During the Bay Area collegiate media day center-outfi elder Jeriah Lewis (left) SJSU baseball head coach Brad Sanfi lippo (center) and Lefthanded pitcher Jesse Gutierrez (right) listen to questions from media members Thursday morning.
The San José State baseball team attended a Bay Area college media day hosted by Stanford University.
Some other college baseball programs involved included Santa Clara University, Saint Mary’s College of California, University of California, Berkeley, San Francisco State University and Stanford University.
The meeting was held over Zoom and each team was given 25 minutes for the media to ask each team different questions.
SJSU head coach, Brad Sanfilippo led the meeting for the Spartans with optimism for the upcoming season.
“Despite having 26 new guys to have, these guys (Jeriah Lewis and Jesse Gutierrez) that really have had an impact on our program, both on and off the field (including) in the classroom, in the locker room, in the weight room,” Sanfilippo said. “At least they understand and can show our new guys what it is that’s important here.”
Last season, the Spartans went (24-33, 16-14 MW).
SJSU played in the Mountain West Championship series against Fresno State and fell short by losing both games in the series, according to a Mountain West web page.
“It’s no fun to go out there and get your head kicked in every week, for your freshmen to learn what it takes to win,” Sanfilippo said. “So we tried to add as many guys that were hungry for an opportunity in the (transfer) portal.”
Left-handed pitcher Jesse Gutierrez shared how he felt about the 2025 roster and what the season will look like.
“I think they (teammates) showed us what the Spartans are, what we need to do for our team this year,” Gutierrez said. “They paved the way for us.”
SJSU will open its against University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Moore Field at Russo Park, according to an SJSU athletics web page.
“I thought it was a really good opportunity, having a lot of new guys, to go to a place in which they really care about baseball,” Sanfilippo said. “I’ve had a good relationship with Coach (Seth) Thibodeaux, (since) my first year we went down and played at Nicholls (State University)… We have a good relationship and we text quite often.”
It will be Sanfilippo’s eighth season as the head coach for San José State baseball, having an all-time record of 133-195, entering the 2025 season, according to an SJSU web page.
Center-outfielder Jeriah Lewis also talked about his thoughts of the preparation for the season over the summer.
“We’ve been doing a good job of continuing the culture and continuing the standards for the new guys,” Lewis said. “It was hard at first with transfers and incoming freshmen this fall.”
One important transfer player the Spartans obtained over the off-season is left-handed pitcher Win Scott who previously played for North Carolina State, according to an SJSU athletics web page.
“I thought we had key pieces here in which we could continue to be successful,” Sanfilippo said. “I thought we needed more depth on the mound and for us that meant more experienced guys like Win Scott.”
The first home game for the Spartans is scheduled on Friday against Utah Valley at Excite Ballpark in San José.