THE SCHEDULE
This weekend's series between New Mexico and San Jose State will get underway at 1:00 p.m. with a doubleheader on Saturday. Sunday's series finale is set for a 1:00 p.m. first pitch and the team's seniors will be honored prior to the game.
Each game will be televised on the Mountain West Network with the one and only Daniel Barrera on the call.
AN SJSU WIN WOULD
> Mark the program's fourth straight conference season with a series win at home over New Mexico
> 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.
> San Jose State's 16 seniors will be honored prior to first pitch of Sunday's contest.
UNDERSTANDING UNM
New Mexico enters the week with a record of 12-23 and are 6-15 in Mountain West play. The club most recently met Utah Valley for a three-game series last week, taking all three contests by a combined score of 39-12 over the Wolverines.
San Jose State is 13-21-1 all-time against the Lobos with its last win coming on April 7, 2019 (5-1 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 .820 and is No. 3 in home runs per game at a clip of 0.43. His patience at the plate has also paid off, working 0.96 walks per game to rank No. 13 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 11 of his last 19 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 .500.
SAN JOSE STATE SINGLE-SEASON HOME RUN LEADERS
With 12 home runs on the 2021 season, Ibarra is tied for sixth 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).
BIG BATS
The Spartans totaled eight runs on nine hits in Tuesday's meeting against San Francisco, marking the ninth time this season the club has scored seven or more runs in a game.
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.
THE HARDY BOYS
Freshman Theo Hardy enters the weekend as the club's hottest hitter with his current streak of four games. Hardy has tallied four RBI and four runs on the season in just 26 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.