The SF State baseball team finished up its season over the weekend with a four-game series sweep at the hands of Cal State L.A. With the 2008 season complete, the Gators will begin to prepare for the 2009 season. And with back-to-back last place finishes, this off-season will be critical to turning around the team’s fortunes.

“It’s huge, it means a lot,” SF State head coach Tony Dress said of the off-season. “Because the new guys we bring in to filter with next year’s seniors…to get them to conform as a team, it’s very important.”

After a season where SF State finished with an 8-46-1, 2-34 California Collegiate Athletic Association record, the Gators will have to improve in several areas.

“Pitching,” Dress said, when asked what the team needs to get better at heading into next year. “We worked really hard on our recruiting this year.”

The Gators finished ninth in the CCAA in team ERA (8.90), batting average against (.354) and last in hits allowed (673). With Dress having finished his second year at SF State, he said he feels his team is in a better position to recruit the players they need. In his two seasons at the Gator helm, Dress is 18-91-1, 9-63 CCAA.

“[It helps] having a year of understanding of exactly what’s going on and how we positioned ourselves in the recruiting game,” Dress said. “Because financially, we’re never ever going to be able to compete with the teams in our [conference]. But we think we’re selling San Francisco State and our school, and the area that we’re at. And there are kids that want to be at San Francisco.”

Although the Gators struggled as a team this season, junior second baseman Bobby Carini and senior outfielder/catcher Matt Kavanaugh earned honorable mention CCAA honors. Bobby Carini batted .321 with 34 RBIs and also led the Gators in homers (eight), runs scored (47) and hits (67).

In his final season with the Gators, Kavanaugh hit 21 doubles to tie the single-season team record and finished with a .309 batting average with seven homers and a team-high 47 RBIs.

Spencer Kreisberg is one of the pitchers currently on the team who the Gators will look to next year. After transferring from Los Medanos College, Kreisberg finished with a 2-9 record and a 7.61 ERA in his first season at SF State. But after pitching around 20 innings at the junior college level, according to Kreisberg, the sophomore Gator showed he could take on a bigger load and finished second on the team in innings pitched, with 73 and one-third. But Kreisberg said he has to get better.

“I got to perfect...my stuff more,” said Kreisberg, who tied Zach Beal for most strikeouts on the pitching staff with 43.

Although the Gators finished last as a team in the CCAA in batting average (.277), on base percentage (.349) and second-to-last in runs scored (266) by the end of the season, hitting wasn’t the team’s biggest problem most of the year. SF State also hit 38 home runs as a team, good for fifth in the conference.

The Gators will also need to find replacements for some of the team’s top hitters, such as Kavanaugh, Matt Edgecombe (.309, 27 RBI, 4 HR), Conor Buestad (.263, 20 RBI) and Ernie Munoz (.305, 31 RBI, 5 HR). But SF State will get a key offensive threat back next year in Carini.

In his first year at SF State, Carini proved to be valuable at the leadoff spot in the batting order as he hit for both power and average.

Carini played in all 55 games, but Carini also led the team in strikeouts with 54.

“Not striking out, that’s for sure,” Carini said when asked what he needs to work on for next year. “I struck out way too much this year.”

Despite the disappointing season, Dress feels the team was better than what their record illustrated.

“We have a lot of heart,” Dress said. “Our record might not be that good, but it’s not a reflection of the type of character kid we have.”

Although the Gators may have the desire to win, the question for next year is whether SF State can put it all together on the field.

“I think we just need to play minimum ball,” Kreisberg said. “If we make an error, or if we have a couple bad pitches, we give up too many runs.”

Carini added, “Playing as a team, I guess you could say. When we pitch, we got to hit, and when we hit, we got to pitch. And I don’t think we did that this year.”