SAN DIEGO – San Diego State opens its 84th season of baseball competition this weekend when it travels to the desert for a three-game series against Arizona State, Feb. 17-19, in Phoenix, Arizona.
Friday's opener is set to begin at 6 p.m. MT/5 p.m. PT, followed by a 1 p.m. MT/Noon PT start for Saturday's clash, while Sunday's finale is slated to get underway at 12:30 p.m. MT/11:30 a.m. PT.
In addition to live stats, all three contests from Phoenix Municipal Stadium will feature streaming video with links available on GoAztecs.com.
SDSU is expected to start left-handers TJ Fondtain and Chris Canada on Friday and Saturday, respectively, while right-hander Jonny Guzman is pegged for a Sunday start.
Conversely, the Sun Devils are projected to throw three Division I transfers this weekend, including left-hander Ross Dunn on Friday (Florida State), followed in succession by right-hander Khristian Curtis (Texas A&M) and another lefty Timmy Manning (Florida).
In his first season as a starter in 2022, Fondtain earned second-team all-Mountain West honors after ranking among the league leaders in several categories for all games, including opposing batting average (3rd, .237), fewest hits allowed (5th, 66), ERA (6th, 4.58), innings pitched (6th, 72.2) and strikeouts (T-9th, 60).
In addition, Fondtain garnered three MW Pitcher of the Week accolades last year, including two following back-to-back complete games vs. Air Force and Nevada at home in May. In the former contest vs. the Falcons, the Clovis, California, native became the first Aztec hurler to toss a complete-game shutout since Justin Goossen-Brown in 2019 with the help of seven strikeouts, as the Scarlet and Black rolled to a 12-0 victory.
Canada is scheduled to make his eighth career start after a freshman season in which he posted a 2-1 record with a 5.11 ERA and 39 strikeouts in 44.0 innings. The Orange, California, product was SDSU's Sunday starter in six games between April 10 and May 15 last year. Previously, he earned his first collegiate victory vs. Long Beach State (4-5-22) after fanning a career-high seven batters against three hits and a walk in 5.0 scoreless innings.
Meanwhile, Guzman is slated for his second career start after compiling a 1-3 record with a 3.72 ERA and two saves in 23 appearances last year primarily as a reliever.
Another native of Orange, California, Guzman ranked second on the team in opposing batting average (.1953) as a sophomore in 2022 while occupying the fourth spot with 49 strikeouts in 36.1 innings. He yielded just one walk or less in 17 games and surrendered one hit or less in 14 contests, including his five games of the year.
Additionally, Guzman fanned three or more batters on six occasions, including a career-high nine strikeouts in his first collegiate start at UC Irvine on Feb. 22, 2022.
As a team, the Aztec pitching staff led the Mountain West in numerous categories last year, including ERA (4.97), strikeouts (504), fewest hits allowed (491) and opposing team batting average (.256). In addition, SDSU topped the conference with fewest hits allowed per nine innings (8.85) and strikeouts per nine innings (9.1), which ranked 55th and 85th in the nation, respectively.
Offensively, the Aztecs will be led by junior Cole Carrigg, who will take over the center field position to start the season after playing a combined 38 games as a middle infielder last year. The Turlock, California, product was named the preseason Mountain West Player of the Year by D1Baseball.com in its conference preview earlier this month before earning a spot on the preseason all-MW team in a vote of the league's head coaches.
Carrigg is coming off a brilliant sophomore season in which he merited first-team all-Mountain West recognition after leading the Scarlet and Black in numerous categories, including a slash line of .388/.426/.509, as well as hits (83), doubles (15) and total bases (109), RBIs (40) and stolen bases (19).
Carrigg also finished among the MW leaders in steals (2nd, 19), batting average (3rd, .388), sacrifice bunts (T-4th, 5) and hits (T-8th, 83) while ranking fifth in the conference with 1.54 hits per game, which was good for 35th nationally.
Over the final two months of the 2022 campaign, Carrigg accelerated his game, batting .448 (57-127) with 27 RBIs, 23 runs scored and 14 runs scored, raising his batting average from .299 to .388 in that span. He also hit safely in 28 of his final 31 starts of the season, including a team-best 16 consecutive games from April 22-May 20.
Not to be outdone, Carrigg was selected to play in the 2022 Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star Game, representing the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox with whom he saw action in 41 games last summer.
During the regular-season schedule, he finished third in the CCBL with a team-high .329 batting average while placing among the individual leaders in hits (4th, 47), stolen bases (T-4th, 15) and RBIs (T-11th, 19).
