Projected Starting Pitcher Matchups
Friday, May 24 - 2:00 p.m. - Mountain West Network - XTRA 1360
SDSU: RHP Adrian Mardueno (5-2, 1.48 ERA)
Nevada: TBA
Mardueno notes: Has steadily been one of the most dominant pitchers in the country throughout the season, being the only pitcher in Division I to have a sub-1.50 earned run average, allow 5.5 hits per nine innings or fewer, and have zero home runs allowed ... Currently leads the Mountain West in both ERA (1.48) and opponent batting average (.180)... Has a chance to become the first player in the Mountain West to lead the conference in both ERA and opponent batting average since UNLV's Erick Fedde did so in 2014... Would be the first Aztec to lead the conference in both ERA and opponent batting average since Stephen Strasburg in 2009... Named Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week, Rawlings/Perfect Game National Pitcher of the Week, and Mountain West Pitcher of the Week on April 8-9 after throwing 11 shutout innings of relief with three hits allowed, 12 strikeouts, and a .091 opponent batting average against defending national champion Oregon State and Nevada on April 2 & April 7... Threw seven innings against No. 6/7 Beavers to help lead SDSU to its highest ranked victory since defeating #6 Oregon State on March 28, 2016... Leads SDSU in inherited runners stranded percentage for the third consecutive season, having left 25 of his 32 inherited runners on base this season, including 16 of his last 17 and each of his last 11.
Aztec Storylines
CHAMPIONSHIP TIME: San Diego State plays tournament host and No. 4 seed Nevada on Friday at 2:00 p.m. in an elimination game. The Aztecs are in search of their seventh Mountain West Championship and 29th conference championship overall.
All Mountain West Championship games will air on the Mountain West Network. In addition, XTRA 1360 will broadcast all Aztec games in Reno, and links to watch, listen, and follow along with live stats are available on GoAztecs.com.
BACKS AGAINST THE WALL: After yesterday's loss against UNLV, San Diego State will play in its 19th elimination game in the Mountain West Championships since 2012. The Aztecs are an unprecedented 16-2 in their previous 18 games facing elimination.
REBOUNDING QUICKLY: The Aztecs are a perfect 7-0 in their last seven games following a loss in the Mountain West Championships. SDSU, the only program to appear in all 20 Mountain West Championships, have won at least one game in every tournament except for 2010 where the No. 3-seeded Aztecs went 0-2.
NO. 2 SEED? NO PROBLEM: For the sixth time since joining the Mountain West, the Aztecs finished the regular season second in the conference. As the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament, the Aztecs are 18-5 overall and 11-3 in their last 14.
The No. 2 seed has won each of the last four Mountain West Championships, including the Aztecs in 2015, 2017, and 2018, and New Mexico in 2016.
BACK WHERE WE ARE COMFORTABLE: The Aztecs have won five of the last six Mountain West Championships and are the only program in the country to have won five conference tournament titles in the last six years.
San Diego State's six postseason Mountain West Championships are the most in league history, while the Aztecs are the only team in the Mountain West to have appeared in all 20 MW Championships.
Team MW Postseason Titles
San Diego State 6 (2000-13-14-15-17-18)
TCU 4 (2006-07-08-10)
New Mexico 3 (2011-12-16)
UNLV 3 (2003-04-05)
Brigham Young 2 (2001-02)
Utah 1 (2009)
NO ONE BETTER: The Aztecs are 23-7 in the Mountain West Championships since 2013. In addition, SDSU's 50 wins in the Mountain West Championships are the most in league history.
As head coach, Mark Martinez is 18-6 in the Mountain West Championships and last season, Martinez became the fastest coach in MW baseball history to win three postseason championships last season.
SERIES HISTORY WITH THE WOLF PACK: San Diego State has won nine of its last 15 games against the Wolf Pack, including a 4-2 mark in 2019. Over SDSU's six games against the Wolf Pack this season, the Aztec pitching staff has recorded a 3.29 ERA while the Nevada arms have been tagged at a 5.09 clip.
With both of SDSU's losses to Nevada in 2019 being by a one-run margin, the Aztecs haeve outscored the Wolf Pack 40-25 over their six 2019 meetings.
