Jan. 16, 2009
SAN DIEGO - A trio of San Diego State hurlers captured three of the four pitching spots on the preseason all-Mountain West Conference team announced by Rivals.com today. The duo of Nate Solow and Stephen Strasburg were named all-league starters while Addison Reed was chosen as the relief pitcher.
Solow was a member of San Diego State's starting rotation in 2008, making 15 appearances in that role. He finished with a 4.24 earned run average and his 96 strikeouts on the season ranked second in the conference only to teammate Stephen Strasburg. Solow also ranked in the top 10 in the MWC in earned run average and opponent batting average. In his final outing of the season at the conference tournament, he pitched 8.2 innings of shutout ball in SDSU's 1-0 win over Brigham Young.
Strasburg earned consensus All-American honors last season while finishing among the top three in the nation in strikeouts (133), earned run average (1.57) and strikeouts per nine innings (12.3). He was a member of the undefeated college Team USA last summer that won a pair of tournaments in Europe and he also picked up a bronze medal as the only collegiate player on the U.S. Olympic team in Beijing.
Reed is coming off an impressive freshman season that saw him compile a 3-1 record with four saves and a 2.73 earned run average. His performance during the 2008 campaign earned him Ping Baseball honorable mention freshman All-American honors.
Rivals.com has tabbed three-time defending champion TCU as the favorite to win the Mountain West Conference title with San Diego State selected as runner-up. The rest of the standings include New Mexico third, Utah fourth, Brigham Young fifth, UNLV sixth and Air Force seventh.
The Aztecs will open their 2008 season on Friday, Feb. 20, when they face Bethune-Cookman at the MLB Urban Invitational to be played in Compton, Calif. SDSU's first home contest is slated for Tuesday, Feb. 24, against national power Cal State Fullerton at Tony Gwynn Stadium.