San Diego State Baseball
Press Conference Quotes
Feb. 14, 2024
Head Coach Shaun Cole
Opening Statement
"We have a lot of new faces, a new coaching staff and half the roster is new. That was one of the things for me in the fall where I had to take a step back and just say, you got to let all these people gel and morph together organically. And I think that that's happening. Coming back from the Christmas break, I felt like our group was starting to gel together and feel like we're in a really good place for competition now. In the last couple of weeks, we've played a lot of intrasquad (games) and I think our guys are getting tired of playing each other. And that's always a good thing because now they're ready to unleash on an opponent coming up this weekend."
On the starting lineup
"For our rotation, Chris Canada is going to be starting on Friday night; Saturday will be Omar Serrano, and Sunday will be Xavier Cardenas. A little bit of experience on Friday and Saturday, those guys have been (starting) on the weekends the last couple years. Cardenas got his feet wet last year out of the bullpen, and I think Sunday is a good spot for him. Obviously, from a draft perspective and stuff-wise, he's very talented and coming out of high school was highly regarded. We're going to start him on Sunday just to ease him slowly into a Division I weekend rotation. For the rest of our lineup, Xavier Gonzales will be at shortstop, who played there last year for us. First base will probably be Brady Lavoie, another older guy who transferred from NC State (last year). Second baseman is more than likely going to be freshman Finley Bates. Freshman Colby Turner will play at third base. Evan Sipe will start behind the dish. Center field will be Irvin Weems, right field Shaun Montoya and left field is probably going to be a freshman Jake Jackson, a local San Diego guy."
On being picked to finish fourth in the Mountain West preseason poll
"Motivation. Thank you for giving us motivation. I may look through a different lens just because I'm biased. I'm here in San Diego and I'm at San Diego State and I think I think we have the best location. We have great resources here, we have Tony Gwynn Stadium, and we're in the land of recruiting. So I think that every year we should be at the top of the conference or dominating the conference. So to pick us fourth, like I said, it's motivation. I appreciate that. It definitely went up in our locker room."
On his expectations in his first year as head coach
"First year, win the conference, get into a regional, second year, Super Regional, third year going into Omaha. If we fall short shooting for the stars, then that's on me at the end of the day. But I'm not going to dance around it. I'm not going to say this is a rebuild year or any of that stuff. This is a foundational year for the program and the expectations here should be high."
Aztec Baseball Press Conference Quotes
