SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State baseball team returns to the diamond on Tuesday when it makes the short drive north to face UC Irvine in a non-conference game at Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. PT.
The Aztecs, who stand at 5-2 on the season, completed a 3-1 homestand last week, defeating Cal State Fullerton by an 8-4 count on Feb. 18, before winning two of three at the Tony Gwynn Legacy event. SDSU opened with victories over Iowa (4-1) and Nebraska (4-2) on the first two nights of the tournament but could not complete the weekend sweep after falling to USC (11-5) on Sunday.
Junior right-hander Avery Jones is expected to make his Aztec debut against the Anteaters after spending two years at Central Arizona College, where he was part of the Vaqueros' NJCAA Division I national championship team in 2019. The 6-6 hurler tied for second on the team with eight victories last year and ranked fourth with 66 strikeouts, finishing with a 4.26 earned run average in 80.1 innings.
In the opposite dugout, UC Irvine is scheduled to start freshman left-hander Nick Pinto, who was a two-time all-Orange County and all-South Coast League selection at Tesoro High School in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. Pinto (0-1) was tagged with the loss in his first collegiate appearance at the University of San Diego on Feb. 18, allowing five runs on six hits and three walks in 3 1/3 innings.
The Anteaters are off to a 4-3 start after sweeping a weekend series from Rice, outscoring the Owls 21-6 in three games, including a 10-1 rout in the opener. For the season, outfielder Jake Palmer leads UCI in several categories, including batting average (.462), hits (12), runs scored (9) and doubles (3) while sharing the top spot in RBIs (7) with infielder Adrian Damla, who is hitting .360 on the year.
Despite a 6.75 ERA, John Vergara (0-1) has recorded two saves in the Anteaters' victories at Fresno State (Feb. 15) and vs. Rice (Feb. 22), while fellow reliever Dylan Riddle (6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R) leads the team with four appearances out of the bullpen .
The Aztecs swept both Mountain West awards on Feb. 24, with Ryan Orr receiving Player of the Week honors, while Casey Schmitt garnered Pitcher of the Week accolades.
Orr paced the Scarlet and Black with a .438 batting average, five RBIs and two doubles for the week and scored four runs, while Schmitt posted back-to-back saves vs. Iowa and Nebraska.
Through seven games this year, Orr leads the Mountain West with a team-high .414 batting average and 12 hits and 1.71 hits per game, while fellow outfielder Matt Rudick is batting .333 (10-30), which ranks second on the squad, followed by Wyatt Hendrie (.292), who has combined for four RBIs in the last two games. Additionally, Rudick and Orr share the team lead with multiple hits in four games.
Elsewhere, Mike Jarvis, who tops the MW with eight runs scored, has reached base in all seven games for the Aztecs, along with Brian Leonhardt. Last week, Jarvis gave the Aztecs the early lead in both the Cal State Fullerton and USC games with leadoff home runs.
San Diego State is 58-37-1 vs. UC Irvine all-time, including a 27-17-1 record on the road. The Aztecs dropped a 6-5 decision at Anteater Ballpark in the last meeting between the two teams on April 16, 2019. After giving up five runs in the second, SDSU cut the margin to one on two occasions, including a 6-5 spread following a Jarvis RBI single in the seventh. However, two UCI relievers combined to retire the final seven batters to dash the Aztecs' comeback hopes.
SDSU has won eight of its last 11 games vs. Big West foes and is 28-10 in its last 38 encounters against that conference, including the aforementioned win over Cal State Fullerton.
San Diego State returns home for a four-game series this weekend when it plays host to Oregon State, Feb. 27-March 1 at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The first three games are slated to begin at 6 p.m. PT, while Sunday's finale is scheduled for a 1 p.m. start.
Aztecs Travel to UC Irvine on Tuesday
