI.
COACH JIM DIETZ
Aztec head coach Jim Dietz is in his 31st season at San Diego State, where he has compiled a career record of 1221-741-18 (.621). His win total ranks seventh among active Division I coaches. He picked up his 1200th career victory in the 11-2 win over Southern Utah on March 1.
He was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Hall of Fame in a ceremony that took place at the organization's annual convention in Orlando on January 4.
Dietz has announced his retirement effective at the end of the 2002 campaign. He will be succeeded by former Aztec and San Diego Padre Tony Gwynn, who is serving as an assistant coach this season.
PAST THE HALFWAY POINT
The Mountain West Conference completed its sixth round of league play last weekend. San Diego State enters the week as the league leader by six games over both Brigham Young and Utah.
The past two seasons, the first-place team in the MWC standings after six weekends of conference action has gone on to win the regular-season title.
New Mexico was 16-2 after the first six league weekends in 2000 and went on to a 22-8 mark en route to the title.
Last year, Brigham Young was 13-5 after the first 18 MWC games and finished first with a 21-8 conference record.
NATIONAL LEADER
In this week's NCAA statistics, Aztec junior Royce Ring leads the nation in saves with 14.
The other stat where SDSU ranks among the leaders is defense where its .969 fielding percentage ranks 16th in the country. That stat does not reflect the game at USC this past Tuesday in which the Aztecs committed no errors.
MWC TEAM RANKINGS
The Aztecs rank first in the conference in team earned run average and fielding percentage heading into the weekend.
The team's 3.98 ERA is almost two runs better than number-two Utah (5.83). SDSU's fielding percentage of .969 leads UNLV (.963) by six points.
San Diego State's team batting average of .321 is third in the MWC behind new Mexico (.341) and Air Force (.329).
MWC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
SDSU has two players ranked among the top 11 in the conference in batting average: freshman Jake McLintock (9th at .370) and junior Jon Stephens (11th at .370).
Three Aztecs pitchers are among the league's top 10 in earned run average: Chris Dunwell (1st at 3.22), Rory Shortell (2nd at 3.33) and Joe Carque (6th at 4.98).
Four players are also ranked first in individual categories this week. Royce Ring leads the MWC with 14 saves while Anthony Gwynn's 20 stolen bases and seven sacrifice bunts are also tops in the conference.
Dunwell and Shortell are tied for the most wins by a pitcher while Dunwell's .223 opponent batting average is also best in the league.
HOME COOKIN'
San Diego has won its 21 of its first 24 home contests at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
SDSU's 21-3 (.875) mark at home is its best (percentage-wise) since the 1983 season when it went 40-4 (.909).
The Aztecs' current home win streak stands at nine, tying the streak it had at the beginning of the 2002 campaign. The nine victories in a row betters the Aztecs' previous longest home win streak (since the facility opened in 1997) as SDSU won eight consecutive games at Tony Gwynn Stadium during the 1998 campaign.
In their 24 home contests, the Aztecs are hitting .334 with a 3.45 earned average. This compares with their contests away from Tony Gwynn Stadium where the team's batting average is .308 and the team earned run average is 4.52.
SDSU has a .968 fielding percentage at home and a .971 mark on the road.
EMBREY EARNS CONFERENCE HONOR
Sophomore designated hitter Rielly Embrey was named the Mountain West Conference Player of the Week for his performance in last weekend's three-game series vs. Brigham Young.
In those three contests he went 6-for-12 with six RBI, three doubles and four runs scored. He also walked twice for an on-base percentage of .571 for the weekend.
In games one and three of the series, be came up to bat with the bases loaded and cleared the bases with a three-run double on each occasion.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
In addition to Embrey, a total of four other Aztecs have won weekly MWC honors during the 2002 season.
That quartet includes Players of the Week Chad Corona (Feb. 4) and Taber Lee (March 25) plus Pitchers of the Week Joe Carque (Feb. 18) and Chris Dunwell (March 18).
In addition, Corona was named the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) National Player of the Week after the team's first series of the year at Hawaii-Hilo.
THE HITS KEEP COMIN'
Carlo Cota has hit safely in 11 of San Diego State's last 13 games and five of the last six.
Over the most recent 13 contests, he his batting .377 (20-for-53) with eight doubles, 10 RBI, 10 runs scored and six walks.
He leads the team in hits with 63 as well as doubles (20), triples (4) and runs batted in (35). His doubles total ranks second in the conference this week as well and ties him for the seventh-most two-baggers in a season by an Aztec.
RING IT UP
Royce Ring has recorded 14 saves this year, a number which leads the nation this week. He has now eclipsed the school mark for saves in a season. The former record was 12 by Curtis Smith during the 1979 season.
He now has a career total of 23 saves, bettering the school record of 17 held by former Baltimore Oriole hurler Mark Williamson (1981-82).
Ring has accumulated 38 strikeouts in his 25.1 innings this season (23 appearances). Opponents are hitting just .169 (15-for-89) against him this season and his ERA stands at 1.42.