Once again, SDSU's catching duties will be handled by Poncho Ruiz, who led the Aztecs with 43 runs scored and 30 walks last season and shared the top spot with five home runs while ranking second with a slash line of .309/.413/.459. As a sophomore in 2022, he also finished second on the squad in hits (64), doubles (14) and total bases (95) while occupying the third position in RBIs (33).
In addition, Ruiz tied for third on the team with multiple hits in 14 games and had two or more RBIs in seven contests. He also owned the squad's second-longest hitting streak of 11 games from April 19-May 6 after hitting safely in nine straight outings from Feb. 19-March 4.
As a fielder, Ruiz threw out 13 would-be base stealers last year, which ranked second in the Mountain West and tied for fourth with three runners picked off.
Along with four other returning position starters, including stalwart second baseman Caden Miller (.284, 26 RBIs, 28 runs), who ranked fourth in the Mountain West with 16 stolen bases in 2022, San Diego State has added 15 newcomers to this year's roster, including 13 true freshmen, as well transfers Brady Lavoie (NC State) and Xavier Gonzalez (Southwestern JC), the latter of whom is expected to start the season at shortstop.
A prep graduate of nearby Hilltop High School, Gonzalez garnered first-team all-Pacific Coast Athletic Conference honors in 2022 after hitting .369 with three home runs and 30 RBIs in 36 games, helping the Jaguars to a 24-17 record a berth in the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) playoffs.
Although SDSU will be without the services of reigning Mountain West Freshman of the Year Irvin Weems (.293, 5 HR, 22 RBIs, 17 SB), an outfielder who is sidelined at the start of the season with an injury, the Scarlet and Black hopes to receive additional offensive contributions from Fondtain, who saw action in 20 games as a hitter, finishing with a slash line of .339/.379/.597 while notching two homers, eight doubles, 11 RBIs and eight runs scored.
Collectively, the Aztecs as predicted to finish third in the 2023 Mountain West preseason coaches poll, as announced by the conference office on Feb. 9. SDSU garnered 25 points, trailing preseason favorite UNLV (33 pts), which received four first-place votes, and second-place San José State (27 pts), which netted another pair of first-place votes. Fresno State landed in the fourth spot just behind the Aztecs with 24 points after garnering the final first-place vote, while Air Force (21 pts) was fifth, followed by Nevada (10 pts) and New Mexico (7 pts).
San Diego State will be squaring off against Arizona State for the second consecutive season after the Sun Devils took two of three games in a weekend series, March 4-6, 2022, at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The Aztecs salvaged the finale with a 4-3 triumph after dropping the first two encounters by scores of 13-5 and 6-4. With those results, SDSU still trails the all-time series 18-16.
In that aforementioned victory over ASU, outfielder Tyler Glowacki had two hits, including the go-ahead single in the sixth, while Guzman entered for his first collegiate save. As a result, the Aztecs defeated the Sun Devils for the first time since March 29, 1985, when they logged a 9-4 triumph at the UC Riverside Invitational.
Arizona State finished seventh in the Pac-12 during the 2022 campaign with a 13-17 conference record and a 26-32 mark overall. The Sun Devils were pegged for a sixth-place finish in the 2023 Pac-12 preseason coaches poll, while junior infielder Ethan Long, sophomore catcher Ryan Campos and sophomore designated hitter/infielder Jacob Tobias were named to the preseason all-Pac-12 team.
Following the 2022 campaign, Campos (NCBWA) and Tobias (Collegiate Baseball) each received Freshman All-America recognition.
Last season, Campos led the Sun Devils with a .357 batting average, which ranked sixth in the Pac-12, while his .430 on-base percentage was good for ninth in the conference.
Tobias started 44 of 53 games in 2022, hitting .276 with seven homers, 29 RBIs and 23 runs scored. He drove in 23 of his runs during conference play, which ranked third on the team, as well as among Pac-12 freshman.
For the second straight year, the Aztecs will cross paths with their former pitching coach Sam Peraza this weekend. Peraza, who was accepted the same position at ASU in July 2021, served six seasons on The Mesa from 2016-2021, helping the Scarlet and Black capture consecutive Mountain West tournament titles in 2017 and 2018. He was elevated to associate head coach of the SDSU program in the summer of 2019.
Following this weekend's series San Diego State will conduct its 2023 home opener on Tuesday, Feb. 21, when it welcomes CSUN to Tony Gwynn Stadium. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. PT, and the game will be streamed live on the MW Network.
Aztecs Open 2023 Season at Arizona State
