NCAA Baseball Tournament: San Diego State Aztecs Regional Preview
By Joel Burdeos
San Diego, CA- The San Diego State Aztecs baseball team after winning their second straight Mountain West Tournament championship will now head to Louisiana as the No. 3 seed in the Louisiana-Lafayette NCAA Regional. The Aztecs will face No. 2 seed Mississippi State in their opening game on Friday at 1:00 p.m.
According to most projections the Aztecs were likely to make the NCAA tournament as an at large team if they didn’t win the conference championship, but the Aztecs wanted the league’s automatic bid instead and did so by defeating to UNLV 4-3 Sunday. This is the Aztecs third postseason appearance since the 2009 and the Aztecs will be looking for their first win in the NCAA tournament since the Stephen Strasburg team of 2009.
Last season the Aztecs were unable to win a game in the Los Angeles NCAA Regional, as they fell to No. 1 seed UCLA 5-3 in their opening game. Then was eliminated by their rival the University of San Diego Toreros 6-3.
The Aztecs 42-19, the most wins by an SDSU team since the 2002 squad compiled 43 victories.
Heres a preview of the teams the Aztecs will need to defeat to advance to their first Super Regional in program history.
Lafayette NCAA Baseball Regional Preview:
No.1 Louisiana (53-7)
Key Players: Golden Spikes candidate Caleb Adams (.386, 11HRs, 39 RBIs), Carson Baranik (10-1 3.30 ERA) and Cody Boutte (8-0 2.75 ERA)
The Ragin’ Cajuns are the No. 6 seed nationally and have the best record in the nation.
No. 2 Mississippi State (37-22)
The Bulldogs finished as a runner-up last season in the NCAA College World Series Championship Series.
No. 3 San Diego State (42-19)
Key Players: Ty France (.358, 5 HRs, 45 RBIs), Tim Zier (.325, 1 HR, 33 RBIs), Brad Haynal (.313, 12 HRs, 49 RBIs), Bubba Derby (8-3, 2.69 ERA) and Michael Cederoth (6-2, 20 saves, 2.28 ERA)
No. 4 Jackson State (31-23)
Key Players: Hitters: Melvin Rodriguez (.310, 3 HRs, 45 RBIs) and Desmond Russell (9-4, 3.50 ERA)
The Tigers are the cinderella team of this region, as despite having a losing record in conference the Tigers were able to win the SWAC conference championship.