By Marissa Scott (@marissascotttt ):
San Jose State baseball kicks off the 2018 season at home with a four-game series against the University of Northern Colorado.
Last season, the Spartans, 19-35-1, MW 10-18-1 put up an even battle with the Bears in the Stockton tournament 1-0 UNC and 5-4 SJSU. The Bears finished 24-30, WAC 10-14, last season.
The Spartans will have to watch out for UNC pitcher Aaron Hamilton. In its 1-0 win against the Spartans, the Senior starter threw a complete-game shutout and struck out a season-high 14 batters.
Last season, SJSU finished No. 7 in the eight-team Mountain West Conference, but the team made big changes to its roster, including its coaching staff.
Northern Colorado finished fifth in the Western Athletic Conference last season and earned its first two WAC Tournament wins in history against No. 4 Utah Valley University and No. 1 New Mexico State.
Head coach Jason Hawkins announced his resignation after news circulated that he was holding illegal practices which put assistant coach Brad Sanfilippo as the interim head coach.
Spartans’ pitching coach Dean Stiles accepted a job with the Dodgers organization and will no longer work with the team.
Along with all of the staff changes, two of the Spartans’ best pitchers, Josh Nashed and Matt Brown were drafted by the Cleveland Indians and the San Francisco Giants organizations, respectively.
Because of all of the changes to the roster and staff, the first series will prove whether those changes will help or hurt the Spartans.
But, the Spartans have six returning starters this year — a veteran lineup that’s proven they can score runs.
Senior Shane Timmons led the team in batting average (.304), on-base percentage (.397) and hits (62) last year and is returning for his final season as a Spartan.
Although SJSU had a disappointing season, 13 of its 19 wins came at home in Municipal Stadium. Since the Spartans have the upper hand at home, they need to use their home field to their advantage and take at least three out of four from the Bears
Not to mention, on the road UNC played its worst with a 7-20 record. It only scored 116 runs in 27 away games while scoring 140 runs in only 21 home games.
Senior Jake Swiech will make his 12th start of his college career against the Bears on Friday. Swiech earned a 5.95 era last season with a career-high 37 strikeouts.
The Spartans kick off their first series Friday at 6 p.m. They will have back-to-back games on Saturday at noon and 3:30 p.m. and the final game of the series is Sunday at noon.