THE SCHEDULE
Tuesday's meeting between San Francisco and San Jose State will get underway at 5:00 p.m. from Excite Ballpark. The game will be televised on the Mountain West Network with Daniel Barrera on the call.
AN SJSU WIN WOULD
> Give the program at least one victory over San Francisco in four of the last five seasons
> Mark the team's second Tuesday win of the year (beat California on 3/30)
> Be better than a loss
SINGLES
> San Jose State recently earned back-to-back Pitcher of the Week nods from the Mountain West with both Trevor Ernt (Apr. 26) and Jonathan Clark (May 3) garnering the awards.
>The awards in back-to-back weeks marked a first for the program since Andrew Mitchel and Fineas Del Bonta-Smith were honored on Mar. 11 and Mar. 18, 2019.
> Junior Ruben Ibarra was named San Jose State's Student-Athlete of the Month for the month of April after hitting five home runs and tallying nine RBI in just 11 games.
> Tuesday's meeting with San Francisco will mark the team's first home game since April 25. The club's recent 14-game road trip was the longest road trip in program history.
DISSECTING THE DONS
San Francisco enters the week with a record of 21-25 and are 15-9 in WCC play. The club most recently met Sacramento State for a four-game series over the weekend, winning one game while dropping three to the Hornets.
San Jose State is 99-70-1 all-time against the Dons with its last win coming on February 25, 2020 (13-10 at Excite Ballpark).
NATIONAL NOISE
Ruben Ibarra finds himself at the top of multiple national statistical categories with two weeks remaining in the season. The junior ranks No. 3 in all of Division I with a slugging percentage of .800 and is No. 5 in home runs per game at a clip of 0.41. His patience at the plate has also paid off, working 1 walk per game to rank No. 8 nationally.
IB-BAR-AH
Ibarra homered in each of his first three games against Fresno State last month, becoming the first Spartan in 12 years to hit a home run in at least three consecutive games. Corey Valine was the last one to accomplish the feat, going big fly in four straight contests (at Sacramento State, at Stanford, at New Mexico State, at New Mexico State) from May 3-9, 2009.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH
Ibarra took advantage of San Jose State's trip to Colorado last weekend, hitting two home runs in the first of four games against Air Force. The multi-home run game was the program's first for an individual since April 22, 2018 (Brett Bautista at UC Riverside).
DINGERS
Few players nationally are slugging at a better rate than Ibarra as of late. The junior has now homered in 10 of his last 18 games as the month of May continues.
HE GETS ON BASE
No one in the Mountain West has gotten on-base at a better rate than Ibarra. The junior leads the league with an on-base percentage of .504.
SAN JOSE STATE SINGLE-SEASON HOME RUN LEADERS
With nine home runs on the 2021 season, Ibarra is tied for ninth on the program's single-season home run leaderboard. This marks the most homers in a season for a Spartan since the 2002 campaign (Adam Shorsher - 13, Bryan Baker - 11).
2021 MOUNTAIN WEST HOME RUN LEADERS
Ibarra enters the final two weeks of the season tied for the Mountain West lead in home runs despite having received 81 and 43 fewer at-bats than the league's other co-leaders.
RARE AIR
San Jose State's three-home run performance on Friday at Air Force was just the program's second three-home run game in the last decade. Prior to the outburst against the Falcons, the program's last such outing came on March 3, 2019 in a 22-18 win at New Mexico.
PRO-ZELL
No relief pitcher in the Mountain West has had a better month of May than Sean Prozell. The senior has made six appearances this month, going for two-plus innings in four of them. He has left four of those games without surrendering a run and earned the win in San Jose State's 14-11 victory over UC Davis back on May 2.
THE HARDY BOYS
Freshman Theo Hardy enters the week as the club's hottest hitter with his current streak of three games. Hardy has tallied four RBI and three runs on the season in just 24 at-bats.
MCADOO MASHING
Freshman Charles McAdoo is off to a red-hot start this month. In the month of May, McAdoo has tallied nine RBI and launched the first two home runs of his career at San Diego State and at No. 10 Stanford.
CLARK'S ELEVEN
Junior Jonathan Clark tallied 11 strikeouts at Creighton back in April, the most for a Spartan against a power conference opponent since Apr. 16, 2015 (Turtle Kuhaulua, 11 vs. Washington State). The total marked the program's most in any game since Apr. 5, 2019 (Andrew Mitchel, 11 vs. New Mexico).
BIG ERNT ENERGY
Making his first start of the season, sophomore Trevor Ernt notched his second eight-strikeout outing of the year last month against Fresno State.
MORE ERNT
In March's historic victory over California, Ernt became the first Spartan to go six-plus innings out of the bullpen since May 4, 2016 (Zach Wallace vs. Grand Canyon). Ernt was tremendous in relief, earning the first win of his career after allowing just one run and striking out eight in six innings of work.
IN DOUBLE FIGURES
San José State totaled double-digit runs in back-to-back games earlier this month at UC Davis and at California, marking the first time the program has accomplished the feat since April of 2018 (won 15-7 and 10-7 at Fresno State).
EXTRA, EXTRA
Last week's 14-11 victory over UC Davis in 11 innings marked the program's first extra-inning victory since May 13, 2018 (6-4 at San Diego State in 10 innings).
SCORING ON SAN DIEGO STATE
San Jose State scored 20 runs in its season-opening series against San Diego State, marking the most runs allowed by the Aztecs in a league series since May 10-12, 2019.