Author: Patrick Carr

Patrick’s AztecRoundup is back after two weeks, here’s a look at what’s happened on the Mesa.

Softball neck-and-neck, O’Toole leading the way
SDSU’s softball squad has been churning out victories this season at an amazing rate and boasts a record of 31-12, but a recent trip up to Fresno resulted in two losses for the Aztecs, which dropped them to second place in the Mountain West Conference standings.

As of now, SDSU is in a three-way tie for first in the conference, but missed an opportunity to jump to the top by way of winning two out of three at home against Utah State, a sub .500 team.

Senior pitcher Danielle O’Toole has been dominant, putting up a 23-5 record with a 1.42 ERA. She was also named Mountain West Pitcher of the Week for the fourth time this season.

Patrice Jackson and Sydnee Cable have been leading the offense this season. Jackson is hitting .373 with 13 home runs and 42 RBIs, while Cable is hitting .375 with 25 RBIs.

SDSU’s season only gets more difficult. A trip to University of Nevada, Las Vegas is underway as I’m writing this, and Colorado State is coming to town next weekend for a pivotal three-game series. The Rams are tied with the Aztecs atop the Mountain West standings with an 8-4 conference record.

Martinez steps in, baseball gearing up for road ahead

Cancer treatments have caught up with SDSU Baseball Head Coach Tony Gwynn, which has resulted in Gwynn missing the past month.

Assistant Coach Mark Martinez has kept the team on track. The Aztecs have a 12-8 record during Gwynn’s absence including winning two of three games on the road against No. 21 UC Irvine.

Much of the success is due to closer Michael Cederoth, whose 15 saves are second in the nation and first in the conference. His high velocity has resulted in batters only hitting
.179 against him. The 6-foot-6-inch junior was also named Mountain West Pitcher of the Week and was ranked seventh in Baseball America’s list of the top 100 pitchers in college baseball.

Outfielder Greg Allen may be the unsung hero of the team so far. Allen has been an absolute nightmare for opposing pitchers due to his potent base-stealing abilities. He’s successfully stolen 20 bases, but his impact as a leadoff hitter has been felt throughout the lineup. The 6-foot junior is hitting .316 with 13 RBIs and a .426 on-base percentage.

The season is approaching its climax, with trips to New Mexico and Fresno State looming and a three-game visit from UNLV. The Aztecs sit fourth in the conference standings behind New Mexico, UNLV and Nevada-Reno.

Tennis teams prepare for MWC Championships, No.1 seeds grab POW awards

Both men’s and women’s tennis wrapped up disappointing seasons last week, but hope to bring home trophies from this week’s Mountain West Championships in Fresno.

The men finished with a 3-1 conference record and an overall record of 11-11, which was good for second place.
Junior Thorsten Bertsch was awarded Mountain West Men’s Tennis Player of the Week for the second time this season. Bertsch finished with a 17-12 singles record at the No.1 spot this year.

The women, on the other hand, finished tied for second with a 4-1 mark and an 11-12 mark.

Senior Laura Antoñana Iriarte won her fifth Mountain West Player of the Week award this season. The 43rd-ranked player in the country finished the season with a 25-7 record in singles as the top-seeded player, closing out a remarkable career as an Aztec.

Men’s Basketball Honored by Mayor

The men’s basketball team was honored by San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer at the San Diego City Council meeting on April 15th. Faulconer proclaimed the day SDSU Men’s Basketball Day in San Diego.

KCR College Radio, the student-run radio station at San Diego State University, is slated to broadcast five SDSU baseball games in the next five weeks at Tony Gwynn Stadium, continuing their sports broadcasting endeavors after live-broadcasting SDSU men’s club hockey this past fall.

In the first broadcast of the season on February 22nd during the game against West Virginia, KCR broke a listener record, according to KCR General Manager Matthew Anderson.

Since that broadcast, KCR has done three other broadcasts, including one this past Sunday, where another KCR listener record was broken

The broadcasts can be heard on KCR’s website, kcr.sdsu.edu. They can also be listened via Cox channel 956, TimeWarner channel 957, channel 81-16 in the dorms at San Diego State or with the TuneIn Radio app under “KCR College Radio.”

The station, which is using broadcast teams of six people per game out of a group of 15 people to broadcast these games, is giving participants a taste of real-world broadcasting experience while still maintaining an easygoing culture.

“If you want a perfect mixture of professional experience and a lot of fun with great friends, look no further than KCR sports broadcasting, ” KCR Sports Director Matthew Bain said.

KCR’s sports broadcasts are also streamed through the speakers at Pizza Boss and University Towers Kitchen.

Here’s a lineup of the games that KCR will be broadcasting, tune in!

April 15th vs UC Riverside, 6 p.m. Jack Haworth, Rudy Muñoz and Liz Alper with the call.
April 22th vs Cal State Northridge, 6 p.m. Jack Haworth, Rudy Muñoz and Matt Mazzoni with the call.
April 26th vs San José State, 6 p.m. Patrick Carr and Brett Moore with the call.
April 27th vs San José State, 1 p.m. Matthew Bain and Matt D’Ambrosi with the call.
May 10th vs University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 6 p.m. Patrick Carr, Brett Moore and Kristian Ibarra with the call.

