End-Of-Season Interview with SJSU Baseball’s Alex Fernandes

Recognition is nice for sure, but I’ll trade that for wins any day of the week.

I had the chance to catch up with standout outfielder Alex Fernandes. You may recall that I interviewed him way back in the preseason. Fernandes was part of a massive roster overhaul that brought in 26 new players, creating a cloud of uncertainty around the team’s potential heading into the season. As a result many picked SJSU to finish last in the MW preseason poll. 

Fernandes and the Spartans were quick to prove the media wrong. They made it all the way to the championship game for their 4th consecutive appearance. They upset #3 New Mexico, #5 San Diego State, and even knocked out #1 Nevada. 

In the first week of play, Fernandes earned MW Player of the Week honors after a strong opening series in Lafayette. From then on, he never took his foot off the pedal, finishing with MW All-Tournament recognition after two consecutive 3-5 performances in Mesa. On the season, Fernandes was by far the team MVP, especially given his numbers. To illustrate just how good he was, I have provided a table below: 

Stat	Number	SJSU Rank	Conference Rank
Batting AVG	0.361	1	8
OBP	0.447	1	7
Runs	54	1	4
Hits	78	1	5
Triples	6	T-1	T-1
Walks	32	1	6
Stolen Bases	14	2	T-3

 

In our earlier interview, he mentioned that he had set himself some lofty goals. To his credit, he came pretty close. Despite just missing the mark, Fernandes was actually quite satisfied with himself. Overall, a fantastic year from the Memphis transfer has many Spartans fans excited for what he will do next spring. 

Fernandes, on how his prior postseason experience with UCLA and Edmonds College helped him handle the pressure of the MW tournament: 

“It really helped me to understand the mindset you need to have going in to these types of games.  I was taught to play every game like it’s a must-win game, whether it’s a regular season midweek game or a win or go home playoff game.  To me, if you have that mindset it helps you to play your best game, a lot of people tend to press and try harder in bigger games and it backfires on them, but for me treating it the same as any other game helps me to do my best.”

Fernandes spent his freshman year at UCLA, where the Bruins went on to drop the final game of the Auburn Regional in 2022. In 2023, Fernandes was part of an Edmonds College team that was eliminated in the NWAC tournament. Obviously, he holds a lot of experience in these situations and it’s easy to see how this helped him perform at a different level.

Fernandes, on his favorite moment of the tournament: 

“Honestly I think Friday as a whole was my favorite memory.  Playing our first game at noon, we were able to take down San Diego State, a team who had gotten the best of us in the regular season but we thought we should have beaten them.  Then watching the end of the Fresno State vs Nevada game that went into extras in the stadium locker room was a fun experience, the whole team together, invested in the game before us that had direct implications for who we play next.  Then going out there and playing Nevada right after that, a game that started at 10 and ended around 2am. That whole experience was honestly so incredible, and is one of my favorite memories from this year.”

The Aztecs swept the Spartans in regular season play twice. But the craziest part of the day wasn’t that game, it was the one that went into early Friday morning against Nevada. If I was having trouble staying awake while watching the game, I can’t imagine how these players felt in the midst of this wacky schedule. Shoutout to our friend Lewis Geist, who stayed up to watch the entire game — despite being on the East Coast!

 Fernandes, on the All-Conference snub possibly providing extra motivation for the tournament: 

“Honestly, I didn’t care a ton about the individual awards.  It would have been nice, for sure, if I had won all conference honors, but at the end of the day it doesn’t change the season I had whether I receive the award or not, and the awards don’t help us win more games. Recognition is nice for sure, but I’ll trade that for wins any day of the week. “

Fernandes, on what helped them in their unprecedented season: 

“I think we do a great job playing together and our team is a lot scrappier than we were given credit for at the beginning of the year.  We used that coaches poll picking us last as motivation, we had that in our locker room as a reminder, and at the end of the day we knew that we had what it takes to win, we just have to go out there every day and work to play our best baseball. “

Fernandes, on winning MW Player of the Week in Week 1 and how it helped his confidence throughout the season: 

“It definitely helped my confidence going into the year.  I went into the year feeling very confident in my ability but feeling the need to prove myself, and being able to put up that performance opening weekend on the road against a very good Louisiana team gave me more confidence I could carry onto the rest of the year.”

This was the first time Fernandes had earned the honor in his collegiate career. In three games against the Ragin’ Cajuns, Fernandes went 7-9 with 4 RBIs and 2 doubles.

Fernandes, on the lofty goals he set for himself before the season: 

“All in all, I’m very happy with this season.  I didn’t hit the goals I set, but those are intentionally set high so I have something to strive for.  I am very capable of reaching all of those goals, so now I’m moving on to next year to give it another shot at hitting those.”

In the preseason, Fernandes told me he was aiming for a 0.400 batting average, 35 stolen bases and a Gold Glove. You can see his final results from the table above. Certainly nothing to be ashamed of.

Fernandes, on his excitement for next season: 

“Incredibly excited for next year.  Unfortunately you do lose guys every year, it’s just how college baseball works, but I think the guys coming back are going to be a great group to build off of what we were able to do this year and improve from where we were this year. “