May 30, 2018
NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY: San Diego State is one of just 18 programs in the country, one of
just two California programs (joined by Cal State Fullerton), one of just three west coast programs (Cal State Fullerton & Oregon State), and one of just four non-power 5 conference members (Cal State Fullerton, Dallas Baptist, Rice) to have five NCAA Regional appearances in the last six years.
TEAMS WITH FIVE REGIONAL APPEARANCES SINCE 2013
Arkansas
Cal State Fullerton
Clemson
Dallas Baptist
Florida
Florida State
Indiana
Louisville
LSU
Mississippi State
NC State
Oklahoma State
Ole Miss
Oregon State
Rice
San Diego State
Texas A&M
Vanderbilt
The Aztecs are 11-26 all-time in NCAA Regional play and looking to advance to a Super Regional for the first time in program history. This will be SDSU's 14th NCAA Regional appearance in its 82-year history. San Diego State's No. 3 seed is its highest since 2014, when the Aztecs were the No. 3 seed at the Lafayette Regional.
VS. THE TIGERS: SDSU and LSU will meet for the first time on the baseball diamond on Friday. It's SDSU's second SEC opponent this season, having faced then- No. 4-ranked Arkansas on Feb. 24 at the Tony Gwynn Legacy tournament.
The Aztecs are looking to snap a nine-game losing streak against SEC programs, with the team's last SEC win coming against Kentucky on March 4, 2010 (12-4 win). SDSU is 4-21-2 all-time against current members of the SEC.
No. 3-seeded San Diego State faced No. 2-seed and No. 17 Mississippi State in the 2014 Lafayette Regional and suffered a 5-2 opening-round loss.
ON THE AIR: Friday's game will be televised on ESPNU. XTRA 1360 Fox Sports San Diego will also broadcast each game during SDSU's regional run.
THE CHAMPS ARE HERE: San Diego State won its sixth Mountain West Tournament Championship and its fifth in the last six years on Saturday, finishing an undefeated run through the tournament with a 14-5 win over UNLV. SDSU went undefeated in the MW tournament for the first time since 2000 and won a postseason tournament on its home field for the first time since winning the WAC Tournament in 1986. All three of SDSU's wins were in come-from-behind fashion.
The Aztecs are the only team in the nation to have won five conference tournament championships in the last six years and one of just 12 in NCAA Division I football (FBS), men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, or softball (1,414 total programs) to have won five conference tournaments/ championship games in the last six years:
Football (FBS): None.
Men's Basketball: New Mexico State, Gonzaga
Women's Basketball: Albany, Baylor, Chattanooga, UConn, Green Bay, Notre Dame
Softball: Florida State, Fordham, North Dakota State Baseball: San Diego State
Notable programs with four:
Football (FBS): Alabama
Men's Basketball: Kentucky
With last Saturday's win, SDSU improved to 23-6 in the Mountain West tournament over the last six years and 50-30 all-time, good for the most wins and best winning percentage among all active MW members. SDSU is the only MW program to have reached the MW tournament every year since the league was founded in 2000 and SDSU has participated in a postseason conference tournament in 18 consecutive seasons and 20 times in the last 21 years.
Mark Martinez earned his third Mountain West Championship in the just his fourth season as head coach. Martinez, who last season became the fastest head coach to earn 100 career victories in SDSU history, became the fastest head coach in Mountain West history to earn three Mountain West Championships.
UNFAMILIAR, BUT KIND OF FAMILIAR: Although San Diego State has not advanced passed an NCAA Regional, SDSU sees its fair share of experienced postseason opponents during the regular season. Head coach Mark Martinez enters Friday's game against LSU 5-4 in his career against teams that competed in the College World Series the year prior. Before Martinez assumed the head coach position in 2015, SDSU was in the midst of an 11-game losing streak against teams that played in the CWS the previous season.
THE TRIFECTA: Below is a list of the 15 NCAA Division I programs that reached the NCAA postseason in both men's basketball and baseball and an FBS football bowl game during the 2017-18 academic year:
Auburn Clemson Duke Florida State Houston New Mexico State NC State Ohio State Oklahoma Purdue
San Diego State Texas Texas A&M Texas Tech UCLA
San Diego State and UCLA are the only two California schools to accomplish that feat in 2017-18, while SDSU is also just one of three (Houston & New Mexico State) to do so from a non-power 5 conference.
