March 26, 2018
San Jose, Calif. --- The San José State University baseball team (9-13) will face St. Mary's (12-9) Tuesday, March 27 at 5:00 p.m. inside Municipal Stadium.
San José State (9-13) vs St. Mary's (12-9)
Tuesday • March 27, 2018 • 5:00 p.m. • Municipal Stadium
Live Stats:
Live Video: Mountain West Network
Social Media: @SJSUBaseball
Pitching Staff
This season, the eight Spartan newcomers that have pitched on the roster have accounted for 107 of the 160 strikeouts this season. They have also recorded four of the teams nine wins.
Big innings (four or more runs) have plagued the San José State baseball team this season. The team has given up 13 big innings this season, but has been able to cut those down the last few weeks. In the last seven games, the Spartans have only allowed three big innings. The Spartans have given up 77 runs in innings 4-6, but only 72 through innings 1-3 & 7-9.
POSSIBLE STARTERS FOR GAME
Tuesday
RHP Josh Zanger (1-0)
RHP Walker Brinkman (1-0)
LHP Brandon Ross (0-2)
St. Mary's
Overview: The Gaels are 12-9 this season heading into their game against San José State. They have a 9-9 record on the road this season. The team is led by a trio of hitters with .300 batting averages: Joe Vranesh (.309), Kevin Milam (.306), Austin Chauvin (.301).
Last time out: The last time St. Mary's competed they were defeated 10-6 by UC Davis. Matt Green was 3-for-5 scoring one run for the Gaels. St. Mary's attempted a rally in the last three innings, scoring six runs to try and top UC Davis but the Gaels dug themselves too deep of a hole.
Pitching: St. Mary's is led by one of the best pitchers in the NCAA. Ken Waldichuk has played 40.0 innings and struck out 51 batters to just 11 walks. He is tied for 21 in collegiate baseball in strikeouts. The left-handed sophomore from San Diego was named to the 2017 West Coast All-Freshman Team and has a .90 ERA this season heading into the contest against the Spartans.
Flash
After going 3-for-30 (.100 avg) through the first 10 games of the season, Kellen Strahm, has returned to his 2017 form, going 16-for-51 (.313 avg) the last 12 games. He also leads the team in walks with 13, triples with two, and stolen bases with four. Kellen Strahm is one of the fastest players in the Mountain West. He was the 2017 MW leader in steals with 18. He had three multi-steal games including a season-high three steals versus New Mexico 3/11/17.
Shane "Timbo" Timmons
The three-time letter winner from Mission Viejo, California has started in 124 of the last 126 games for the Spartans. No San José State baseball player has more homers the last four seasons than Timmons with 20. He is currently tied for fourth in all-time home runs with Kyle Bellows. 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.
Bautista is Back
After Bautista redshirted the 2017 season and played only 10 games of 2016, the senior returns to the Spartan lineup without missing a step. Bautista, who had not recorded a hit since March 1, 2016, has a team leading batting average of .478 through 17 games with 32 hits and 14 RBI's.
Bautista is currently number three in the nation in batting average (.478) - Number four in hits per game with 1.88 - Number nine in OBP with .533 - Number 24 in toughest to strike out.
This season, the senior has seven three hit games (four of them being consecutive). In Nevada he hit his first home run in nearly three years...then he hit another the very next day.
Team Mountain West Overall
W L T PCT W L T PCT
Nevada 7 2 0 .778 12 8 0 .600
San Diego State 6 2 0 .750 16 7 0 .696
UNLV 6 3 0 .667 20 5 0 .800
New Mexico 4 5 0 .444 10 12 1 .435
Fresno State 4 8 0 .333 13 10 0 .565
Air Force 3 6 0 .333 9 14 0 .391
San José State 2 6 0 .250 9 13 0 .409