Aztecs to Open 2025 Campaign at MLB Desert Invitational

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego State opens its 86th season of baseball competition this weekend when it travels to the Valley of the Sun for the MLB Desert Invitational in the greater Phoenix area, Feb. 14-16.

The Aztecs will battle Seton Hall at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick on Friday at 6 p.m. MT/5 p.m. PT, before the scene shifts to Sloan Park in Mesa for their final two encounters.

On Saturday, SDSU will lock horns with Grand Canyon at 5:30 p.m. MT/4:30 p.m. PT, before wrapping up their desert excursion with a showdown against Nebraska on Sunday at 5 p.m. MT/4 p.m. PT.

Along with live stats, all three Aztec games will be streamed live on MLB.com. Four additional teams will be competing at the MLB Desert Invitational this weekend, including Austin Peay, New Mexico, UC Irvine and Vanderbilt.

San Diego State will be making its second appearance in the prestigious tournament after opening the 2022 campaign at Salt River Fields. That season, the Aztecs sandwiched a 4-3 victory over Houston between a narrow 5-3 defeat to No. 17 TCU and a 6-3 setback to California.

The Mountain West will conduct the 2025 conference tournament at Sloan Park in Mesa, May 21-25, featuring the top six teams in the league standings.

SETTING THE SCENE
> Under the direction of second-year head coach Shaun Cole, San Diego State returns in 17 letterwinners in 2025, including starting pitcher Omar Serrano and infielder Finley Bates, both of whom were named to the preseason all-Mountain West team.

> Serrano garnered first-team all-Mountain West accolades in 2024 after leading the league with a 3.06 ERA in conference play while ranking third with 60 strikeouts and fourth with a .263 opponent batting average.

> Bates looks to build on a solid rookie campaign after earning MW Freshman of the Year honors.

> Bates tied for the conference lead with 48 hits during Mountain West competition last season and was slotted fourth with a .375 batting average.

> In addition, the Aztecs welcome back two key contributors in outfielder Jake Jackson and infielder Tino Bethancourt.

> Jackson enjoyed a tremendous collegiate debut for the Scarlet and Black after posting a slash line of .276/.328/.399 with two home runs, 35 RBIs and 30 runs scored overall. He also collected three  MW Freshman of the Week awards.

> Meanwhile, Bethancourt is preparing for his final season on The Mesa after emerging as a key offensive contributor in 2024 when he slashed .275//.356/.451 with six homers and a team-high 40 RBIs. The Aztec senior went hitless in consecutive games just four times last year, leading the team with multiple RBIs in nine starts while recording two or more hits on 14 occasions, which ranked third.

> The Aztecs' 2025 roster also features 22 newcomers, including 18 true freshmen, two Division II transfers, one Division I transfer and one junior college transfer.

FOR OPENERS
> San Diego State sports a record of 53-31-1 in season openers dating back to 1936 (SDSU did not field a team from 1943-45). Since attaining Division I status in 1969, the Aztecs are 33-22 in their annual debuts.

> SDSU will be looking to put the brakes on a three-game losing streak in season openers after falling to then-No. 17 TCU (2022), Arizona State (2023) and Portland (2024).

> Prior to that stretch, The Aztecs won five straight season openers vs. San Diego (2021), Virginia Tech (2020), San Francisco (2019), UC Santa Barbara (2018) and Pacific (2017).

> When opening the season at home, SDSU sports a record of 17-11 in the Division 1 era, a 14-8  mark when beginning the year on the road and 2-3 ledger on a neutral diamond.

> Friday’s clash will mark the Aztecs’ sixth neutral-site opener in 56 years at the Division I level. SDSU opened with an 11-7 loss to New Mexico State at the 1999 Shootout in the Desert at Tempe, Arizona, before falling to UC Riverside 5-4 at the 2001 Caballeros Classic in Yuma. In 2009, the Scarlet and Black defeated Bethune-Cookman at the MLB Urban Invitational in Compton, California,  before recording a 7-5 triumph over Virginia Tech in the 2020 Battle at the Beach event in Conway, South Carolina. Most recently, the Aztecs dropped a narrow 5-3 decision to TCU at the 2022 MLB4 Tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona.

> The Aztecs will play their season opener away from Tony Gwynn Stadium for just the fourth time in the 11 years: 2020 vs. Virginia Tech, 2022 vs. TCU, and 2023 at Arizona State.

AZTEC WEEKEND ROTATION
> San Diego State’s projected pitching rotation this weekend will feature a pair of hurlers who have logged a combined 36 career starts and another who will be making his Aztec mound debut.

