Takeaways from SDSU-SJSU baseball, Jarvis wins award
Credit: SDSU Athletics
This baseball series between San Jose State and San Diego State was supposed to be an important test. SJSU wasn’t poised to be a massive threat on the field, and the real challenge was seeing how SDSU would perform in their first road series with COVID-19 protocols in place.
They passed with flying colors. As usual, the Aztecs took two of the three games. They had a player win the Mountain West Player of the Week award–Mike Jarvis got it this time. Most importantly, there were no reported COVID protocol violations.
Jarvis becomes the 4th Aztec to win an individual award this season, and in total, SDSU has 6 awards on the season. He did it by going 8-13 with two doubles, a home run, and four walks. He has been a fantastic leadoff hitter all season and has only one game all season where he failed to reach base. Jarvis has shown that he will get a hit however he can. With that being said, it’s not rare for him to lay down a bunt when the situation calls for it, and he has the speed to reach base safely.
He is in the midst of his best season. His .348/.394/.489 slash line are career highs in batting average and slugging, with an on-base percentage .003 away from being a career-high. The only criticism of Jarvis is his .929 fielding percentage, which is a product of him moving to shortstop for the first time in his collegiate career.
Moving onto the series as a whole, there were three keys to watch this series. Let’s break them down and see what went right and wrong for SDSU.
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Will SDSU’s two aces stay hot?
Unfortunately, both Michael Paredes and Troy Melton cooled down this series. Paredes had six innings pitched while surrendering nine hits and three runs. In fact, cooled down is an understatement for Melton. He pitched 2.2 innings and gave up five earned runs, six hits and threw 59 pitches. Melton has strong pitches, and when he is on, he is untouchable. The story for his season is consistently getting in a rhythm and hitting his targets.
Limit the errors… again
Not to jinx it again, but SDSU was sound on defense this series and had one error in the whole series. It feels like errors are contagious. Once they start making errors, it just keeps spreading. It’s something that will always stick out and be frustrating, especially if the pitching staff is struggling.
Enjoy the offensive barrage by SDSU.
It’s almost a given that SDSU will have a great offensive showing every game. In 15 of their games this season, they have scored five or more runs, and this series was no exception. SDSU scored six, seven, and 14 runs, with that 14-run game resulting in a mercy rule. Mike Jarvis, of course, was a huge part of this with the five runs he scored in the series.
SDSU remains the team to beat in the Mountain West. In conference play, their 8-4 record sits alone as the only winning record in conference play. After Air Force swept UNLV, the Aztecs have a two-game cushion over the Rebels. This weekend, SDSU will take on New Mexico in a doubleheader on Friday and a single game on Saturday.
Evan is a student finishing up a degree in Finance from Northern Arizona University. The ability to break down numbers and find the story behind them has lead to his first of writing for East Village times. He covers baseball which is the sport he grew up playing and has followed even after his playing years.