May 8, 2002
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SERIES RECORD
San Diego State and New Mexico have met 100 times in the past with SDSU holding a 70-30 advantage in the series
The two teams who first faced each other back in 1960 and have played annually since both were members of the Western Athletic Conference starting in 1979.
SDSU won all three games played between the teams in San Diego April 5-7.
SCOUTING THE LOBOS
New Mexico enters the weekend with an overall record of 20-29 and 9-15 in the Mountain West Conference. The Lobos currently sit in sixth place and are the only team that has been eliminated from contention for the MWC regular-season title.
The Lobos are led offensively by outfielders Matt Young (.393, 23 RBI, 23 SB) and Todd Stroud (.390, 9 doubles, 24 RBI) along with third baseman Josh Mader (.379, 31 RBI, 12 SB). UNM's .342 team bating average leads the conference and ranks fourth in the nation.
New Mexico's pitching rotation for the weekend series includes James Vermilyea (RHP, 6-7, 5.65), Matt Bullen (RHP, 2-5, 7.04) and Jeremy DeYapp (3-2, 8.61). The Lobos' top relievers are right-handers Joe Salas (1-0, 2 saves, 3.94) and Kris Gross (3-1, one save, 4.54).
SDSU ROTATION
The Aztecs pitching rotation this weekend will have Chris Dunwell (7-3, 3.53) starting the first game of the series on Friday followed by Rory Shortell (7-3, 3.70) on Saturday. Sunday's starter will be Joe Carque (6-3, 5.40).
MOST RECENTLY
San Diego State defeated UC Irvine, 4-3, this past Tuesday in the last home game of the 2002 season. It marked Jim Dietz's final contest at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
After taking a 2-0 lead after five innings, the Aztecs fell behind 3-2 when the Anteaters scored three times in the sixth. SDSU tied the contest in the seventh on a two-out RBI single by Anthony Gwynn and scored the winning run on Josh Hill's fielder's choice that brought home Taber Lee from third in the eighth inning.
Junior Royce Ring, who went the final two innings, picked up the win to improve to 4-1. Taber Lee (two singles, double) and Gwynn (single, triple) accounted for five of the Aztecs' six hits on the night.
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 1224-746-18 (.620). 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.
SENIORS HONORED
The Aztecs held their annual Senior Night this past Tuesday, honoring four players competing in their final game at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
That quartet included second baseman Carlo Cota, catcher Brian Manfred, and pitchers Erik Fiedler and Sam Peraza.
Two of the four played an important part in the game that evening with Cota hitting a home run to open the scoring and Manfred driving in SDSU's second run of the game.
MAGIC NUMBER
San Diego State (16-8 MWC) holds a 3.5-game lead over second-place Brigham Young (12-11) and Air Force (12-11) and a four-game lead over Utah (12-12).
The Aztecs need to win three of their last six contests to secure the regular-season conference title.
In lieu of three victories, any combination of three wins by SDSU and losses by BYU, Air Force and Utah will eliminate each of those teams from the title race.
NATIONAL LEADER
In this week's NCAA statistics, which are published each Tuesday, Aztec junior Royce Ring continues to lead the nation in saves with 15 despite not having a save opportunity last week.
The other stat where SDSU ranks among the national leaders is defense, where its .970 fielding percentage ranks 10th in the country. That stat does not reflect the game against UC Irvine 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 4.15 ERA is almost two runs better than number-two Utah (5.82). SDSU's fielding percentage of .970 leads UNLV (.963) by seven points.
San Diego State's team batting average of .318 is fourth in the MWC behind new Mexico (.342), Air Force (.329) and Utah (.318).
MWC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
SDSU has three players ranked among the top 15 in the conference in batting average: junior Jon Stephens (9th at .370), freshman Jake McLintock (11th at .366) and junior Taber Lee (12th at .360).
Three Aztecs pitchers are among the league's top 10 in earned run average: Rory Shortell (3rd at 3.70), Chris Dunwell (2nd at 3.53) and Joe Carque (7th at 5.40).
