San Diego State picked to finish third in conference coaches poll after tying for last in 2022; USD travels to Oregon; UC San Diego hosts Santa Clara
The college baseball season is only two weeks old and — ready or not — San Diego State already is beginning Mountain West Conference play. SDSU travels to Las Vegas for a three-game series with UNLV , the defending regular-season conference champion.
The Aztecs opened the season with five straight losses before beating North Dakota State and Hawaii in the Tony Gwynn Legacy event.Put it this way: It has to be an improvement over last season, the worst in the program’s Division I history. SDSU went 18-38 overall and 10-20 in conference play in 2022, finishing tied with New Mexico for last place. The Aztecs lost their first nine league games, were 1-14 at the season’s midpoint and missed the conference tournament for the first time in 20 years. UNLV was picked to win the Mountain West in a preseason coaches poll. The Rebels were followed by San Jose State, SDSU, Fresno State, Air Force, Nevada and New Mexico.Though conference coaches thought little of New Mexico, it currently have the best record at 6-1. The Lobos have already beaten Oregon State, UC Santa Barbara and Minnesota. “San Jose State is going to be probably one of the best teams in the conference,” judged SDSU coach Mark Martinez. “They’re returning just about everybody. They’re old, a lot of seniors and graduate students are in that program, so they’re going to have the experience factor, for sure. They’re going to be a test for us.The Rebels won five of six meetings against SDSU last season, sweeping the series at Tony Gwynn Stadium. Offense — or lack of it — was the Aztecs’ undoing a year ago, and the bats have been slow to produce through the first two weeks this year. Shaun Montoya and Cole Carrigg are the only .300 hitters on a team batting a collective .221. TJ Fondtain has two of the team’s three homers. “I think we do have a little more thump in the lineup, but we’re not a power program by any means,” Martinez said. “I think traffic is going to be moved a little differently than last year. We can get balls into the gap this year, whereas last year it was a lot of singles. We just couldn’t move traffic.” Junior right-hander Jonny Guzman and sophomore left-hander Chris Canada have been solid in their first two starts. Each has tossed 10 innings. They have combined for 26 strikeouts while allowing two earned runs .Friday-Sunday vs. Santa Clara, 6 p.m./2 p.m./1 p.m.UCSD has been among the top hitting teams in the Big West Conference in the early going, ranking first in hits and triples and second in batting average , runs scored and RBIs .ESPN+ will stream the first two games of the series.Notable: The Toreros travel to Eugene after taking three of four games between the teams at Fowler Park to open the 2022 season. USD junior Jack Costello is the reigning WCC and NCAA National Player of the Week after batting .500 with five home runs and 16 RBIs last week. The Ducks dropped out of the top 25 over the weekend after getting swept in a three-game home series against UC Santa Barbara.The No. 11-ranked Sea Lions warmed up for their PacWest series at Hilo with Tuesday’s 18-1 nonconference win over San Diego Christian. PLNU sophomore first baseman Jakob Christian homered for the eighth straight game, one shy of the NCAA record. PLNU’s Bryson Hashimoto homered twice in the game, including a grand slam that helped him to six RBIs. Jack Malone also homered for the Sea Lions.Hawaii Hilo took three of four games against Irvine Concordia last week to open conference play. The Vulcans, who had three homers in 12 games, are winning with pitching .The Cougars were rained out of their CCAA-opening series against Chico State, so they will start the conference campaign at San Bernardino , which was picked for fifth place in a preseason coaches poll. San Marcos was picked for 11th — last — in the same poll, though the Cougars have started well at the plate with a .295 team batting average.
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