May 24, 2005
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Sophomore right-hander Bruce Billings led a group of seven Aztecs who were named to the 2005 all-Mountain West Conference baseball team Tuesday evening. Billings was honored as the conference Pitcher of the Year, the second consecutive time an SDSU hurler captured the award after Scott Shoemaker won it last season.
Other Aztecs earning all-league honors included catcher Jordan Swaydan, third baseman Lance Zawadzki, shortstop James Guerrero, outfielders Jake McLintock and Quintin Berry, and pitcher Alex Hinshaw. SDSU and UNLV each had seven athletes named to the squad while BYU had five with New Mexico and Utah placing four and three players on the team respectively. McLintock, Guerrero and Swaydan were members of the 2004 all-MWC team as well.
Billings, a 6-0, 195-pound sophomore from San Diego, Calif., posted a 4-3 record in MWC games with an ERA of 4.04 and 61 strikeouts. He held MWC opponents to a league-low .235 batting average this season in 11 appearances. Overall, he posted a conference-low ERA of 3.88, while setting a Mountain West Conference single season low opposing batting average of .231 and leading the conference (all games) in innings pitched (99.2) and strikeouts (102).
McLintock and Berry led the conference in hitting at .479, with the former edging out his teammate by percentage points for the batting title. Berry topped the MWC in hits (57) and stolen bases (10) while McLintock turned in the league's top on-base percentage (.570).
Swaydan was the top hitter among MWC catchers, finishing with a .343 batting average along with 25 runs scored and 16 RBI in 27 contests. He was flawless behind the dish, handling 216 chances without an error. Guerrero hit .410 and ended the league campaign among the top 10 in the conference in average, runs, triples, walks and on-base percentage.
Zawadzki batted .356 and tied for the team led with 11 doubles, six home runs and 33 RBI in MWC games. In the pitching department, Hinshaw finished just behind Billings in earned run average (4.07) and opponent batting average (.237) in league play while topping the conference in strikeouts with 61.
San Diego State opens play in the 2005 Mountain West Conference Tournament on Wednesday when it takes on Air Force at 11:00 a.m. (MDT) at Franklin Covey Field in Salt Lake City,