In June of 2010 as I was sprinting through John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, the strap hinge on my suitcase-bag broke under the weight of souvenirs and my bag fell onto the floor.

On Wednesday of last week, I trusted that same bag with my nicest clothes, pants and shoes as I furiously crammed them inside before leaving. Leaving where? Las Vegas, Sin City, Neon Desert, whatever you want to call it.

KCR Sports Director Matt Bain and myself were going on a road trip as part of our duties with The Daily Aztec, which included covering the San Diego State men’s basketball team (because by the time we got there the women’s team had already been eliminated) at the Reese’s 2014 Mountain West Conference Championships on the campus of UNLV, which we would find to be pretty ugly.

Here’s a day-by-day account of our travels

DAY 1: Wednesday, Road Selfies and Desert

Matt got out of his class at 1 p.m. on Wednesday and sprinted to his apartment to pack his things so that we could get on the road and start our adventure. I think we officially left at 1:30. My boredom took over on the 5-hour drive, so I took lots of selfies and videos of us commenting on stupid things like a billboard. After driving for and hour and a half, we began to wonder why I-15 northbound wasn’t a huge desert like everyone had told us.

Well, as soon as we got over this one hill it became all desert, but in a beautiful way. There’s something about dirt and sand stretching for miles on end that appeals to me in an odd way, as its nothing I’ve ever seen before since I came from the land of trees (Castella, Ca…google it).

Earlier in the week, I had called my brother, who lives in Las Vegas, and asked him if we could hang out there while we waited for our editor to check in to the hotel, since neither Matt nor I were 21.

After some princess-playtime with my 3-year-old niece, Matt and I went to the hotel. We got some grub on the Strip at this burger place that was kind of hidden. It was delicious and there was so much food that we couldn’t take back to the hotel because apparently a mini-fridge is less important that a min-bar.

DAY 2: Thursday, Aztecs run over Utah State

We drove over to the campus of UNLV and immediately wondered who in their right mind would go to school there. It wasn’t appealing. Eventually we made it to the arena, called the Thomas and Mack Center, got our press credentials and settled into our press-row seats by the court for the Aztecs noon tipoff against the Aggies.

It wasn’t even close. SDSU was up 36-15 at halftime and none of the starters played more than 27 minutes. The crowd was also predominantly Aztec faithful, as chants of “I Believe” and “Uprising” filled the arena multiple times. 73-39 Aztecs was the final score and a date with hometown UNLV was looming.

Josh Davis was the best all-around performer, scoring eight points with 13 rebounds and six steals. Xavier Thames chipped in 15 points with seven assists.

After the press conference, everyone else (the photo editor and sports editor were also in attendance as part of the coverage team) went to the hotel, but I caught the UNLV-Wyoming game before walking over to the hotel to frantically work on my story for JMS 310W.

Matt and I stayed up till 2 a.m. finishing our stories after running around the Strip trying to find cheap food. We settled on a delicious kebob shop.

DAY 3: Friday, Lazy day, UNLV up next.

We woke up at 9, finished our stories and turned them in to the internet. I went back to bed at 10 and woke up at 11:30 and headed out to the pool/resort area to join the other Daily Aztec editors who had made the Las Vegas trip. After some sunbathing, of which Matt was busy writing something else and did not attend (Matt, by the way, spent almost every minute of downtime writing something for somebody. I swear, that guy is four months younger than me and does 10 times the amount of work of anyone. Someone please hire him), Matt and I headed to the arena to catch some of the women’s semi-final between Fresno State and Nevada, and to get some work done.

The game with UNLV started and although it was a home game for the Rebels, their fans sure were quiet. UNLV got out to a 7-0 lead before the Aztecs pulled it together and led by as many as 13 in the second half.

Thames finished with 17 points, but was outscored by Dwayne Polee, who came off the bench to score 18. Final score was 59-51, and the Aztecs were headed to Saturday’s championship game.

Matt and I stayed to watch New Mexico play Boise State, the winner of which would play SDSU. New Mexico’s fans traveled in packs (which is a pun because their mascot is the Lobos) and they’re all extremely loud. That being said, Boise State still put up a fight but the Lobos came out on top 70-67.

DAY 4: Saturday. New Mexico

The game started at 3. We got to the arena at 2:15 and were welcomed by a scene of crazy Lobo fans tailgating, hooting and hollering.

The arena was packed. At least 16,000 people with 11,000 of them being Lobo fans which vocally outmatched the Aztec faithful.

For that game I was taking photos, so I sat courtside. Before the game they had a pyrotechnic show which left the arena full of smoke and the first 50 pictures I took had a hazy background, which was awesome.

The game itself was a spectacle. Back-and-forth to the very end, with the extremely loud New Mexico fans cheering their team on at every possible venture and the Aztec fans unable to be heard.

New Mexico won 64-58 after Kendall Williams hit a deep 3-pointer with 14 seconds left in the game and the Lobos leading by two. That was the nail in the coffin despite the roof being blown off from all the noise.