WOW, THE BULLPEN: The San Diego State bullpen was nearly been perfect for the duration of the MW tournament, allowing just one run and two hits over 14.1 innings pitched. Over SDSU's last 23 games (17-6 stretch with four losses being by two runs or less) the bullpen owns a 9-2 record, 2.91 earned run average, and .200 opponent batting average.
In the Mountain West tournament, opposing hitters went just 2-for-44 (.045) against the Aztec bullpen.
AGAINST THE FIELD: San Diego State played three teams that reached an NCAA Regional in 2018, including Cal State Fullerton, Arkansas, and Washington. SDSU went a combined 3-2 against those teams and outscored their opponents 32-31 in 2018.
HISTORY WITH THE BEAVER STATE: San Diego State is playing in Oregon for the first time since 2016, when it split a two-game midweek series with Oregon State in February 2016. Those are the only two games the team has ever played in Oregon, however, SDSU has hosted Oregon-based teams 36 times in its history.
LOOKING FOR #40: San Diego State is looking for its 19th 40-win season and its fourth in the last five years. SDSU entered the season as one of 16 teams in the nation with 40 or more wins in three of the past four seasons, and with a win in the NCAA Regional, SDSU would join Dallas Baptist, Florida, Florida State, Louisville, and LSU as teams with four 40+ win seasons in the last five years. NCAA Regional participants Arkansas (39 wins), Houston (36 wins), Texas A&M (39 wins), Texas Tech (39 wins) and Vanderbilt (31 wins) are other possible teams that can join that category.
WE HAVE BEEN REALLY GOOD LATELY: SDSU is 17-6 in its last 23 games, with four of those losses having come by two runs or less.
The Aztecs are hitting .314 as a team over the last 23 games, led by Chase Calabuig's .404 mark. The Aztecs have also outscored its opponents 155-99 over its last 23 games and are averaging 6.73 runs per game.
Jordan Verdon leads the team with seven home runs and 29 RBIs over the team's last 23 games.
FEATS OF Chase Calabuig: With his start Friday, Chase Calabuig will set the San Diego State career games played record, passing Tim Zier with his 237th collegiate appearance and has started in 122 consecutive games. Having played in 236 career games, he's missed just eight games in his entire four-year career.
Calabuig is ending his collegiate career in style for his senior season, leading the Aztecs with a .397 batting average in conference play and leading the MW with 51 conference hits.
During the Mountain West tournament, Calabuig ended his career with a 54-game on-base streak in home games -- the longest streak in Tony Gwynn Stadium history.
Calabuig recorded his 250th career hit in the final regular season series of the season at Nevada, becoming the fourth player in Aztec history to reach that mark. Over the month of May (14 games), Calabuig is hitting .448 (26-for-58) with team-bests in runs scored (20), total bases (40), on-base percentage (.529) and slugging percentage (.690).
In addition to being a game away from tying the games played record, Calabuig is 12th in Aztec history with 11 triples, tied for fifth (Travis Lee) with 365 total bases, fourth with 256 hits, eighth with 160 runs, second with 847 at bats, and fifth with 115 walks.
Calabuig is one of just three players in Aztec histroy to have 150 or more runs scored, 250 or more hits, and 125 or more RBIs, joined by Bobby Meacham and Jake McLintock.
UNSCHMITTABLE: Since taking over the closer's role on April 2, Casey Schmitt leads the country with nine saves since the start of April and owns the lowest ERA by an Aztec in recorded history (minimum 30 IP) at 0.28. For his efforts int he Mountain West Tournament, Schmitt became the fifth freshman in league history to win Tournament Most Valuable Player and the first since 2013.
Schmitt currently rides a 25.2 consecutive scoreless inning streak (longest by an Aztec this season), with his last run allowed coming against CSU Bakersfield on March 20 (both runs in that outing were unearned). Schmitt enters this weekend having not allowed an earned run in over two calendar months, with his last coming at Cal Poly on March 17.
Schmitt, who has solidified himself as one of the best two-way players in the nation as just a freshman, is the only freshman in the country to have driven in 25 or more runs at the plate while owning an ERA under 2.00 (minimum 15 IP). Schmitt is one of just two players in the country to have 25 or more RBIs while owning an ERA below 1.00 (minimum 15 IP), joined by only Duke senior Jack Labosky (36 RBI, 0.87 ERA in 31.0 IP).