Three players are also ranked first in individual categories this week. Royce Ring leads the MWC with 15 saves while Anthony Gwynn's 24 stolen bases and eight sacrifice bunts are also tops in the conference. Dunwell's .235 opponent batting average is also best in the league.
EMBREY EARNS ALL-DISTRICT ACADEMIC HONOR
Aztec designated hitter/first baseman Rielly Embrey has been named a CoSIDA District 8 Academic All-American by a vote of the district's Sports Information Directors. District 8 is comprised of Division I schools in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, British Columbia and Yukon.
Embrey is a two-time Malik Award winner at SDSU for highest grade point average among male athletes. He currently has a 3.97 gpa and is majoring in kinesiology.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
A total of five San Diego State players have won Mountain West Conference Player of the Week (3) and Pitcher of the Week (2) this season.
That quintet includes Players of the Week Chad Corona (Feb. 4), Taber Lee (March 25) and Rielly Embrey (April 22) 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 National Player of the Week after the team's first series of the year at Hawaii-Hilo.
LEE HEATING UP
Junior shortstop Taber Lee has hit safely in nine of San Diego State's last 10 games. Over that span he is batting .526 (20-for-38) with 11 runs scored, 10 RBI, six doubles and nine walks.
His on-base percentage during the past 10 contests is .625.
Defensively, he has committed just one error in SDSU's last 13 games and is fielding .968 with seven errors through 55 contests.
THE HITS KEEP COMIN'
Carlo Cota is on a seven-game hitting streak and has hit safely in 10 of San Diego State's last 11 games .
The senior from Calexico has scored a run in each of the team's last nine games.
He leads the team in doubles (22) and triples (4). He is second in hits (72) and third in RBI (36).
His doubles total ranks second in the conference this week as well and ties him for the fourth-most two-baggers in a season by an Aztec.
vRING THE PITCHER
Royce Ring has recorded 15 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 has a career total of 24 saves, bettering the school record of 17 held by former Baltimore Oriole hurler Mark Williamson (1981-82).
Ring has accumulated 42 strikeouts in his 31 innings this season (28 appearances). Opponents are hitting just .170 (18-for-106) against him this season and his ERA stands at 1.16.
Rings career statistics include a record of 12-5 with 24 saves and a 2.41 earned run average.
RING THE HITTER
Royce Ring was pressed into service as the Aztecs' designated hitter in the final two games at Air Force last weekend.
Despite not having hit since early February, he still went 2-for-7 in those contests with a hit and RBI in each game.
He is now batting .250 (3-for-12) on the year with two RBI and a pair of walks.
STEPHENS DEBUTS AT THIRD
Junior Jon Stephens made his Aztec debut at third base in Tuesday's game against UC Irvine.
He played that position throughout his high school and junior college career, but was asked to step in at first base at SDSU this season.
He played his first 53 games at first and has committed only two errors for a .996 fielding percentage.
In his debut at the hot corner, he was perfect in the field on two ground balls and a pop-up.
STEPHENS ON OFFENSE
Stephens had a 16-game hitting streak ended in the UC Irvine game when he went hitless in four plate appearances with a walk. The 16-game hitting streak is the longest on the club this season. The previous best was a 12-game streak by freshman Jake McLintock.
During his streak, the Aztec first baseman batted .393 (24-for-59) with 12 runs scored and 10 runs batted in.
He leads the team in walks with 33 and has an on-base percentage of .473.
HARTSHORN PROVIDING RELIEF
Junior right-hander Chris Hartshorn has become one of SDSU's top middle relief pitchers this season.
In his last 13 appearances covering 18 innings, he has allowed two earned runs (1.00 ERA) while striking out 21 and walking five. He has lowered his earned run average this spring to 2.35.
Hartshorn picked up his first career save in San Diego State's victory over UC Riverside on April 9 and his first win of the year in the 7-6 victory over Brigham Young on April 20.
DEFENSIVELY SPEAKING
The Aztecs' have committed one error in their last three games and have seen the team's fielding percentage rise to .971.
