San Jose, Calif. - Who says the baseball season is almost over? The professional types may be winding it down, but the San Jose State Spartans are just getting started, with the first day of Fall Ball set for this coming Monday, October 13.

San Jose State head coach Sam Piraro, who will be in his 22nd season in charge in 2009, currently has 41 student-athletes on the fall roster, with 28 returners, 13 of them seniors, five National Letter-of-Intent signees and eight walk-on hopefuls.

During Fall Ball, the Spartans are likely to have one scrimmage against an area junior college, among a number of intrasquad games. The annual Alumni Game is set for Sunday, November 2, with the exact location still to be determined between San Jose Municipal Stadium and Blethen Field. Another annual event, the Spartan World Series, is slated to begin on Friday, November 14. The intrasquad set again features a best-of-seven format. All seven games will be played out, with the full schedule to follow as November nears.

The fall season will come to a close for San Jose State, 45 calendar days after it starts per NCAA regulations, the day before the Thanksgiving holiday on Wednesday, November 26.

The 2009 Spartan competition schedule has a planned start date of Friday, February 20, with a four-game series against visiting Saint Joseph’s University of Philadelphia, Pa., and the Atlantic 10 Conference, up first at Muni. Piraro will have new associate head coach Tom Kunis directing the pitchers, and second-year assistant Jeff Pritchard back as the hitting instructor. Former Spartan Brian Yocke has also been added to the staff as the volunteer assistant coach, joining fourth-year director of baseball operations Jason Piraro to round out the dugout personnel.

Ahead of Fall Ball, San Jose State Baseball is holding its annual golf tournament fundraiser, an event of great importance to the program, at the Coyote Creek Golf Club in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Friday, October 10. Piraro’s event was sold out again this year. Gary Cunningham, the legendary former baseball head coach at San Jose’s Bellarmine College Prep who retired following the 2008 season and is a San Jose State alum who lettered as a Spartan outfielder in 1969 and 1970, was to be honored with a Lifetime Achievement award.