SAN DIEGO – San Diego State resumes its Mountain West schedule this weekend when it plays host to Air Force in a three-game series, May 6-8, at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
The first two encounters with the Falcons are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. PT, while Sunday's finale is slated for a 1 p.m. PT.
In addition, Friday's clash will be aired live on XTRA Sports 1360 AM, with Jonathan Rifkind calling the play-by-play.
Due to the league's scheduling format, the Aztecs will face two MW opponents just once during the regular season, including this weekend's opponent Air Force. SDSU posted a three-game sweep at New Mexico, April 14-16, in its only meetings with the Lobos, who will not be making a return trip to "America's Finest City."
The Aztecs (14-33, 6-15 MW) wrapped up their non-conference schedule earlier this week at home, dropping a 9-6 decision to UC San Diego in the fourth and final installment of the inaugural Trolley Series on Tuesday, before suffering a similar 9-2 setback to CSUN the following night.
Despite the two losses, the SDSU pitching staff still leads the Mountain West in several categories, including ERA (4.92), strikeouts (430), opposing batting average (.257) and fewest hits allowed (414).
On the national stage, the Aztecs occupy the 78th position with a conference-best 8.92 hits allowed per nine innings, while their 9.3 strikeouts per nine innings is good for 80th in the country, which ranks second in the MW.
For the fifth straight week, San Diego State will utilize the starting rotation of Troy Melton, TJ Fondtain and Chris Canada.
Melton (4-2, 1.59 ERA), who is projected to get the call on Friday, has picked up three straight wins and has emerged victorious in four of his last five starts. The Aztec right-hander ranks 11th in the conference as of May 4 with 45 strikeouts and would lead the league in ERA if he had enough innings pitched to qualify.
Melton was named MW Pitcher of the Week after tossing his second career complete game in SDSU's 2-1 nail-biter over Grand Canyon on April 25.
Despite an eight-start victory drought, Fondtain (1-6, 5.80 ERA) still ranks among the conference top 10 qualifiers in opposing batting average (4th, .258) and ERA (9th).
Meanwhile, Canada (2-0, 4.46 ERA) registered his second career win at Fresno State on May 1, after yielding three runs on two hits and four walks in five innings of work, as the Aztecs downed the Bulldogs, 8-5.
Offensively, SDSU is led by sophomore Cole Carrigg, who enters the weekend tied for fifth in the conference with a .372 batting average and shares the sixth spot with 68 hits. In addition, the Aztec utility player is tied for MW lead with five sacrifice bunts and ranks second with 17 stolen bases and 23 attempts.
Not to be outdone, Carrigg tops the squad with multiple hits in 21 games this season and has compiled two or more RBIs in 10 contests.
Elsewhere, Irvin Weems owns a current team-high streak of reaching base in 19 straight games, followed closely by Poncho Ruiz (17), who has hit safely 10 straight games to set a team-season high. Ruiz, who ranks third on the team with a .305 batting average missed his first game of the season after sitting out Wednesday's clash with CSUN.
Shaun Montoya leads all SDSU rookies in batting average (.306) and hits (33), followed closely by Weems (.276, 32), with both players starting 31 games this season in the outfield for the Scarlet and Black.
Collectively, the Aztecs are perched atop the Mountain West with 69 stolen bases and 94 attempts, which ranks 41st in the nation, with Weems (12) and Caden Miller (12) tying for third among conference leaders behind Carrigg.
San Diego State has been producing higher offensive totals since April 1, posting a slash line of .282/.369/.403 and 43 stolen bases to help craft a 9-14 record in that span. In contrast, the Aztecs compiled a slash line of .226/.334/.304 with 29 steals in the first 24 games of the season, recording a 5-19 mark during that stretch.
SDSU holds a sizable 116-31 lead against Air Force in the all-time series that dates back to 1961. The Falcons are one of four teams which the Aztecs have recorded 100 wins against, while the other three are New Mexico (125), Fresno State (108) and Utah (104).
SDSU is 63-11 vs. the Falcons in San Diego and 46-20 at the Academy. In addition, the Aztecs have won all seven meetings at neutral sites.
During Mark Martinez's eight-year tenure as head coach on The Mesa, SDSU sports a 22-10 record vs. Air Force, including a 12-4 mark at home, a 9-6 ledger on the road and a 1-0 record on a neutral field.
The Aztecs captured two of three meetings the last time the two teams played at Tony Gwynn Stadium in March 2021. SDSU opened with a doubleheader sweep against the Falcons, winning 9-2 and 5-1 before dropping the series finale, 13-9. Later in the season, the Scarlet and Black took all three games at the Academy by a combined score of 50-26.
In six games vs. Air Force last year, Carrigg batted .350 (7-20) with five RBIs and seven runs scored, highlighted by a 3-for-4 effort in game one of a twin-bill at the Academy on May 22, when he belted a two-run homer and crossed the plate on three other occasions to power SDSU to a big 17-3 run-rule victory in seven innings.
Not to be outdone, Brian Leonhardt finished with a career-high six RBIs in that contest, including a pair of two-run doubles.
Air Force (22-23, 10-11 MW) finds itself one game behind Fresno State for fourth place in the Mountain West standings, as the top four teams qualify for the conference's postseason tournament. The Falcons are 11-7 at home this year, 8-12 on the road and 3-4 at a neutral site.
After sweeping UNLV last weekend by a combined score of 51-17, Air Force concluded its nine-game homestand with a 7-3 loss to Oral Roberts in a non-conference game on Monday.
The Falcons are expected to utilize the starting rotation of right-handers Paul Skenes (7-2, 2.59 ERA), Doyle Gehring (2-2, 4.19 ERA) and Dylan Rogers (0-0, 5.35 ERA), respectively.
Skenes, who is tied for the conference lead in victories, also sits atop the Mountain West perch in ERA, opposing batting average (.216) and fewest hits allowed (43) while ranking third in strikeouts (62).
As a staff, Air Force is slotted fifth in the league this week in several categories, including ERA (6.54), strikeouts (321), opposing batting average (.302) and hits allowed (479).
Offensively, reigning MW Player of the Week Sam Kulasingam owns a team-best .402 batting average, which ranks second in the conference and 22nd nationally. In addition, the Falcon infielder finds himself among the league leaders in hits (2nd, 78), doubles (2nd, 21), on-base percentage (3rd, .473), slugging percentage (4th, .656) and RBIs (7th, 46). Not to be outdone, Kulasingam's totals for hits and doubles are both tied for second in the country as well.
Air Force has also received a sizable contribution from outfielder Gabriel Garcia, who also ranks among the MW top 10 in RBIs (4th, 53), doubles (T-5th, 16), home runs (T-5th, 10), slugging percentage (6th .643), batting average (8th, .362), hits (T-8th, 67) and on-base percentage (9th, .447).
Elsewhere, infielder Jay Thomason (.345) occupies the second spot in the conference with 13 home runs and ranks eighth with a .638 slugging percentage.
Collectively, the Falcons lead the Mountain West with 66 home runs and rank second in batting average (.312), hits (510), doubles (107), RBIs (356), runs scored (385) and slugging percentage (.515).
Following Sunday's matchup, San Diego State closes out the home portion of its 2022 regular-season slate next weekend when it welcomes Nevada for another three-game conference series, May 13-15, at Tony Gwynn Stadium.