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 .9712 fielding percentage.
KER-PLUNK
With 57 hit batters through the first 55 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 63 batters by season's end (over it's 61-game regular season schedule). That does not include the conference tournament when the team will play at least two more games.
San Diego State has hit three or more batters in a game five times this year with a high of four coming at Loyola Marymount on Feb. 26.
ATTENDANCE UP
San Diego State's final attendance average at home games this season was 803 (27 dates), the highest since the stadium opened in 1997.
The Aztecs played before six home crowds of 1,000 fans or more this season. Four of the 10 highest crowds at the facility have come this year.
AZTEC PLAYER NOTES
Anthony Gwynn has hit in five straight games, going 8-for-19 (.421) with a pair of triples and six runs scored.
Jake McLintock has come to the plate 25 times with a runner on third and less than two outs, and has driven in the runner on 23 occasions.
McLintock has hit safely in four of SDSU's last five games. Over that span he is 9-for-20 (.450) with six RBI, four runs scored, a double, triple and home run.
Catcher Brian Manfred is batting .465 with runners in scoring position.
Manfred has thrown out 19 runners attempting to steal this season, ranking third in the MWC inthat category. He led the conference in that statistic last season, but missed a month of the 2002 campaign with a broken bone in his hand.
Josh Hill has been SDSU's most effective pinch hitter this season, going 3-for-8.
Second baseman Carlo Cota has 22 multiple-hit games this season, including six three-hits efforts. Jake McLintock and Anthony Gwynn have each recorded 20 multiple-hit efforts. Cota and Taber Lee have 10 multiple-RBI games apiece.
SDSU's number-one starting pitcher, Chris Dunwell, has an ERA of 2.16 in five Mountain West Conference games at Tony Gwynn Stadium. His league ERA on the road, however, is 6.87 in three contests.
The team's longest current hitting streak is seven games by Carlo Cota.
AZTEC TEAM NOTES
San Diego State has turned 47 double plays this season after recording a total of 37 during the 2001 campaign.
The Aztecs have hit 21 triples this season with 22 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 team's 21 triples is the most since the 1998 season when they hit 34.
The Aztecs' team total of 241 walks is also the most since 1998 when they finished with 255 bases on balls.
The Aztecs have been in double figures in hits in 31 of their 55 games (and four of their last six) and in doubles figures in runs on 13 occasions.
SDSU is 8-5 in one-run games and 16-4 in contests decided by five runs or more. Opponents have reached double figures in runs just six times this year.
SDSU is averaging 6.9 runs and 11.1 hits a game compared to their opponents' 4.9 runs and 8.5 hits per contest.
SCHOOL RECORDS
Aztec players have set or tied two single game, two season, and three career records during the 2002 campaign.
Those records are as follows:
Single game
Doubles - 3 by Jake McLintock vs. New Mexico, 4/7/02 (tied)
Triples - 2 by Riley Barrett vs. Southern Utah, 3/2/02 (tied)
Season
Hit batters - 14 by Rory Shortell (tied)
Saves - 15 Royce Ring
Career
Sac Flies - 13 by Carlo Cota (tied)
Hit Batters - 33 by Rory Shortell
Saves - 24 by Royce Ring
The following have recorded totals that rank among the single-season top 10s:
Doubles: 22 Carlo Cota (tied 4th)
Sac Flies: 7 by Jake McLintock (tied 3rd)
Also moving into the San Diego State career top 10s are:
Hit By Pitch: 12 by Taber Lee (tied 6th)
Pitching Starts: 36 by Rory Shortell (8th)
ON DECK
The Aztecs conclude their 2002 regular season with a three-game series at UNLV beginning Thursday, May 16, with start time set for 6:30 p.m. (PDT).
The series continues on Friday (May 17) at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday (May 18) at 2:00 p.m.
All three of the games vs. the Rebels as well as the UC Irvine contest can be heard live on the Internet at www.goaztecs.com with Alan Horton calling the play-by-play.