This time last year, the San Francisco State University baseball team fell short. They lost in both the California Collegiate Athletics Association Championship tournament and the National Collegiate Athletics Association Division II Championship Western Regionals tournament.
The Gators now find themselves in a similar position, coming off a loss in the CCAA championship and are now the No. 6 seed in the NCAA Division II Western Region.
On Thursday, the Gators will play against the No. 3 seed California State University, Monterey Bay Sea Otters in the first round. The Otters have become kryptonite for the Gators, as they defeated SFSU in the CCAA championship the past two years and eliminated the Gators in last year’s Western Regionals.

In their final season, the Gators finished third in the CCAA regular season standings, amassing an overall record of 33-21, 25-15 against conference opponents. The 25 conference wins are the most in program history. The expectations were out of the park heading into this year’s campaign, and despite the news that this was their farewell season, their confidence never wavered.
“It’s been a tremendous season. I’m really proud of the guys with all the adversity they overcame with the program being cut and pressing forward,” head coach Tony Schifano said. “Our standard is a national championship, and if you’re not fighting to win the whole thing, I don’t know why you are competing. That’s my mindset.”
Schifano emphasized the Gators are just five wins away from the College World Series and are excited to compete at regionals again.
Senior pitcher Nathan Shinn has stood out on the mound, earning a spot on the All-CCAA first team. Shinn ended the year with an 8-3 record, along with a 3.14 ERA and 78 strikeouts. After last year’s regional defeat, Shinn anticipates different results this time around.
“It’s going to be different in the sense that we’ve been here before because I feel like last year, we didn’t really know what to expect,” Shinn said. “This year, we know the intensity of the situation, and we’ll know what to do because we’ve seen it before. Every team, every year is different, so there will be things that are new, which I’m excited for.”
Senior infielder Justin Johnson picked up where he left off last year, being named to the All-CCAA second team. Johnson hit for a .318 batting average at the plate and had 11 home runs. From the beginning of the season, Johnson had a championship-winning mindset, which elevated his play.

“I was just more focused because with every game, you want to win and do what you can to get the job done,” Johnson said. “Knowing that this was my last year, I didn’t want to go and feel like I wasted any game. So, going in there with that mindset made me give it my all every time I was out there, and it helped me tremendously at the plate and on the field.”
The discontinuation of the baseball program signals the end of Schifano’s tenure as head coach. Johnson described the impact Schifano had on him in his time at SFSU.
“I was a transfer student, coming along as a late walk-on tryout, and I was at a point in my life where I didn’t really know what was next for baseball and if I was gonna play,” Johnson said. “He gave me the opportunity to play, and his style of coaching helped me fall back in love with the game of baseball.”
Senior catcher Derek Laferriere has been a consistent force for the Gators in his three years in the program. In his career, Laferriere had a batting average of .339 and a .990 fielding average. Laferriere has been named an All-CCAA honorable mention for the past two seasons.
Laferriere shared a similar admiration for Schifano and praised him for the transformative work he’s done for the program.
“When Schifano got here, he inherited a program that isn’t the same as it is now,” Laferriere said. “He’s brought this program to great heights, and now he’s made two straight regionals. So, it’s obvious to see the amazing work he’s done.”
Schifano was named the 2025 CCAA Coach of the Year and won his 200th career game for the Gators. The departing coach said he was blessed to lead the baseball program for 10 years.
“I wish the athletics department continued success, as I believe the department here is growing and there’s a lot of success to be had moving forward,” said Schifano. “I’m just very proud of the stamp we’ve put on the athletic department and the university as a whole.”