By Jesus Tellitud
It’s a new decade of San Jose State baseball and the Spartans are coming into the season with 22 new players and a group with high hopes.
SJSU took a step back last season, going 20-34 and 13-17 in conference play. A mixture of new blood on the squad and a small but strong veteran leadership presence looks to take the team far in 2020.
This season there are plenty of new faces donning the SJSU logo. With 9 players having graduated last season and three of those graduates being drafted to MLB teams, there is a lot of turnover in the team. Still, there are high hopes for this incoming group of Spartans.
“I think we got a good freshman class to build around,” head coach Brad Sanfilippo said. “But you know, I think when we lost that many players and graduated that many players, [even] having Kellen [Strahm] drafted, our thought process was ‘go get some JC transfers,’ just so we didn’t have to put too much on the shoulders of freshmen too early.”
SJSU will see plenty of clean cleats on the mound, with 13 of the 22 players in SJSU’s recruiting class being pitchers.
“If our [junior college] transfers can acclimate themselves to this quickly, then I think we’ll have a chance to be competitive,” Sanfilippo said. “I think that’s probably our biggest question as we go into this is: how competitive the new guys on our roster are going to be?”
Not only do the Spartans have a new roster taking the field, but new coaches are joining the team as well. New hirings include assistant head coaches Thomas Walker and Ross Gusky.
“The first day they just kind of made it clear, they were willing to work as hard as we wanted to, you know, and it’s kind of cool to have young ambitious coaches that like who want it just as bad as you do,” senior infielder Troy Viola said. “They’re willing to put in the time and effort and that you want to become the best player you can be and obviously be the best team we can be.”
Viola is one of five seniors on the roster looking to provide leadership to this young group of Spartans. There is a culture change happening within the team and being unselfish is the key, Viola said.
“I think the biggest thing about changing the culture is just kind of being able to trust your teammates. Our thing this year is unselfish is unbreakable,” Viola said. “This team is going to be unselfish no matter what. And if you are selfish, we don’t want you here.”
With eight freshmen joining the roster the Spartans are excited about the potential these young athletes can bring to SJSU.
“We’re younger this year. This is honestly my opinion. The four years I’ve been here, this is like, the best class I think I’ve seen as freshmen in JUCO transfers,” senior catcher Johnny Mendoza said. “I think it’s one of the best ones. I think we’ll be really good on the hitting side and really good on the defensive.”
The Spartans have come a long way since going 18-41 back in 2013. Through years of reinventing the culture of the program, the team cultivated a Mountain West Tournament appearance in 2018.
“I’m excited about both the newness of our roster and the newness of our coaching staff, it’s just taking the time to kind of get it all figured out,” Sanfilippo said.