> Omar Serrano is expected to start Friday's opener against Seton Hall. The Aztec right-hander garnered first-team all-Mountain West entered as a junior in 2024 after posting a 5-5 record with a league-leading 3.06 ERA against conference opponents. He also ranked third in the MW with 60 strikeouts and occupied the fourth position with a .263 opposing batting average vs. league foes. Serrano allowed just one earned run or less on six occasions in conference play, fanning at least five hitters in each of those contests. Overall, the Downey, California, product compiled a 5-6 overall record with a 4.02 ERA and 77 strikeouts. He tied for the conference lead with 14 starts, ranking third in ERA (4.02) and fourth in both strikeouts (77) and innings pitched (80.2). Not to be outdone, the Aztec hurler was also slotted eighth in the MW in opponent batting average (.270). Serrano tossed his first career complete game in the Scarlet and Black's 7-1 triumph in the opener of a doubleheader on March 3, 2024. Prior to the 2025 campaign, Serrano earned a spot on the preseason all-Mountain West team as selected by the league's head coaches and was a preseason all-conference selection by Perfect Game.

>  Right-hander Xavier Cardenas III is pegged to start Saturday's clash against Grand Canyon. The SDSU junior led the pitching staff with a .252 opponents batting average last year, which ranked second in the Mountain West, and also topped the squad among qualifiers in fewest hits allowed (62), which was tied for third in the conference. For the season, Cardenas compiled a 2-6 record with a 6.58 ERA and 58 strikeouts across 13 games, fanning at least three hitters in 11 of 12 starts. The La Habra, California, native helped the Scarlet and Black complete a three-game home sweep of eventual MW tournament champion Fresno State after pitching a six-inning gem in the series finale. En route to the victory, he offset three hits and two walks with five strikeouts in six scoreless frames on May 5, 2024. In his ensuing start on May 12, Cardenas matched his career high with eight strikeouts in 6.1 innings vs. Air Force.

> Meanwhile, Marko Sipila is projected to get the call on Sunday against Nebraska. A native of Independence, Minnesota, Sipila joins the Aztecs after spending his first two collegiate seasons at Division II Colorado-Colorado Springs. In 2024, he set a career high with 60 strikeouts in 59.0 cunnings, finishing with a 3-6 record and a 6.71 ERA in the high elevation Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. In 2024, Sipila walked just 19 batters on the year, which ranked fifth in the RMAC. The right-hander recorded at least five strikeouts on seven occasions, fanning a collegiate-best nine hitters at the Colorado School of Mines in his final appearance of season on May 3, 2024. As a freshman in 2023, Sipila pitched two complete games against Colorado Christian (April 2) and Colorado Mines (May 5), compiling a 3-4 ledger with 32 strikeouts and one save in 48.0 innings. Along with his two complete games, he picked up a win in relief against Adams State (April 30). In the summer of 2024, Sipila pitched in three games as a reliever for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox of the Cape Cod League, logging a 1-0 record with a 2.84 ERA, nine strikeouts and two saves in 6.1 innings.

SERIES RECORD VS. SETON HALL
> The Aztecs own a slim 3-2 advantage in five meetings against the Pirates since the 1984 campaign.
> SDSU dropped a 10-5 decision to Seton Hall in their most recent encounter in the second game of the 2017 Tony Gwynn Legacy.
> In that contest, the Aztecs finished with 13 hits, with every player in the lineup recording at least one. However, the Pirates exploded for eight runs in the first two innings, highlighted by two solo home runs and a two-run blast.
> Previously, San Diego State swept a three-game non-conference home series against Seton Hall in 2013 after falling by a 9-7 count at the Riverside Invitational in 1984.   
> The Aztecs have faced two other Big East programs that currently sponsor baseball, trailing 3-2 in the all-time series vs. Connecticut, to go with a big 16-5 triumph over Creighton in the only meeting between the two programs on Feb. 16, 1994, as part of the Gallagher Classic in San Diego.

SERIES RECORD VS. GRAND CANYON
> San Diego State leads the all-time series against the Lopes, 13-8.
> The Aztecs sport a 7-4 record against GCU in San Diego while maintaining a 6-4 mark in Phoenix.
> SDSU split two meetings against the Lopes at Tony Gwynn Stadium in April 2022, suffering a 7-2 setback in the mini-series opener before rebounding with a 2-1 victory the next evening.
> In that latter engagement, former Aztec standout Troy Melton tossed a complete game, allowing just one unearned run on four hits and no walks while striking out five batters to earn Mountain West Pitcher of the Week honors.
> The teams squared off annually from 1993-98 before the Scarlet and Black revived the dormant series with a 5-4 victory at the Tony Gwynn Legacy on Feb. 25, 2018.