Nevada leads the all-time series, 29-22, while the series in the Mountain West Championships is tied up at 2-2. Nevada beat SDSU twice (13-5, 5-3) during the 2016 Mountain West Championships to eliminate the Aztecs from the tournament.
30-WIN MARK: SDSU secured its sixth 30+ win season in the last seven years in a 10-5 win over Brigham Young on May 6. The Aztecs are the only team in the Mountain West to have won 30 or more games six times in the last seven years.
SDSU's run of six 30+ wins over the last seven years marks the first time since 1992-98 that the Aztecs have recorded six 30+ win seasons over a seven-year span.
MIKE JARVIS HEATING UP: Mike Jarvis has recorded five multi-hit games over his last six and currently rides a season-best-game hitting streak where the junior transfer is 13-for-26 (.500).
With a .226 batting average after April 12, Jarvis has raised his batting average by .069 (currently .295) over the last five weeks, hitting a team-best .394 over the team's last 21 games. Jarvis is also third on the team over the team's last 20 games with 15 RBIs, trailing only Casey Schmitt and Angelo Armenta who are tied for the team-lead at 17.
TALE OF TWO SEASONS: Over the last 31 games, San Diego State relievers have combined for a 2.66 ERA, .239 opponent batting average, and have struck out 149 batters in 142.1 innings.
Over the first 25 games of the season, the SDSU bullpen owned a 5.17 ERA and .265 opponent batting average.
SCHMITT CLIMBING SDSU'S ALL-TIME SAVES LEADER CHART: With eight saves this season, Casey Schmitt is in a tie for fifth in program history with Mark Williamson with 17 career saves. In his second season as the Aztecs closer, Schmitt owns a career 2.40 ERA over 40 career appearances.
Royce Ring (2000-02) 26
Addison Reed (2008-10) 24
CJ Saylor (2014-17) 24
Michael Cederoth (2011-14) 20
Casey Schmitt (2018-present) 17
Mark Williamson (1981-82) 17
THE INJURY BUG: Arguably no other weekend starting rotation in the nation has suffered more tough luck than the Aztecs, as the team started the season with Logan Boyer, Harrison Pyatt, and Brad Wegman as their three weekend starters have needed to use 12 different starters in the 2019 season due to injuries suffered by all three. SDSU's 12 different starting pitchers used are tied for their most used since using 13 in 2010. The team also used 12 starting pitchers in 2011 and 2012.
Boyer, Pyatt, and Wegman have combined to miss 29 weekend starts due to their respective injuries this season. The 29 missed starts mark as the most missed starts by an opening weekend rotation across the country.
CALIFORNIA LOVE: Since 2014, the Aztecs are tied with Stanford in win total among Division I California programs. Also, over that span, SDSU is 107-53 (.669) when playing teams based in California.
Team Wins
San Diego State 217
Stanford 217
UC Santa Barbara 212
Cal State Fullerton 209
Sacramento State 203
SEEING DOUBLE: SDSU leads the nation with 70 double plays turned this season and set a new Mountain West era Aztec record with their 68th double play of the season against UNLV on Thursday. Since the start of the 2017 season, SDSU's 196 double plays turned are the most among any team in the nation.
FROM THE TOP: Sophomore outfielder Matt Rudick has been SDSU's lead off hitter for all 55 games this season and leads the team with a .319 batting average.
Last Saturday against New Mexico, Rudick had a 12-game hitting streak and a 16-game on-base streak snapped. Rudick also had a 24-game on-base streak in home games snapped and a 39-game on-base streak in Mountain West games snapped.
Rudick's 24-game on-base streak in home games is SDSU's longest since Chase Calabuig finished his college career in 2018 with a Tony Gwynn Stadium record 54-game on-base streak in home games. The Scripps Ranch HS product's 39-game Mountain West on-base streak is the second longest by an Aztec in league history, trailing only Quintin Berry's 48-game streak (2005-06).
Rudick recorded a 21-game hitting streak from March 1 - April 3, hitting .376 over that span with a team-high seven extra-base hits and 17 RBIs. The streak stands as the 10th longest hitting streak in the country this season and the third-longest by an Aztec in the Mountain West era and tied for the longest by an Aztec since 2010.
