COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The San Diego State baseball team was picked to finish third in the 2023 Mountain West preseason poll, as announced Thursday by the conference office. In addition, Aztec outfielder Cole Carrigg earned a spot on the preseason all-MW team in a vote of the league's seven head coaches.
Collectively, SDSU received a total of 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, while Air Force (21 pts) was fifth, followed by Nevada (10 pts) and New Mexico (7 pts).
As a sophomore in 2022, Carrigg received first-team all-Mountain West recognition 2022 after leading the Scarlet and Black in numerous categories, including a slash line of .388/.426/.509, as well as hits (83), doubles (15), total bases (109), RBIs (40), and stolen bases (19).
A native of Turlock, California, Carrigg finished among the MW leaders last season in steals (2nd, 19), batting average (3rd, .388), sacrifice bunts (T-4th, 5) and hits (T-8th, 83). Additionally, he also ranked 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 (31 games), Carrigg batted .448 (57-127) with 27 RBIs, 23 runs scored and 14 stolen bases raising his season average from .299 to .388 during that stretch.
Not to be outdone, Carrigg played in 41 games for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox of the Cape Cod Baseball League during the summer of 2022, earning a spot in the CCBL All-Star Game. He ranked third in the circuit during the regular-season schedule with a team-high .329 batting average while finishing among the individual leaders in hits (4th, 47), stolen bases (T-4th, 15) and RBIs (T-11th, 19).
Earlier this week, Carrigg was named Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year by D1Baseball.com in its conference preview, while right-handed pitcher Xavier Cardenas III was selectedby the website as the league's Preseason Freshman of the Year.
Along with Carrigg, the Aztecs return five other position starters from last season, including Poncho Ruiz, who was recently ranked 24th among the nation's catchers in D1Baseball.com's preseason player ratings. Last season, the Tijuana, Mexico, native recorded a slash line of .309/.413/.457, all of which ranked second on the team. He also topped the squad with 43 runs scored and 30 walks while sharing the top perch with five home runs.
Also back in the spotlight is junior TJ Fondtain, who earned second-team all-Mountain West honors in his first season as a starting pitcher in 2022. The Aztec left-hander ranked among the league leaders in several categories for all games last year, including opposing batting average (3rd, .237), fewest hits allowed (5th, 66), earned run average (6th, 4.58), innings pitched (6th, 72.2) and strikeouts (T-9th, 60).
Last season, Fondtain merited three MW Pitcher of the Week awards, which marked the most by an SDSU hurler in a single season since Addison Reed received a trio of such awards in 2010. The Clovis, California, product is expected to garner more playing time at the plate in 2023 after logging a slash line of .339/.379/.597 in 20 games as hitter last year while notching two homers, eight doubles, 11 RBIs and eight runs scored.
The Aztecs' 2023 roster also features 15 newcomers, including 13 true freshmen, one Division I transfer (Brady Lavoie, INF, NC State), and a junior college transfer (Xavier Gonzalez, INF, Southwestern College), both of whom are pegged for key roles this season.
San Diego State opens its 2023 campaign next weekend when it travels to the Valley of the Sun for three-game series against Arizona State, Feb. 17-19, in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Aztecs will conduct their home opener on Tuesday, Feb. 21, when they play host to CSUN at Tony Gwynn Stadium, starting at 6 p.m. PT. SDSU's clash with the Matadors will also be streamed live via the Mountain West Network.
2023 MOUNTAIN WEST BASEBALL PRESEASON COACHES POLL
| Rank | Institution (1st Place Votes) | Pts. |
| 1. | UNLV (4) | 33 |
| 2. | San José State (2) | 27 |
| 3. | San Diego State | 25 |
| 4. | Fresno State (1) | 24 |
| 5 | Air Force | 21 |
| 6. | Nevada | 10 |
| 7. | New Mexico | 7 |
2023 MOUNTAIN WEST PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM
| Name | Class | Position | Institution |
| Cole Carrigg | Jr. | OF | San Diego State |
| Doyle Gehring | Jr. | RHP | Air Force |
| Sam Kulasingham | Jr. | IF | Air Force |
| Jay Thomason | Jr. | IF | Air Force |
| Ixan Henderson | Jr. | LHP | Fresno State |
| Kade Morris | Jr. | RHP | Nevada |
| Lenny Junior Ashby | Jr. | OF | New Mexico |
| Hunter Dorraugh | Jr. | IF | San José State |
| Darren Jansen | Sr. | RHP | San José State |
| Charles McAdoo | Sr. | IF | San José State |
| Rylan Charles | Jr. | OF | UNLV |
| Austin Kryszczuk | Jr. | IF | UNLV |
| Edarian Williams | Sr. | IF | UNLV |