The reality is that the San Diego State baseball team has played seven ranked teams and 18 of its 26 games on the road.
An even harsher reality: SDSU is 6-20 as a result, owners of a 7.45 ERA (last in the Mountain West Conference) and a .278 batting average. And the Aztecs have committed a league-high 53 errors.
They are at or near the bottom of almost every significant statistical category.
In SDSU’s case, reality bites. Head coach Tony Gwynn is alarmed, but he’s not changing his philosophy.
“I’m sticking with the same theme,” Gwynn said. “We have to throw strikes, we have to catch the ball and we have to swing at strikes. Right now, until we start doing those three things together, we’re going to keep heading down this same road that we’re heading down.”
The next stop for the Aztecs is a three-game home series against Pacific beginning 6 p.m. tomorrow at Tony Gwynn Stadium, with junior Justin Masterson (2-4, 4.62 ERA) the probable starter. They are on a 10-game losing streak, fresh off a three-game series sweep against UCLA in which the losing margin was an average of 8.6 runs.
It hasn’t been pretty for SDSU. If anything, the losing streak might have been more unexpected, considering the Aztecs had won two straight games against No. 12 Pepperdine in early March before their skid.
He gave the team a rare two days off after the series against the Bruins to clear their heads.
“I just wanted them to get it out of their system, turn the page,” Gwynn said. “I don’t believe in making any excuses. We play a good schedule on purpose, but we just haven’t performed. We have to get back to doing the things that, when we did win, were the reasons why we won.”
For now, SDSU has to buckle down against the Tigers (13-7), who won two of three games against Cal last weekend.
Undoubtedly, Pacific is riding high after winning a series against a Pac-10 team. But the Tigers feed off their pitchers, too. Both Luke Massetti and Ty’Relle Harris provide Pacific with two aces and could each be the No. 1 starter in the rotation.
Meanwhile, the Aztecs starting pitching rotation simply hasn’t settled in. Besides having the conference’s worst ERA, opponents are averaging a league-high .321 against them.
Does this mean Gwynn isn’t panicking?
“No, we’re passed that stage,” Gwynn said. “We have to panic a little bit. We have to get going.”
