Feb. 15, 2006
Complete Release and Season Statistics in PDF Format
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THIS WEEK
*After two weekend series on the road, San Diego State opens it 2006 home season with three games against Cal Poly this weekend.
*The series begins on Friday, Feb. 17, when the teams face off at 6:00 p.m. (PST) at Tony Gwynn Stadium. Saturday's game has a special start time of 3:00 p.m. (PST) as it will lead in to the SDSU men's basketball game that evening at 7:00 p.m. at Cox Arena.
*The series finale is set for 1:00 p.m. on Sunday (Feb. 19).
*This is the 69th season of Aztec baseball since the sport was elevated to major status in 1936. The school did not field varsity teams from 1943 to 1945.
SERIES RECORDS
*San Diego State leads its series with Cal Poly by a 56-25 margin. The teams first met during the 1946 season and squared off annually from 1947 through 1968 while both were members of the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA).
*The Aztecs are 34-8 against the Mustangs in San Diego and 22-17 vs. Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.
*The most recent meetings between the clubs came during the 1995 and 1996 campaign while both were in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). They faced each other six times in each of those two seasons (three home, three away), and Cal Poly won 10 of those 12 contests. The Mustangs won the last four games and nine of the last 10 against SDSU.
SCOUTING THE MUSTANGS
*Cal Poly (7-2) enters the weekend ranked 22nd in the nation by Baseball America. They began their season with a three-game sweep of Fresno State at homer, and then won two-of-three from both San Jose State and Loyola Marymount on the road.
*The Mustangs are led offensively by catcher Matt Canepa (.478, double, 6 RBI), infielder Matt Cooper (.324, 3 doubles, 8 RBI) and outfielder Josh Lansford (.316, HR, 4 RBI).
*Outfielder Grant Desme played at San Diego State as a freshman in 2005, mainly as a second baseman. He leads the Mustangs in home runs with three.
*Cal Poly's starting pitchers include three right-handers: Gary Daley (1-1, 2.94), Bud Norris (2-0, 2.12) and Evan Reed (1-0, 5.23). Closer Rocky Roquet has recorded three saves and struck out eight in 4.2 innings.
HEAD COACH Tony Gwynn
*Tony Gwynn enters his fourth season as San Diego State's head coach after being named to the position in Sept. 2001. He became just the fourth head coach in SDSU history since baseball was elevated to major sport status in 1936.
*In 2002, he served as a volunteer coach for the Aztecs under Jim Dietz, who retired at the end of that season.
*In 2004, Gwynn led his squad to the Mountain West Conference regular-season championship and was named the MWC coach of the year.
*A former Aztec who played baseball at San Diego State from 1979 to 1981, Gwynn concluded a 20-year major league career with the San Diego Padres in 2001. With a career batting average of .338, he won eight National League batting titles, five Gold Gloves, and made 15 appearances in the annual All-Star Game.
MOST RECENTLY
*San Diego State dropped two of three games at Santa Clara last weekend to fall to 2-5 on the year.
*Game one saw the Aztecs take a 3-0 lead only to have the Broncos tie the contest in the middle innings and win it with a run in the eighth. No SDSU player had more than one hit with Quintin Berry's single driving in a pair of runs. Sophomore Mike Koons took the loss in relief of Bruce Billings.
*In the second game, the Aztecs got two-run homers from Curt Mendoza in the first and Tim O'Brien in the ninth on the way to a 10-4 victory. O'Brien and Brock Ungricht had three hits apiece while Chris Anderson contributed a pair of RBI singles. Starting pitcher Justin Masterson picked up his first collegiate win, allowing just three runs (two earned) in seven innings of work.
*In the series finale, Santa Clara jumped on SDSU starter Adam Simon for six runs in the first inning, eventually taking a 7-0 lead after three frames. The Aztecs fought back to within 7-6, but could get no closer as they fell 10-6. Mendoza, Ungricht and Paul Smyth each had two hits and an RBI in the losing cause.