SERIES RECORD VS. NEBRASKA 
>  San Diego State boasts an 8-4 all-time record against the Cornhuskers. The two sides last met in the second game of the 2020 Tony Gwynn Legacy, with the Aztecs claiming a 4-2 decision.
> In that encounter, a trio of SDSU pitchers gave up five hits for the night and combined for 12 strikeouts, including seven by starter Troy Melton, while former Aztec All-American Casey Schmitt collected the save.
> Trailing 2-0, SDSU scored all of its runs in the bottom of the sixth on just two hits, capitalizing on two walks, three wild pitches and a hit batter.
>  San Diego State last faced a Big Ten Conference member in March 2022 when it dropped a 6-4 decision to Iowa at Tony Gwynn Stadium, as a late Aztec rally fell short.
>  Prior to the league's expansion for the 2024-25 academic year, SDSU compiled a 20-9 record against eight of the other 13 Big Ten schools that currently sponsor baseball, including unblemished marks against Purdue (4-0), Michigan (2-0), Michigan State (1-0) and Indiana (1-0). SDSU is also 2-2 against Iowa, 2-1 vs. Northwestern and 1-2 against Minnesota. Additionally, the Aztecs swept a three-game series from Wisconsin in 1989, the last year the Badgers fielded a varsity program in baseball. SDSU has never faced Penn State, Maryland or Rutgers on the diamond.

LOCAL HEROES
>   San Diego State sports eight players on its current roster who are alumni of San Diego County high schools, including Xavier Farnum (Christian), Trevor Fox (St. Augustine); Jake Jackson (Madison); Nevan Noonan (Francis Parker); Peyton Rodgers (Torrey Pines); Eli Selga (Cathedral Catholic); Connor Shaw (Westview); and Evan Sipe (San Marcos).

AZTECS IN MLB DRAFT
>   Since 1965, San Diego State has had 227 student-athletes chosen in the MLB First-Year Player Draft, including 31 selections since 2015.
>   Former Aztec center fielder Cole Carrigg was taken by the Colorado Rockies as a catcher in the Competitive Balance "B" Round with the 65th overall pick of the 2023 MLB First-Year Player Draft; pitcher TJ Fondtain was selected by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 14th round (423rd overall), while fellow hurler Kelena Sauer went to the Toronto Blue Jays shortly thereafter in the 15th round (454th overall).
>  With its selections, SDSU has had multiple players picked in six of the last eight years and nine of the last 12 overall.
>   In 2022, former Aztec right-hander Troy Melton was chosen by the Detroit Tigers in the fourth round with the 117th selection overall.
>   The previous year, in 2021, SDSU had five individuals drafted by MLB organizations.
>   Infielder Mike Jarvis was selected by Pittsburgh in the sixth round with the 163rd pick, while catcher Wyatt Hendrie also went to the Pirates shortly thereafter in the seventh round in the 193rd spot overall.
>   In addition, the New York Mets grabbed center fielder Matt Rudick in the 13th round (382nd overall); right fielder Jaden Fein was selected by the Washington Nationals in the 15th round (443rd overall), while right-handed pitcher Michael Paredes was snapped up by the Minnesota Twins in the 18th round (549th overall).

STRIKEOUTS GALORE
>   Dating back to 2019, San Diego State is 72-56 in its last 126 games when striking out 10 or more batters.
>   Last season, Aztecs  lead the Mountain West with 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings, which ranked 41st in the nation. As a staff, the Scarlet and Black fanned 10 or more batters on 21 occasions.
>   Among SDSU returners, Omar Serrano ranked sixth in the conference with 77 strikeouts in 2024.
>   In 2023, SDSU also topped the MW with 492 strikeouts and an average of 9.7 punchouts per nine innings, which ranked 36th in the country. Additionally, Aztecs pitchers posted 10 or more strikeouts on 26 occasions.
>   Individually, Serrano (10.53) and Chris Canada (10.51) occupied the top two spots in the MW in strikeouts per nine innings that season.
>   Former SDSU All-American TJ Fondtain struck out 14 batters in his no-hitter vs. Nevada on April 21, 2023 to set a career high.

ON THE HORIZON
Following this weekend's action, San Diego State returns to "America's Finest City" to battle crosstown adversary UC San Diego on Tuesday, Feb. 18, at Triton Ballpark in La Jolla, Calif.  First pitch at 6 p.m. PT.