San Jose, Calif. - San Jose State University baseball head coach Sam Piraro has announced a 2009 schedule that features 33 of 59 games at home, where the Spartans went a remarkable 21-6 a year ago and have won at least 20 times in each of the past four seasons.

The 33 games are highlighted by four against 2008 national champion Fresno State in a key Western Athletic Conference series, April 24-26. San Jose State will play a total of six games against two College World Series teams from last year, with five of them in San Jose.

The Spartans’ first pitch for Opening Night on Friday, February 20, is slated for 6:00 p.m., against Saint Joseph’s University of Philadelphia, Pa., and the Atlantic 10 Conference. The four-game series at Municipal Stadium continues on Saturday and Sunday, February 21-22.

San Jose State faces its first midweek test at area rival Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif., on Tuesday, February 24, at 2:00 p.m. That contest will lead the Spartans into their annual three-game weekend date with South Bay rival Santa Clara University, February 27-March 1. The first and third games of the set are at San Jose Municipal Stadium this season, with the middle meeting at Santa Clara’s Stephen Schott Stadium.

Night dates to conclude a stretch of five games in five days will follow inside Muni against Oregon Tech and Cal Poly on Monday, March 2, and Tuesday, March 3, respectively, before the Spartans take on another area rival in the University of the Pacific in a split-venue weekend series, March 6-8. The Spartans and Tigers did not play each other in 2008 after splitting four match-ups in 2007.

The San Jose leg of the annual two-game set with the University of San Francisco takes place on Tuesday night, March 10, ahead of a three-game series at Cal State Northridge, March 13-15. The Spartans will be playing the Matadors of the Big West Conference for the first time since the 1992 campaign, when San Jose State was swept in three games in Northridge, Calif.

The first of three season-long five-game mini-homestands follows, with Chicago State (twice), Dartmouth (twice) and Fresno Pacific paying Municipal Stadium a visit from March 17-22. Dartmouth, along with Saint Joseph’s and Cal State Bakersfield, is one of three teams that San Jose State will be taking on for the first time in 2009. The Spartans are 1-0 all-time against Chicago State, with a 15-0 home win back on March 8, 2001, and 3-0 against Fresno Pacific.

San Jose State will contest a rare day-night doubleheader in San Luis Obispo, Calif., on Tuesday, March 24, battling Dartmouth a third time this season at 12:00 p.m., and then going head-to-head with host Cal Poly to complete a two-game home-and-home season set at 6:00 p.m. Each year from 2002 through 2006, the Spartans and Mustangs played a three-game series early on, opening the season against one another in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, and even matched up six times in 2002. The teams did not face each other over the past two years.

The Spartans round out the month of March and head into league play with a three-game home series against Cal State Bakersfield, which begins its inaugural baseball season in 2009.

The Western Athletic Conference will feature a 24-game league schedule in 2009, down from 32 a season ago. The WAC will, however, maintain the four-game weekend series format, though a second change comes in the way of shortened doubleheaders as part of those sets. The nightcaps are to be played to seven innings, instead of the full nine like in 2008. Each team plays one four-game series against the other six, with three at home and three on the road.

First up is Hawai’i for four in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 3-5, in what the Spartans will expect to be just the first of two trips off the mainland, as UH is set to host the WAC Tournament in late May.

Back at home, the Spartans host league foe Louisiana Tech for four from April 9-11, and Pacific for a single game on Tuesday, April 14, all at their practice and alternate playing facility, Blethen Field, while the San Jose Giants are in town to occupy Municipal Stadium.

San Jose State’s tour of the nine-team Big West Conference, which includes Cal Poly, Pacific and Cal State Northridge, concludes with three games at UC Santa Barbara, April 17-19, with the second meeting with USF chasing that series on Tuesday, April 21, at Benedetti Diamond.

The four-game weekend showdown with archrival Fresno State, the defending national champion, follows inside Muni, with the opener set for a 6:00 p.m. first pitch on Friday night, April 24. The doubleheader the next day, and the Sunday series finale, will begin at 1:00 p.m.

A home game with Saint Mary’s on Tuesday, April 28, leads into a season-long nine-game road stretch, with the first of two meetings with 2008 College World Series participant and area rival Stanford scheduled for Klein Field at Sunken Diamond on Tuesday, May 5, in between a pair of four-game conference sets at Sacramento State (May 1-3) and New Mexico State (May 8-10).

One final five-game homestand at Municipal Stadium starts with the return leg of the annual two-game series with Stanford on Tuesday night, May 12. For a third year in a row, the regular-season schedule comes to a close at home against WAC foe Nevada, May 15-17. Fourteen seniors should be recognized prior to the 1:00 p.m. first pitch on Senior Day on May 17.

For the first time since 1992, the WAC Tournament will be hosted by the University of Hawai’i at Les Murakami Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii, May 21-24.

The 64-team NCAA Championship begins on Friday, May 29, with 16 four-team regionals at campus sites. The 2009 College World Series takes place once again at everyone’s ultimate destination, Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb., June 13-24.

“I think that we have a very exciting schedule, because we’re playing some teams that we have not played before,” commented Piraro. “That’s always intriguing. We open up with Saint Joseph’s University of the Atlantic 10 back east, and we are looking forward to that. We’ve got Santa Clara again on the weekend, which is a series we are anxious for every year. We’ve got UOP back on the schedule, and we enjoy playing them. We resume the series with Northridge. We have not played them since 1992, and so we’re looking forward to going down there to Cal State Northridge. We go down to play UC Santa Barbara again, and we go down to Cal Poly. So, we get to go into Southern California on three occasions. We’re looking forward to that.

“On our non-league midweek schedule, we have area rivals like Stanford, USF and Saint Mary’s. In conference play, we are going with doubleheaders again this year, although it will be a nine (-inning game) and a seven. We’re hoping that that does shorten the day a little bit, but they will still be very taxing. We have cut the number of (league) games down from 32, to 24. I think the schedule is extremely solid. I’m happy that we only have two airplane trips, to Hawaii, and to New Mexico State. Other than that, I think that the travel is manageable. I just hope the weather cooperates so we can keep this schedule intact, because it’s laid out the way I like it.”

San Jose State returns 2008 second-team All-WAC selection Max Peterson, 2007 Freshman All-America and second-team All-WAC pick Kyle Bellows, 2008 Freshman All-American Danny Stienstra, and top senior arms David Berner and Scott Sobczak, for an ambitious 2009 campaign. Piraro will look to notch win No. 700 in charge at his alma mater, early on, as he enters the new season with an overall record at San Jose State of 685-520-6.