UNGRICHT HEATS UP
*Brock Ungricht had a fine weekend at Santa Clara in SDSU's most recent series.
*The junior first baseman went 6-for-10 with a triple and three runs scored.
*He also walked three times for a .692 on-base percentage over the three games against the Broncos.
*He was perfect in the field (23 chances) while playing first base and did not strike out in his 13 plate appearances.
*He is currently on a five-game hitting streak.
PLAYING LONG BALL
*The Aztecs upped their team home run total to three with the two-run shots by Curt Mendoza and Tim O'Brien last Saturday at Santa Clara.
*All three of SDSU's homers have come in the two games it has won.
*On the opposite side, Aztec hurlers have not given up a home run through the first seven games of the season.
SMYTH PROVIDES OFFENSE
*Senior Paul Smyth has hit safely in every game he has played this season, compiling a six-game streak after not appearing in the season opener.
*Heading into the weekend, he leads the SDSU offense in batting average, hits, doubles, triples and runs batted in.
*He has also been errorless in the field (23 chances) while having played first base, third base and left field.
*Smyth leads the team with four multiple-hit games and is tied for the lead in multiple-RBI contests with two.
BILLINGS THROWING STRIKES
*Junior right-hander Bruce Billings, the 2005 Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Year, has pitched well in his first two outings of 2006, but has little to show for it.
*He took the loss in the season opener at Hawai'i when SDSU collected only four hits in a 6-2 loss.
*At Santa Clara, he was not involved in the decision as the Aztecs saw a 3-0 lead disappear in a 4-3 loss to the Broncos.
*Billings has struck out 12 batters in his 10.1 innings of work, six of them on a called third strike.
MENDOZA STARTING FAST
*Senior Curt Mendoza is off to his best offensive start in his four years at San Diego State.
*He has hit safely in all seven of SDSU's games (seven-game hitting streak), the only Aztec to do so.
*He leads the team in runs scored with seven and has also contributed a pair of doubles, a homer and six runs batted in while hitting .333 (11-for-33).
*Mendoza's home run last weekend gave him a career total of 19, moving him into a tie for 12th place on the Aztec career list with Steve Hagins (1995-97) and Pat Rubino (1978).
SWAYDAN GETTING ON
*Catcher Jordan Swaydan has a six-game hitting streak in progress having reached base in every game he has played in 2006. (He did not play in the second game at Santa Clara last weekend.)
*He has walked a team-leading five times for an on-base percentage of .500, also best on the team.
*His .368 (7-for-19) batting average ranks second on the squad.
KOONS IN RELIEF
*Sophomore Mike Koons, a transfer from the University of Arizona, has been the Aztecs' primary long reliever over the first two weeks of the season.
*He has made three appearances covering 10.1 innings, and recorded the team's first win of the season in the final contest in Hawaii.
*Opponents are hitting just .176 against him and his ERA stands at 2.61.
O'BRIEN BREAKS OUT
*Senior third baseman Tim O'Brien broke out of his early slump in Hawaii (where he went 1-for-11) by going 4-for-11 at Santa Clara last weekend.
*He scored four runs in the three games and had a pair of RBI on a two-run home run in the second game of the series.
*He did not record a strikeout in any at bat vs. the Broncos.
DEFENSE COMING AROUND
*San Diego State's defense seems to have settled in after the season-opening series in Hawaii when it coughed up 16 errors in four games.
*Last weekend at Santa Clara, the Aztecs committed only two errors in three games with both of those coming in the second contest of the series.
*Over those three games, SDSU had .982 fielding percentage.
SHORT RELIEF
*Three SDSU short relievers have been getting their jobs done early in the season and have 0.00 ERAs to show for it.
*Sophomore Joel Matthews has made two appearances and has not allowed a hit or run while striking out three in three innings.
*Redshirt freshman Justin Lynch has given up one unearned run on a pair of hits over his 3.1 innings while striking out four.
*Meanwhile, junior Brett Douglas has not allowed an earned run in his two outings (3.0 innings) and has struck out four.