Longest Aztec hitting streaks since 2000
Quintin Berry (2005) - 27
Mitch Blackburn (2010) - 23
Matt Rudick (2019) - 21
Cory Vaughn (2010) - 21
Tim Zier (2012) - 21
Steven Pallares (2015) - 21
Rudick has recorded a hit in 49 of 56 games this season and has reached base in 52 of 56 games in 2019. Interestingly enough, the Aztecs are just 1-6 in games where Rudick does not record a hit.
Finally, Rudick is the only hitter with more walks than strikeouts (28 BB, 20 K) and has struck out just once per 11.9 at bats -- good for the lowest rate in the Mountain West and 33rd lowest in the country. Rudick's one strikeout per 11.9 at bats is the lowest since Mitch Blackburn struck out once per 12.3 at bats in 2010.
STRANGE BUT TRUE: The Aztecs are going through an uncharacteristic season in terms of fielding, owning a .964 fielding percentage in 2019 -- the program's lowest since a .959 mark in 2012. However, the Aztecs have found ways to win games despite defensive miscues, as the Aztecs are 8-1 this season when recording three or more errors.
ADRIAN MARDUENO IS REALLY GOOD: Including Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week, Perfect Game National Pitcher of the Week, and Mountain West Pitcher of the Week awards received on April 8-9, Marudeno has been the Mountain West's most dominant arm during the 2019 season, leading the conference in ERA (1.48) and opponent batting average (.180).
Mardueno, who led the Aztecs in inherited runners stranded percentage as both a freshman and sophomore, leads the Aztecs once again as a junior, having stranded 78.2 percent (25 of 32) of his inherited base runners this season. Since April 2, Mardueno has stranded 16 of his last 17 inherited runners and each of his last 11.
Mardueno's ERA also stands as seventh best in the country, while his 5.46 hits allowed per nine innings is 16th best in the country. Mardueno is one of just five pitchers in the country to be in the top 12 of both ERA and hits allowed per nine innings, joined by Georgia's Emerson Hancock, UCLA's Ryan Garcia, Navy's Noah Song, and Missouri's TJ Sikkema. Of those five, Mardueno is the only one who has not allowed a home run this season.
Mardueno, who logged a 4-0 record and 0.82 ERA over 22 innings pitched in the month of April, was named a San Diego Sports Association Star of the Month for his efforts.
STRIKEOUTS GALORE: SDSU has recorded 26 games with 10 or more strikeouts this season, marking the most double-digit strikeout performances for the Aztecs in the Mountain West era (since 2000). SDSU passed the previous MW-era record of 23 set in 2009 in a 10-6 win on May 11 at Fresno State.
The Aztecs are 16-10 in their 26 games when striking out 10 or more batters.
SDSU has recorded 487 strikeouts, averaging 8.8 strikeouts per nine innings this season. With 489 strikeouts this season, the Aztecs are within striking distance of their first 500+ strikeout season since 2015 (510 strikeouts in 64 games). The Aztecs have had five previous seasons with 500 or more strikeouts in its 83-year history, including a program record of 581 in 1997.
SOME KEYS TO SUCCESS: Scoring the game's first run has proven to be important for the Aztecs in 2019, as the team is 19-6 when scoring first in comparison to a 13-18 mark when their opponent scores first.
FIVE, IT'S A MAGIC NUMBER: SDSU is 62-10 in their last 72 games when scoring five or more runs.
UNDER PRESSURE: SDSU is 29-15 in their last 44 one-run games.
EYEING 2,500: With a 35-win season in 2019, the Aztecs would become the 27th team in Division I baseball to reach the 2,500-win threshold and become just the fourth California program to do so, joining USC, Fresno State, and Stanford.
IN THE NATIONAL CONVERSATION: The Aztecs are one of 18 teams in the country to have reached a regional five times in the last six seasons, one of 13 teams in the country to have won 39 or more games five times in the last six years, and one of nine teams to have hit .300 or better in each of the last two seasons. SDSU is one of just three west coast programs to have played in five regionals since 2013, joined by only Oregon State and Cal State Fullerton.
Teams that have reached five regionals in the last six years: 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
Baseball Battles Nevada in MW Championships
