PITCHER OF THE WEEK Fresno State right-handed pitcher Bob Runyon, a junior from Atwater, Calif. (Merced), pitched his second complete game of the year last Thursday against Hawai'i-Hilo in an 11-1 victory. Runyon allowed only three hits, one earned run and struck out a career-high 12 batters.
OTHERS NOMINATED Other player of the week nominations included:
Oscar Lopez, Sr., IF, Fresno State - played in all four wins for the Bulldogs last week and hit .556 (10-18) with six RBI and scored seven runs.
Ryan Adams, Jr., SS, San Jose State - was 6-for-9 from the plate with two doubles and two RBI in two games last week. Against Hawaii Pacific, he went 5-for-5 with a run scored and two RBI.
Walter Olmstead, So., 1B, TCU - hit .471 (8-17) in four games and extended his hitting streak to a career-high nine games. Olmstead drove in four runs and scored three times. He also hit three doubles and a home run as the Horned Frogs went 2-2 last week.
Additional pitcher of the week nominations included:
Jeff Coleman, Jr., Hawaii - earned a win agaisnt TCU by pitching eight innings. He allowed four runs (three earned), 12 hits, one walk and struck out seven.
Mateo Miramontes, Fr., Nevada - pitched eight innings and allowed four runs, eight hits and struck out four in Nevadas 6-4 victory over WAC leader Rice.
Kenny Baugh, Sr., Rice - picked up a win at Nevada pitching seven innings and giving up seven hits and three runs (two earned). He also had a relief appearance against Baylor in which he pitched two innings and allowed one run, three hits and one walk.
Justin Crowder, Jr., TCU - pitched eight innings in TCUs 5-4 victory against Hawaii and allowed three runs, seven hits and three walks while striking out six.
STREAKING Nevada outfielder Chris Dickerson has the longest current hitting streak in the WAC at 14 games. He is hitting .414 with 27 RBI and nine home runs during that span. The longest streak this season was by Nevada third baseman Mike Gillies who hit safely in 21 straight games from Feb. 27-April 7.
WAC GAMES Three WAC series will be played this week. TCU travels to Fresno State with second place on the line. This will be the first meeting for the two teams this year. The teams will meet again in Fort Worth, May 4-6. San Jose State hosts Nevada, Friday-Sunday, for their first series of the year. Overall, the Spartans hold a 48-47 advantage in the all-time series. Rice hosts Hawaii in the final WAC series of the week. The teams met earlier this year in Honolulu where Rice took two of three games. Hawaii-Hilo has most of the week off but hosts Hawaii Pacific in a doubleheader on Sunday.
TCU PLAYS AT THE BALLPARK TCU will take on Texas tonight at The Ballpark in Arlington. The Horned Frogs have already beaten the Longhorns twice this season including once at another major league stadium. On Feb. 4, TCU beat Texas, 2-1, at Enron Field in Houston in the Astros College Classic.
IN THE POLLS In this weeks polls, only Rice is ranked. The Owls moved up to second in the Baseball Weekly/ESPN poll, fourth in the Baseball America poll and remained eighth in the Collegiate Baseball poll. The Owls are also third in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll presented by CollegeSportsNews.com.
TEAMS/PLAYERS RANKED IN NATIONAL STATISTICS In the most recent NCAA statistics (April 15), two players and four teams are ranked nationally. Rice is second in the country in pitching with a team ERA of 2.64. San Jose State is eighth in fielding with a .974 percentage. The Owls are 12th in winning percentage at .773. Nevada is 20th in batting (.324). TCUs Rudy Rivera is ranked 14th in triples, while Rices Kenny Baugh is 17th with a 1.71 ERA.
NON-CONFERENCE In non-conference games, the WAC is 73-50-1 (.593). Fresno State is 16-7 (.696), Hawaii is 10-6 (.625), Hawaii-Hilo is 2-10 (.167), Nevada is 9-7 (.563), Rice is 14-6 (.700), San Jose State is 12-5-1 (.694) and TCU is 10-9 (.526).
BASEHITS Fresno State has won four games in a row and six of its last seven ... catcher Brad Harper is one of 35 players nationally to be named to the Johnny Bench Award watch list ... Hawaii has lost five of its last seven games ... the Rainbows picked up their first road win of the year last week against TCU in the first game of the series and are now 1-8 away from Honolulu ... Hawaii-Hilo has lost four games in a row and are 1-10 in their current 13-game homestand ... Nevada has won the last game of every WAC series except the two series against Hawaii-Hilo ... third baseman Mike Gillies has a hit in 25 of his last 26 games ... Rice leads the WAC in pitching with an ERA of 2.64, but is last in fielding with a .957 percentage ... the Owls have committed a WAC-worst 77 errors ... Rices five-game winning streak came to an end last Sunday against Nevada ... it was the Owls fifth winning streak of at least four games this year ... Jon Skaggs has won his last 14 decisions overall and is 8-0 this year ... freshman Austin Davis has the WACs second longest current hitting streak at 13 games ... San Jose State had a season-high 27 runs and 30 hits in a 27-3 victory over Hawaii Pacific last week ... 10 players had at least two hits each in the contest ... Ryan Brucker needs just five more at-bats to become the all-time leader at San Jose State ... he currently has 628, four less than Eric Pitt (1992-95) ... John Fagan needs two more home runs to tie the schools career record of 23 set by current assistant coach Robert Berns (1985-86) ... TCU catcher Jason Price is one of 35 players nationally to be named to the Johnny Bench Award watch list ... TCU has won three of its last four games ... the Horned Frogs picked up a 6-5 win last night against Hawaii after scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs ... outfielder Terry Trofholz tied the school record with three doubles in the game ... second baseman Ramon Moses tied the school record for assists in a game with 10 and the team set a new record with 23 assists overall.
POSTSEASON- The WAC does not have a postseason tournament, but the regular season champion as determined by winning percentage in conference games will earn an automatic berth into this years NCAA Tournament which begins May 25.
WAC EXPANDS IN 2002 Next year, the WAC will have six baseball teams. Louisiana Tech will join the conference, while TCU and Hawaii-Hilo are leaving. The teams will continue to play each other a total of six times for a 30-game schedule.