The next problem for me was looming: my USB ports and SD card slot didn’t work on my computer or Matt’s, and we were all that was left on Saturday night. My photos would not make it to the internet on Saturday despite the numerous emails from the photo editor and sports editor.

DAY 5: Back home, luck of the USB and a nearly-missed bus.

We left at 9:30 in the morning and by 11:30 I was getting emails out in the middle of the desert asking where the photos were. Apparently everyone expected there to be internet out there. Matt and I had planned to take a bus from Irvine (he had to drop his car back at his house there) back to San Diego at 1:30 in the afternoon, so we were a little crunched for time.

I got an email from the photo editor, the deadline to upload the photos was 5:30 that evening. So the stage was set for a dramatic finish. There was one last hope as we got to Irvine at 2: that my USB ports would magically work, as they were prone to work about once every month.

We stumbled out of the Nissan (literally stumbled) into the Best Buy parking lot, where I bought an SD card reader. We found the nearest internet and somehow it work and I got my photos sent.

But our travels weren’t done, there was still a 3:20 bus we had to make..on the other side of town..and it was already 3:00.

We barely made it, and I mean BARELY. We got home at 7 after the long bus ride and the long trolley ride.

It was a fun trip, lots of good experience and a definite stress-adder. We’ll be back next year.

But seriously, until then, bye Vegas.

Before I get to the blog, I have a couple of things to note.

1. KCR Sports Director Matt Bain and myself are going to Las Vegas to cover the Mountain West Conference tournament. I’ll be writing a blog about the trip

2. I will also be writing a blog about the endeavors of KCR baseball broadcasting

Keep a look out for these!

The reason I’m writing mainly about basketball is because it’s tournament time. The Aztec women have already won their first-round matchup in Las Vegas in the Mountain West Conference Tournament, and are now gearing up to face Nevada in the second round tonight.

EDIT/UPDATE FROM TONIGHT’S WOMEN’S GAME. They were beaten 53-48 by the Wolfpack. The Aztecs finish the season with a record of 13-17 and a conference record of 9-9 after last Friday’s loss at New Mexico. Judging by the amount of new players filling up starting roles, and new coaches that were coaching these players, I would say this season was not bad at all, especially after the 0-5 start.

Nevertheless..

Madhouse on the Mesa might not be enough to explain it

The earth-shattering event that happened on Saturday on Montezuma Mesa is still reverberating across the campus, city, conference, country, and people’s eardrums everywhere.

Here’s a short recap of what happened.

As the headline suggests, that dramatic second-half comeback on Saturday night at Viejas Arena is still the talk of the town.

The students were lining up at 1:30 p.m. to get in at 5:30 p.m., the “12,414 strong” inside wore all black for the “Aztec Blackout,” Josh Davis and Xavier Thames were honored for senior night, and the student section, “The Show,” was completely full 20 minutes before tip-off.

San Diego State, with a 15-2 conference record, played host to the New Mexico Lobos who also had a 15-2 record.

New Mexico came to play, with a Cameron Bairstow jump shot giving the Lobos a 26-20 lead at halftime.

The Aztecs got it to 26-25, but then New Mexico blasted SDSU with a 15-0 run to take a 41-25 lead, and sowed seeds of doubt in the Aztec faithful with 12 minutes to go.

Davis got the wheels rolling again with a layup, and Skylar Spencer’s free throw and layup soon brought the Aztecs to trail 41-30. Spencer got fouled again and missed his free throw, but Josh Davis pulled down the offensive rebound and then Thames hit a jump shot to re-energize the crowd, which had been into the game the whole time.

Dwayne Polee got a steal off of Lobos guard Kendall Williams which, 20 seconds later, resulted in Thames making two free throws. Thames’s layup with under six minutes to go tied the game at 42, and the comeback was complete when Polee made his layup with under five to go, which sent the arena into a frenzy.

Did I mention it was loud in there? It was the loudest during the comeback, and I’m guessing it was somewhere around the 110 decibel range.

Free throws by Thames and Shrigley sealed the deal, and 3,000 plus people rushed on to the court to celebrate the conference championship.

Absolute, pure, bedlam ensued.

I will say this firsthand: court stormings are fun, and it’s a great celebration, but they are dangerous and there was a time where I thought I was going to get crushed, so be cautious if you ever find yourself in one.

Here’s what this means: the Aztecs are now No. 8 in the Associated Press poll, and the number one seed in the Mountain West Tournament this week in Las Vegas.

They face the winner of the Utah State and Colorado State matchup on Thursday at noon at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Baseball

Aztec baseball took two out of three this past weekend against Nevada and improved to 11-4 on the season. Ty France is already having a monster year, hitting .455 with three home runs and 18 runs batted in.

UPDATE AS OF TUESDAY NIGHT, they crushed Cal State Northridge 12-0. France continued his monster ways, going two for five with three runs batted in. TJ Kendzora got the win on the mound for SDSU, pitching seven shutout innings.

SDSU hosts Purdue this weekend for a four-game series.

Golf

Yes, golf. Men’s golfer Xander Schaufelle won the Lamkin Grips San Diego Classic on Tuesday, shooting 11-under 205 over three rounds for his first win of the year. As a team, the Aztecs finished second behind USC.