SAN DIEGO – San Diego State head baseball coach Mark Martinez has released the team’s 2018 schedule, featuring a 55-game slate with 31 regular-season home games at Tony Gwynn Stadium. SDSU will also host the Tony Gwynn Classic from Feb. 23-25 and the Mountain West tournament from May 24-27.
SDSU’s 2018 schedule features seven games against teams that have reached the College World Series in the past two seasons. Non-conference action features a healthy dose of Big West opponents in UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, Cal Poly, Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge, and UC Riverside. SDSU will also take on a pair of Pac-12 schools in Arizona (March 6) and Washington (April 2).
“The schedule, really, is by design to play some of the top programs in the west,” said head coach Mark Martinez. “That definitely helps our program and its familiar names for our fans. I feel like it’s a very competitive schedule and it will help with our non-conference RPI.”
The Aztecs begin 2018 with a three-game set against 2016 College World Series participant UC Santa Barbara beginning at 6:00 p.m. on Feb. 16. SDSU then renews its crosstown rivalry with San Diego at home on Feb. 20. The Aztecs make the return trip of the annual home-and-home series with the Toreros on March 13.
The Aztecs will host the Tony Gwynn Memorial Tournament from Feb. 23-25. Participating schools include Arizona, Arkansas, Cal Poly, Grand Canyon, Michigan, San Diego, and San Diego State. The seven-team field combined for a 259-149-1 record and had 39 players taken in the MLB First-Year Player Draft in 2017.
Mountain West play begins on March 2, with the team traveling to in-state foe San Jose State for a three-game series. In March, SDSU hosts MW opponents Air Force (March 9 – March 11) and New Mexico (March 29-31), while traveling to UNLV (March 23-25). SDSU will travel to San Luis Obispo, California for a three-game series against Cal Poly beginning March 16.
“You never really know what you’re going to get within our conference with an unbalanced schedule. It’s a very difficult conference to win in, and after winning the conference tournament four of the past five years, we have the bonus of hosting the conference tournament this season,” said Martinez.
Tony Gwynn Stadium will see plenty of action in April, with 12 of SDSU’s 17 games taking place on the Mesa. SDSU will also host Long Beach State at Lake Elsinore Stadium for a midweek contest on Tuesday, April 3. April home weekend opponents for the Aztecs include Cal State Fullerton (April 13-15), Fresno State (April 20-22), and UNLV (April 27-29).
The Aztecs kick off May with a home midweek contest against UC Riverside on May 1. After that, the Aztecs travel to New Mexico for a MW series from May 4-6, and host San Jose State from May 11-13. SDSU concludes the regular season at Nevada with a three-game series from May 17-19.
The Mountain West Tournament, hosted at Tony Gwynn Stadium, will take place from May 24-27. The top four teams in the regular-season conference standings will make the double-elimination tournament, and the winner of the tournament will receive an automatic bid to a NCAA regional tournament.
Winners of four of the last five Mountain West championships, the Aztecs return 21 players from last season’s roster and bring in the nation’s 14th best recruiting class according to Perfect Game.
2018 San Diego State Schedule (PDF)