NEW ASSISTANT COACH
*Mark Martinez was hired as an assistant baseball coach at San Diego State on July 28, 2005, arriving at SDSU after 17 years as an assistant at New Mexico.
*While at New Mexico, he coached 47 all-conference selections and four conference players of the year. UNM also produced eight All-Americans, four freshman All-Americans and four academic All-Americans during that span. In addition, 31 players were drafted in his 17 years at UNM.
*The 44-year-old Martinez came to New Mexico in 1988 after a five-year stint as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colo. He was an assistant there from the 1984 through 1988 seasons.
THE RECORD BOOK
*One Aztec has entered an all-time SDSU top 20 list this season while two others should do so in the near future.
*With a dozen strikeouts this season, junior pitcher Bruce Billings has 172 career strikeouts to move into the number-18 spot all-time at SDSU. His next K will move him up one place, and with seven more he will jump into the 14th spot where three players (Chris Hartshorn, Aaron Harang and Chick Valley) are currently tied at 179.
*With 75 career walks in two seasons, Brock Ungricht needs just three bases on balls to tie for 20th with Harry Henderson (78 walks from 1986-89).
*Shortstop Lance Zawadzki (14 career HR) is two home runs shy of the number-20 spot on the career list, two behind former Aztecs Brad Gennaro (1990-92) and Flavio Alfaro (1983-84), who hit 16 apiece during their SDSU careers.
BASEBALL AMERICA PRESEASON HONORS
*Baseball America's preseason all-Mountain West Conference team features five Aztecs among its members. Included in that group are catcher Jordan Swaydan, shortstop Lance Zawadzki and outfielder Quintin Berry along with pitchers Bruce Billings and Justin Masterson.
*SDSU also has four players listed among those in the league in Best Tools categories. That group includes Berry (fastest runner/best base runner), Swaydan (best defensive catcher), Lance Zawadzki (best infielder arm), and Masterson (best fastball).
*The Aztecs have four of the five players listed as the MWC's top prospects including Masterson (1), Berry (2), Billings (3) and Zawadzki (5).
*Baseball America has also picked three Aztecs to win individual conference honors: Berry (MWC Player of the Year), Masterson (MWC Pitcher of the Year) and Nick Romero (Freshman of the Year).
*The publication projects SDSU to finish second in the conference behind TCU.
AZTEC NOTES
*Sophomore infielder Mike Willeford, a transfer from American River JC, picked up the first hit of his collegiate career in last Saturday's game at Santa Clara. It was his fourth appearance of the season and his fifth at bat.
*The Aztecs have had only two players hit by pitch through the first seven games, and both (Tim O'Brien and Sam Pepper) were hit in the head. Each was held out for a day as a precaution, but both have since been cleared to play.
*Three of Joseph Scaperotta's five hits this season have been doubles.
*Aztec pitchers have hit 14 batters, an average of two per contest. Last Sunday's game at Santa Clara was the first of the season in which an opponent batter was not hit by a pitch.
*Ten of San Diego State's first 13 games this season are away from home. The Aztecs' Feb. 17 home opener will come vs. Cal Poly and will be their latest home start since they played Oklahoma State on that same date in 2000.
*Six of SDSU's opponents this season appear among Collegiate Baseball's preseason Top 40: Cal State Fullerton (8), Pepperdine (13), Long Beach State (16), USC (21), TCU (27) and San Diego (36). In addition, four others received votes in that same poll (Cal Poly, UC Irvine, UCLA and UNLV).
ON DECK
*After this weekend's series against Cal Poly, San Diego State will hit the road again as it will travel north to face USC on Tuesday, Feb. 21, at 6:00 p.m. at Dedeaux Field in Los Angeles.
*The following weekend, the Aztecs will have a three-game series vs. UC Irvine in which they will travel to Anteater Ballpark for games on Friday and Saturday (Feb. 24 and 25) at 6:00 p.m., then return home to host UCI on Sunday (Feb. 26) at 1:00 p.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium.