Oct. 13, 2015
Complete 2016 Schedule
SAN JOSE, Calif. - San José State head baseball coach Dave Nakama on Monday announced the release of the Spartans' 2016 schedule.
San José State will play 30 games in the friendly confines of Municipal Stadium, which is the highest total of Nakama's tenure and the most since the Spartans played 32 home contests in 2012. San José State hosts the first nine games of the year and 18 of the first 24.
The 2016 campaign gets underway when UC Irvine comes to town for four games Feb. 19-21. Santa Clara then visits for a Tuesday showdown before LMU makes its first trip to San Jose since 2006 for a weekend set. The nine-game homestand to open the year wraps up with a midweek visit from the Pacific Tigers on March 1.
"We're on the other side of the home-and-home agreements with Irvine and LMU after traveling there last year, so that's seven games right there," Nakama said. "I think that's the difference. The last couple years we've been on the road early in the year, and this year we get to be at home. Hopefully that works to our advantage."
The first road trip of the year also marks the Mountain West opener, as the Spartans head to UNLV for a weekend set on March 4-6.
"We're playing some tough competition at the beginning. We'll definitely be tested, and if we could have some success that will be very helpful for us when we open up Mountain West play at UNLV. It could work both ways, but hopefully we can spin it to a positive and that will help us in our first Mountain West series."
The Spartans will host Michigan, the 2015 Big-10 Tournament champions, on March 8 in the first-ever meeting between the programs. Other nonconference series include a two-game home set with Grand Canyon University, a weekend set at Cal Poly and the Spartans' first trip to Long Beach State since 1995.
A grueling stretch of away games awaits the Spartans in early April, when they'll hit the road for 13 of 16, including trips to conference foes Air Force and Fresno State.
"Baseball is a game that you have to just play. You have to play games to get better and you have to play games to prove yourself. I think it'll be good for us. That's a good stretch where we're playing a lot of games and hopefully we can be on a roll during that time."
Due to the unbalanced schedule with the Mountain West having seven schools with baseball programs, San José State plays perennial powers Nevada and San Diego State only one series each in 2016.
"San Diego State and Nevada had a lot of success last year, so sometimes playing them once can be an advantage for you. You don't really know who's going to be good year in and year out. There's the draft, there's injuries; there are all kinds of things that could happen, so we'll see how that works out for us. We look at it as everybody's good and we just have to play better this year and be better in conference."
New Mexico will host the 2016 Mountain West Championship from May 25-29, with the winner earning an automatic berth to the NCAA Division I Regionals.