Projected Starting Pitcher Matchups
Friday, March 22 - 6:00 p.m. MT - Mountain West Network
SDSU: RHP Aaron Eden (1-1, 1.31 ERA)
UNM: RHP Justin Slaten (2-1, 2.08 ERA)
Saturday, March 23 - 2:00 p.m. MT - Mountain West Network
SDSU: RHP Justin Goossen-Brown (2-0, 4.21 ERA)
UNM: RHP Nathaniel Garley (4-0, 2.53 ERA)
Sunday, March 24 - 1:00 p.m. MT - Mountain West Network
SDSU: RHP Casey Schmitt (1-2, 5.79 ERA)
UNM: RHP Drew Gillespie (0-2, 10.24 ERA)
Monday, March 25 - 6:00 p.m. PT - XTRA 1360
Arizona: TBA
SDSU: TBA
Tuesday, March 26 - 6:00 p.m. PT - XTRA 1360
CBU: TBA
SDSU: TBA
Aztec Storylines
BUSY STRETCH AHEAD: San Diego State begins a five-game-in-five-day stretch this Friday, visiting New Mexico (11-9) for a three-game series before hosting Arizona (13-7) and Cal Baptist (14-7) on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
All three games in Albuquerque will be streamed on the Mountain West Network, while XTRA 1360 will broadcast Monday and Tuesday's games with Jon Schaeffer and Judson Richards on the call.
OVER THE LAST EIGHT: San Diego State has won six of its last eight games, with one of the two losses being a 6-5 extra-inning loss against Nevada on March 10.
Below is a statistical comparison between SDSU's first 11 games (5-6) and SDSU's last eight games (6-2):
Stat First 11 Last 8
Batting average .284 .295
ERA 4.78 3.82
Slugging percentage .369 .437
Batting average w/RISP .254 .326
SERIES HISTORY WITH THE LOBOS: With SDSU leading the all-time series with New Mexico 114-80, SDSU's 114 all-time wins against the Lobos mark as the most win against any other program.
SDSU went 3-3 against New Mexico last season, with the road team winning each series. SDSU's road series win was the first time the Aztecs have won a three-game series at New Mexico since 2004.
SERIES HISTORY WITH THE WILDCATS: SDSU and Arizona split a home-and-home last season, with the home team winning each game. SDSU defeated the Wildcats 3-2 on Feb. 23, 2018, in its Tony Gwynn Legacy opener with Jacob Maekawa scoring the walk-off run on a wild pitch in the 10th inning. The win for SDSU snapped an eight-game losing streak in its series against the Wildcats.
SDSU is 5-1 in its last six games against Pac-12 members.
SERIES HISTORY WITH THE LANCERS: Cal Baptist, which is reclassifying from NCAA Division II, plays the Aztecs for the first time since 1992. SDSU has won two of the three all-time meetings with the Lancers, with the home team having won all three games in the all-time series.
SCHMITT NAMED MW POTW: Casey Schmitt collected his first career Mountain West Player of the Week award on Monday after going 10-for-18 (.556) with four extra-base hits (2B, 2 3B, HR) and earning the win in SDSU's 11-5 win over Seattle, throwing five innings with four hits and two runs allowed while striking out six.
Having won Mountain West Pitcher of the Week on April 16, 2018, Schmitt is the only player in conference history to have won both a Player of the Week and Pitcher of the Week award.
Schmitt is the first Aztec freshman or sophomore to win MW Player of the Week since Alan Trejo did on March 14, 2016, as a sophomore.
WHERE WE RANK IN THE MW: With a .289 team batting average and a 4.37 team ERA, SDSU is the only team in the Mountain West to have an ERA below 4.50 and a batting average above .270.
Angelo Armenta boasts a .511 on base percentage, good for second-best in the Mountain West and 49th best nationally. Matt Rudick is third in the conference with 26 hits, while Brian Leonhardt is also third in the conference with 19 RBIs. Rudick is also fourth in the conference with eight doubles.
On the mound, Adrian Mardueno leads the conference with a 0.87 WHIP and 4.35 hits allowed per nine innings, while standing third in the league with a 1.31 ERA.
The Aztec pitching staff leads the Mountain West in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.22) and strikeouts per nine innings (10.4) while the lineup owns a league-best .399 on-base percentage, good for 34th nationally.
MAKING THE MOST OF IT: Due to injuries on the pitching staff, SDSU has had to use seven different starters during the 2019 season. Those seven starters feature three pitchers who had never started a college game before this season, including true freshman Aaron Eden and Casey Schmitt and Adrian Mardueno, who had been used strictly as relievers prior to the start of this season.
Despite the variety of starting pitchers used, SDSU starters collectively own a 3.43 ERA, a .242 opponent batting average, and have struck out 79 batters in 78.2 innings.
STRIKEOUTS GALORE: SDSU matched its 2018 total of 13 double-digit strikeout games, needing just 18 games this season. The Aztecs are currently 17th in the country averaging 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings.
Despite being just 19 games into the season, SDSU's 13 games with 10 or more strikeouts is tied for the most since the Aztec pitching staff recorded 20 10+ strikeout games in 2015.
Baseball Ready for Busy Five-Day Stretch
