April 10, 2018
PROJECTED STARTING PITCHERSTuesday, April 10 - 6:00 p.m. PT vs. UC Irvine - Tony Gwynn StadiumUCI: RHP Trenton Denholm (1-4, 6.30 ERA)SDSU: LHP Jacob Erickson (2-1, 2.13 ERA)NEWS AND NOTESVS. THE ANTEATERS: SDSU looks to return the favor to UC Irvine after dropping a 9-4 decision to the Anteaters on Feb. 27. The Aztecs have won four of its previous six meetings against UC Irvine.
SDSU has had great success against Big West members over the past two seasons, owning a 21-6 record against BW programs since the start of the 2017 season. This season, Matt Rudick leads the team with a .419 (13-for-31) batting average against BW programs, while Adrian Mardueno has led the pitching staff with four scoreless appearances against the Big West this season.
The Aztecs also enter Tuesday's contest having won five consecutive non-conference games.
RECAP OF AIR FORCE: SDSU saw a streak of six consecutive series wins (min. 3 games) against Air Force come to an end this weekend, suffering a doubleheader sweep before winning Sunday's finale, 15-11.
SDSU was shutout for the first time in the 2018 season in Saturday's first game. Garrett Hill was dealt his first loss of the season, despite turning in a strong start for SDSU, allowing just two runs. Jacob Erickson retired all four batters he faced in relief of Hill during the 2-0 setback.
The Aztecs jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the sixth inning in Saturday's second game, however, a three-error bottom of the seventh helped Air Force score seven runs and defeat the Aztecs, 12-7. Chad Bible led the offense in the game, going 3-for-5 while hitting his team-leading sixth home run of the year.
SDSU posted four home runs, seven extra-base hits, and 19 total hits in its series finale win in Colorado Springs. The win kept SDSU's record perfect in series finales this season, giving the Aztecs its eighth-straight series finale win. Eight of nine Aztecs in the starting lineup recorded at least one hit, while seven of nine drove in at least one RBI. David Hensley led the offense with a 3-for-4 showing including a three-run inside-the-park home run in the first inning. Casey Schmitt and Joe Fitzhugh hit the first home runs of their respective college careers in back-to-back fashion in the fifth inning.
With the series loss, SDSU has dropped each of its last two MW series, making it the first time since April 29 - May 8, 2016, that SDSU has lost back-to-back MW series (vs. Nevada & Fresno State in 2016). The Aztecs had won all five of its 2018 weekend series prior to the previous two weekends.
ON THE AIR: XTRA 1360 will broadcast all four of SDSU's home games this week. Links to listen live and live stats are available at GoAztecs.com.
CONGRATS, COACH GILLESPIE: San Diego State will honor UC Irvine head coach Mike Gillespie who is retiring at the end of the 2018 season in a pregame ceremony before Tuesday's game. Gillespie started his Division I coaching career at USC in 1987 and since that point, has accumulated 1,141 career wins. He was honored as ABCA National Coach of the Year in 1998 and 2014 and has reached the NCAA tournament 19 times in his storied career.
JUST HOLD ON, WE'RE COMING HOME: San Diego State kicks off an eight-game homestand on Tuesday, tied for the team's longest homestand of the season with SDSU's season-opening eight-game homestand. 12 of SDSU's next 13 games will be played at home, good for the most home games in a 13-game stretch since playing 13 of 14 at home to start the 2016 season.
GOOD IN ALL ASPECTS: San Diego State is one of just five teams in the country to have a batting average of .300 or higher, an ERA of 3.55 or lower, and a fielding percentage of .970 or higher, joined by only Arkansas, Texas Tech, Ole Miss, and NC State.
ERICKSON MAKES HISTORY: With his appearance in the first game against Air Force this weekend, Jacob Erickson took over SDSU's all-time appearance record, breaking Kevin Piper's previous mark of 106 set 33 years ago in 1985.
Erickson is scheduled to make the start for the Aztecs on Tuesday, which will be his 109th career appearance. His total was already the highest in Mountain West history, having broken TCU's Trent Appleby's (2008-2011) of 96 earlier this year. After his start on Tuesday, Erickson will be 16 appearances shy of breaking into the NCAA's all-time top 25 leaderboard and his current total leads all active NCAA players in Division I, II, and III.
DOUBLING UP: Jordan Verdon currently leads the nation with 18 doubles on the season and his teammate, Chase Calabuig, is just a few spots below him on the leaderboard, sitting in seventh with 14. The combined doubles total between Verdon and Calabuig is good for most in the nation between two teammates.
HIGHEST DOUBLE TOTAL BETWEEN TWO TEAMMATESJordan Verdon & Chase Calabuig, San Diego State - 32Bryston Stott & Max Smith, UNLV - 31David Villar & Duke Stunkel, South Florida - 25Grant Williams & Griffin Helms, Kennesaw St. - 25Nick Grande & Michael Wilson, Stony Brook - 25
MARCH MADNESS: Despite only having seven of its 18 games in March at home, the Aztecs enjoyed quite a bit of success over its March schedule, owning a 12-6 record for the month.SDSU posted a .302 team batting average for the month while holding its opponents to a .250 mark. Julian Escobedo led the team with a .424 batting average for the month, going 25-for-59 at the plate. Jordan Verdon led the team with 15 extra-base hits and 24 RBI last month.
On the mound, SDSU was led by Garrett Hill, who recorded a 0.81 ERA in a 5-0 month. A pair of freshmen led the efforts coming out of the bullpen last month, with Casey Schmitt's 1.08 ERA and Casey O'Sullivan's 1.29 ERA last month being the best on the team. SDSU as a team posted a 3.55 ERA in March.
AHEAD TO APRIL: Tony Gwynn Stadium will be quite busy during April, serving host 12 games which includes an eight-game homestand beginning with an April 10th meeting with UC Irvine and concluding with a Sunday series finale with Fresno State on April 22nd. SDSU's only road weekend series is this weekend, when the team visits Air Force for a three-game series beginning on Friday, April 6.
HOMEGROWN: The San Diego State roster features 10 players from San Diego. Collectively, San Diego natives have posted 66 percent of SDSU's 2018 hit total (221 of 335)
EXPERIENCE ON THE DIAMOND: Despite having a team of 15 freshmen -- the program's largest freshman class since 2011 -- the Aztecs have two of the most experienced players in the nation this year in Chase Calabuig, who is fourth among all DI players with 211 career games played, and Jacob Erickson, who leads all DI pitchers with 109 career pitching appearances. The Aztecs are the only team in the nation to have a player in the top five of both categories. Erickson recently set SDSU's program record in pitching appearances, while Calabuig is 25 games shy from setting the program's career games played record.
Games Played1 JJ Schwarz , Florida 2412 Ryan Chandler , Rice 2193 Gage Morey , FGCU 2164 Chase Calabuig , San Diego St. 2115 Gabe Snyder , Wright St. 210
Pitching Appearances1 Jacob Erickson , San Diego St. 1082 Cooper Hammond , Miami (FL) 1023 Dylan Moore , Louisiana 974 Seth Pinkerton , Hartford 965 Charlie Fletcher, WIlliam & Mary 94
FOUR OF FIVE: SDSU enters 2018 as the only team in DI baseball to have won four conference tournament championships in the last five years. The Aztecs look to make it five of six in 2018, and as an added bonus, SDSU will host the 2018 Mountain West Tournament from May 24 - 27.