Against Mountain West opponents, Schmitt owned a perfect 0.00 ERA over 10 appearances and 18.2 innings pitched. MW opponents have yet to score a run off Schmitt, who has held opposing MW hitters to a .116 batting average (7-for-60).
GOOD IN ALL ASPECTS: SDSU is one of six teams in the country to have a batting average above .300 and a ERA below 4.00, joined by Oregon State, New Mexico State, Southern Miss, Ole Miss, and Minnesota. The only team in the country to have a better ERA and batting average than SDSU is Oregon State.
GOOD PITCHING: SDSU enters the regional with a 3.90 earned run average, good for the best single-season ERA since 1996 when the team posted a 3.61 ERA. Including this year, SDSU has owned the Mountain West's best ERA in three of the last five seasons. SDSU's 3.92 ERA is the best in the MW since Fresno State posted a 3.72 staff ERA in 2016.
FINISHING STRONG: SDSU has won 85 consecutive games when leading after eight innings, good for one of the top five longest active streaks in the country.
30-WIN MARK: With SDSU's 31st win on against UC Riverside on May 1, the Aztecs are the only Mountain West program to have more than 30 wins in five of the last six seasons.
AMONG THE NATIONAL/CONFERENCE LEADERS: In addition to being the Mountain West leader in earned run average (3.90), WHIP (1.33) and hits allowed per nine innings (8.57), SDSU ranks among the top of the nation in numerous statistical categories.
- SDSU's .305 batting average is 10th best in the nation.
- SDSU's 56 double plays turned are 11th most in the nation - SDSU's 122 doubles are the 14th most in the nation
- SDSU's 623 total hits are 10th most in the nation
- Jordan Verdon and Chase Calabuig are fourth and 21st in the country with 26 and 21 doubles, respectively.
- Chase Calabuig is 28th in the nation in total hits (85).
- Jordan Verdon is 17th in the nation with 65 runs batted in and 24th in the nation with 142 total bases.
- Chase Calabuig is 14th in the nation and leads the Mountain West with five triples.
EXPERIENCE ON THE DIAMOND: Despite having a team of 15 freshmen -- the program's largest freshman class since 2011 and a freshman class that was ranked No. 14 in the nation by Perfect Game -- the Aztecs have two of the most experienced players in the nation this year in Chase Calabuig, who is third among all DI players with 236 career games played, and Jacob Erickson, who leads all DI pitchers with 119 career pitching appearances. The Aztecs are the only team in the nation to have a player in the top five of both categories. Erickson set SDSU's program record in pitching appearances earlier this season and is also the Mountain West all-time leader, while Calabuig owns a tie of the career games played record at SDSU with 236.
Games Played
1 JJ Schwarz , Florida 262
2 Ryan Chandler , Rice 244
3 Chase Calabuig , San Diego St. 236
4 Gabe Snyder , Wright St. 235
5 Connor McVey, Cincinnati 234
Pitching Appearances
1 Jacob Erickson , San Diego St. 119
2 Cooper Hammond , Miami (FL) 111
3 Seth Pinkerton, Hartford 108
T4 Charlie Fletcher, William & Mary 107
T4 Seth Kinker, Ohio St. 107
BIBLE BACK IN ACTION: After being diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin's lymphoma in January 2017, redshirt junior outfielder Chad Bible heard the good news in August 2017 that he was cancer free. Bible, who led all California junior college players in 2016 with 15 home runs, earned All-Mountain West second team honors in 2018. Despite his diagnosis last year, Bible was able to play in seven games, and recorded at least one hit in six of them. To cap his inspirational season, Bible recorded a double to right field in his final at bat of the season against Long Beach State after starting cancer treatment with Dr. Stephen Forman, M.D. at City of Hope in Duarte, Calif.
In his first at bat since defeating his battle with cancer, Bible ripped a single on the first pitch he saw, and later came around to score SDSU's first run of the 2018 season. He followed that up with a 3-RBI triple in a 8-4 win over UC Santa Barbara.
HOMEGROWN: 10 players on the San Diego State roster are from San Diego and played high school baseball in San Diego county. San Diego natives have collectively recorded 404 hits this season, good for 64.8 percent of SDSU's hit total of 623.