STEPHENS SOLID ALL-AROUND
Junior Jon Stephens is on an 11-game hitting streak during which he is batting .372 (16-for-43) with nine runs scored and seven runs batted in.
He leads the team in walks with 29 and has an on-base percentage of .478.
Through 47 games he has committed only two errors at first base and is fielding .995 (403 chances). He has committed only one error in SDSU's last 41 contests.
HARTSHORN PROVIDING RELIEF
Junior right-hander Chris Hartshorn is quickly becoming one of SDSU's top middle relief pitchers this season.
In his last 11 appearances covering 14.0 innings, he has allowed three earned runs (1.93 ERA) while striking out 16 and surrendering six hits. He has lowered his earned run average this spring to 2.10.
Hartshorn picked up his first career save in the win over UC Riverside on April 9 and his first win of the year in last Sunday's 7-6 victory over Brigham Young.
THRIVING AT HOME
In Chris Dunwell's five appearances at Tony Gwynn Stadium this season, he is 5-0 with a 1.31 earned run average (five earned runs in 34.1 innings pitched).
Rory Shortell has done almost as well at Tony Gwynn Stadium this season. He is 4-1 with a 2.93 ERA at home in 2002.
Freshman Jake McLintock has also taken a liking to the Aztecs' home field. He is batting .402 with 26 RBI in his 21 contests at Tony Gwynn Stadium. Teammates Taber Lee (.390) and Garrett Cook (.389) are close behind him.
DEFENSIVELY SPEAKING
The Aztecs' have not committed an error in their last three games and have seen the team's fielding percentage rise to .970.
The school record for defensive percentage is .966, set during the 1996 campaign. The exact percentage that year was .96560 while the current squad is sporting a .96955 fielding percentage.
KER-PLUNK
With 52 hit batters through the first 47 games of the season, the Aztec pitching staff is closing in on the school record for most hit batters.
The SDSU mark of 60 was set by the 2000 squad over the course of 60 contests.
At its current pace, Aztecs hurlers could plunk 67 batters by season's end (over it's 61-game regular season schedule).
San Diego State has hit three or more batters in a game five times this year with a high of four coming at LMU on Feb. 26. Aztec hurlers hit three batters last week at Northridge.
ATTENDANCE UP
San Diego State's attendance average at home games this season is 735 through 24 games, the highest since Tony Gwynn Stadium opened in 1997.
The Aztecs have played before four crowds of 1,000 fans or more this season. Three of the 10 highest crowds at the facility have come this year.
AZTEC PLAYER NOTES
Josh Hill has hit safely in six of his last seven games, going 7-for-15 (.467) over that span.
Jake McLintock has come to the plate 20 times with a runner on third and less than two outs, and has driven in the runner on 19 occasions.
In his last five relief appearances, junior Eric Human has given up three earned runs in 11 innings (2.45 ERA) while striking out six.
Second baseman Carlo Cota has 21 multiple-hit games this season, including six three-hits efforts. Jon Stephens, Chad Corona, Anthony Gwynn and Jake McLintock have all recorded 17 multiple-hit efforts.
The team's longest current hitting streak is 11 games by Jon Stephens. The longest this season belongs to freshman Jake McLintock (12 games).
Sophomore Drew Jenson has not allowed a run in the five game in which he has appeared this season. As a spot reliever, usually called upon to pitch to one or two batters, he has allowed one hit and one walk while striking out two in 2.2 innings.
AZTEC TEAM NOTES
San Diego State has turned 39 double plays this season after recording a total of 37 during the 2001 campaign.
The Aztecs have hit 18 triples this season with 20 home runs. The last time SDSU had more triples than homers was in 1991 when they recorded 28 triples while hitting just 13 home runs.
The Aztecs have been in double figures in hits in 26 of their 47 games and in doubles figures in runs on 13 occasions.
SDSU is 6-3 in one-run games and 16-3 in contests decided by five runs or more. Opponents have reached double figures in runs just five times this year.
SDSU is averaging 7.2 runs and 11.2 hits a game compared to their opponents' 4.6 runs and 8.2 hits per contest.
SCHEDULE ADDITION
The Aztecs have added a home game against UC Irvine. The contest is scheduled for Tuesday, May 7, at 6:00 p.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
That contest will replace the game against Oregon State that was rained out in San Diego on Feb. 17.
ON DECK
After a non-league contest on Tuesday (April 30) at University of San Diego at 3:00 p.m., the Aztecs continue Mountain West Conference play with a three-game home series at Air Force starting Friday, May 3 at 2:00 p.m. (MDT) at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
The series continues on Saturday (May 4) at 12:00 p.m. and Sunday (May 5) at 1:00 p.m.
All three of the games vs. the Falcons as well as the USD contest can be heard live on the Internet at www.goaztecs.com with Alan Horton calling the play-by-play.
The games against Air Force will mark the start of three straight weekend conference series for San Diego State to finish up the regular season.