Feb. 15, 2018
Men's Baseball Opening Day Friday Night
The San José State baseball team begins its 2017-18 season Friday night in a four-game series against the Northern Colorado Bears. The season begins Friday at 6:00 p.m., and continues in a doubleheader Saturday at 12:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. The series will conclude Sunday at 12:00 p.m.
Games 1-4
San José State (0-0) vs Northern Colorado (0-0)
Fri.-Sun. • Feb. 16-18, 2017 • 6:00 p.m., 12 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 12:00 p.m.
Live Video: Mountain West Network on Friday and Sunday
Live Stats: Social Media: Instagram/Twitter: @SJSUBaseball
The Spartans are leading the all-time series against the Bears, 4-2, with each game occurring in San Jose. Four of the six games have been decided by one run with one game going to 10 innings. The first time the two teams met was February 20, 2015 when the Spartans won, 9-8, on a walk-off walk.
Last season when the two teams met, the Spartans split the two game series with the bears. San José State lost the first game 1-0, but won the second 5-4.
Series History
2/25/17 Northern Colorado W, 5-4
2/24/17 Northern Colorado L, 1-0
2/22/15 Northern Colorado W, 10-0
2/21/15 Northern Colorado L, 6-1
2/21/15 Northern Colorado W, 4-3 (10)
2/20/15 Northern Colorado W, 9-8
2017 Review and Looking Forward
The Spartans begin their 2018 season under the direction of interim head coach Brad Sanfilippo. Last season, the Spartans had an overall record of 19-35-1. They went 10-18-1 in the Mountain West and finished sixth in the conference. It was their best finish in the Mountain West since joining the conference in 2014. The 19-win total and 10 conference wins were both tied for most wins in a season since 2014.
San José State enters this season with a veteran lineup. The team has six returning starters: Shane Timmons (INF), Chris Williams (OF), Aaron Pleschner (INF), Kellen Strahm (OF), David Campbell (INF), and Kyle Morrison (INF).
Pitching Staff
This season the biggest question facing the Spartans is the unproven pitching staff. The team has five returning pitchers, and seven who are pitching division I baseball for the first time.
POSSIBLE STARTERS FOR THE SERIES
Friday - Jake Swiech
Saturday - Fineas Del Bonta-Smith
Saturday - Nicholas Morales
Sunday - TBA
Four Spartans Make Their Debut
Sawyer Pittman, Santiago Cantu, and Michael Bowes, and Ruben Ibarra will make their Spartan debut this weekend against Northern Colorado.
Sawyer Pittman is a transfer from Reedley College was a 2017 all-state infielder and a second-team Pacific Association Northern California All Region player. He also was a 2017 Central Valley Conference Gold Glove Team "MVP."
Santiago Cantu is a true freshman from Patterson High School. He was the Stanislaus District Player of the Year. Cantu was a 2016 Louisville Slugger High School All-American, and had a batting average of .434 in 101 games. He will make his first start at third base for the Spartans.
Michael Bowes is arguably the strongest player on the team physically. The junior is a transfer from Mission College where he recorded a at least one hit in every single game that he played his sophomore season. Bowes held a .434 avg., .623 SLG., with 69 hits. There he earned All-Northern California honors and was named first-team all-conference.
Ruben Ibarra is a true freshman from St. Francis High School and stands 6-foot-5 and 280 pounds. He earned all-league honors for baseball, football, and basketball. The first-team all-county first baseman has the most home runs in school history. He led the league in home runs every year season. In his junior season he led the league in home runs, fielding percentage, on base percentage, slugging percentage, and batting percentage.
Northern Colorado Bears
Overview: The Northern Colorado Bears are coming off a 24-30 season. The team went 10-14 to finish sixth in the Western Athletic Conference last season. In 2017, the Bears had their best offensive year since joining the WAC in 2013. UNC tallied its most runs, hits, doubles, home runs, and RBIs. The Bears also recorded their highest team batting average and on-base percentage since becoming a member of the WAC. Four different Bears finished with double-digit doubles for first time since 2011: Brett Minnick (25), Jack Pauley (21), Evan Johnson (13), Cole Maltese (11).
Pitching: The most experienced pitcher on the Bears is Aaron Hamilton from Valencia, Calif. In 2017, he appeared in 17 games and started in 14 of them. He had the most wins on the team with five, and held a team best 4.26 ERA among pitchers with 10 appearances or more. He carried the lowest opposing team batting average percentage with .269 through the 72 innings that he pitched. Last season he tied the school record for strikeouts with 14 against San José State on February 24; That day Hamilton pitched a complete-game shutout against the Spartans.
As a team in 2017, Northern Colorado had a team ERA of 5.97.
Fresh Faces
This season the Spartan baseball team features four fresh faces in the coaching staff: Interim head coach Brad Sanfilippo, assistant coach Tyler LaTorre, volunteer assistant coach Clay Cederquist, and volunteer assistant coach Michael Breen.
Brad Sanfilippo is making his second stint with the Spartans after serving two seasons as recruiting coordinator and third base coach during the 2013 & 14 seasons. Sanfilippo has coached more than 20 players into the MLB draft.
Tyler LaTorre comes to the Spartans after two seasons at San Francisco State as the team's pitching coach and recruiting coordinator. He brings nearly a decade of professional baseball experience to the San José State baseball team. LaTorre has helped players such as Tim Lincecum, Hunter Strickland, and 2014 World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner.
Clay Cederquist joins the Spartan squad after serving as head coach of the Dodge City A's summer collegiate baseball team. Currently he is an associate scout for the Miami Marlins. He is also the first base and hitting coach at American River Community College in Sacramento, California.
Michael Breen is a 2017 graduate of San José State. He started games at second base, third base, shortstop, right field, left field and designated hitter in his Spartan career. Breen was a three-time Academic All-Mountain West honoree.
Shane "Timbo" Timmons
The three-time letter winner from Mission Viejo, California has started in 103 of the last 104 games for the Spartans. No San José State baseball player has more homers the last three seasons than Timmons with 18. He is currently tied for fifth in all-time in home runs with Brandon Macchi who played from 1999-01. The current record was set nearly 20 years ago by John Fagan with 25 home runs. The 2017 second team All-Mountain West first baseman finished in the top-10 in several MW conference categories: ninth in slugging percentage (.648), tied for seventh in triples (2), fifth in home runs (7), tied for sixth in hit by pitches (6), first in sacrifice flies (5) and tied for eighth in stolen bases (5).
He is the first Spartan to lead the team in batting average two consecutive seasons since Kevin Frandsen in 2003 and 2004 seasons. Frandsen would become a 12th round pick in the 2004 MLB Draft, and play nine seasons of major league baseball. He would later be inducted into the San José State Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.