PLAYER OF THE WEEK; Hawai'i shortstop Cortland Wilson, a freshman from Sandy, Utah (Skyline HS), started six games and hit .542 (13-24) with three doubles, one home run, nine runs scored and 10 RBI. He stole two-of-three bases and helped lead Hawai'i to a 4-2 record and a second place finish in the Easter Tournament in Honolulu.
PITCHER OF THE WEEK; Rice right-handed pitcher Jeff Nichols, a senior from Duncanville, Texas (Duncanville HS), pitched six innings and gave up four hits, one unearned run, two walks and struck out five in picking up a win against TCU on Saturday. It was his 41st career victory, moving him into second place all-time on the WAC list, six shy of tying the record of 47 set by Arizona State's Craig Swan (1969-72).
OTHERS NOMINATED; Other player of the week nominations included:
Ben Fritz, Jr., C/DH, Fresno State - was 8-for-16 with eight RBI, three runs, three doubles and a home run last week. On Friday against Nevada, he was 5-for-5 with five RBI.
Mike Hass, Fr., OF, Nevada - hit .357 (5-14) with three RBI in three games against Fresno State. Hass had a solo home run in all three games and the other two hits were doubles.
Hunter Brown, Jr., 3B, Rice - was 7-for-14 in a three-game sweep of second place TCU. He had four hits in Friday' win, including his fourth home run of the year and his WAC-best 15th double.
Adam Shorsher, Jr., C, San Jose State - hit .571 (4-7) in two wins over Hawai'i Pacific and Hawai'i-Hilo. He also hit one home run and drove in three during the two games.
Additional pitcher of the week nominations included:
Sean Yamashita, Jr., Hawai'i - pitched 8.1 innings, allowed nine hits, three unearned runs and struck out nine in recording a victory over Hawai'i Pacific on Saturday.
Mateo Miramontes, Fr., Nevada - recorded his first complete game with a 5-4 victory versus Fresno State on Sunday. He gave up eight hits, four walks and struck out five.
Chris Sherman, Sr., San Jose State - picked up a win at Hawai'i-Hilo on Friday after pitching eight innings. He gave up four hits, no runs, four walks and struck out three.
STREAKING; Nevada' Mike Gillies has the longest current hitting streak in the WAC at 18 games. The longest streak this season was by Rice third baseman Hunter Brown who hit safely in 20 straight games from Feb. 13-March 20.
WAC GAMES; Nevada hosts TCU for four games (one makeup), Thursday-Sunday. TCU is in second place in the WAC while the Wolf Pack are 2.5 games behind and in third place. The teams split their two games in Fort Worth, March 9-10. Rice travels to San Jose State for three games, Friday-Sunday, while Hawai'i welcomes Fresno State for a three-game series Saturday-Monday. The Owls swept the Spartans, March 16-18, in Houston, while Fresno State took all three from the Rainbows in Fresno, Feb. 24-26. Hawai'i-Hilo plays non-conference opponent Washington in Hilo, Friday-Sunday.
RAIN OUT; The last two games of the San Jose State-Hawai'i-Hilo series in Hilo were cancelled last week due to rain. The games will be made up when the Vulcans travel to San Jose for its series May 3-5. Exact dates and times will be announced later. San Jose State won the first game on Thursday, 7-0.
IN THE POLLS; In this week' polls, only Rice is ranked. The Owls remained No. 1 in the Baseball Weekly/ESPN poll, moved to the top spot in Collegiate Baseball and remained No. 2 in the Baseball America poll. The Owls are also number one in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll presented by CollegeSportsNews.com.
NATIONAL STATISTICS; The first national statistic rankings are expected to be released Wednesday, April 4. In subsequent weeks, the stats will be available on Tuesdays.
NON-CONFERENCE; In non-conference games, the WAC is 66-41-1 (.616). Fresno State is 15-7 (.682), Hawai'i is 10-6 (.625), Hawai'i-Hilo is 1-7 (.125), Nevada is 9-6 (.600), Rice is 11-5 (.688), San Jose State is 11-3-1 (.767) and TCU is 9-7 (.563).
BASEHITS; Fresno State catcher Brad Harper is one of 35 players nationally to be named to the Johnny Bench Award watch list ... last Tuesday against Cal Poly, Fresno State posted its 2,000th victory in school history and head coach Bob Bennett picked up his 1,250th win ... Fresno State has lost five of its last six games ... Bulldogs Tom Creighton (2B), Matt Creighton (IF), Beau Hintz (P) and John Efrid (OF) left the team last week ... Hawai'i finished in second place at the Verizon Rainbow Easter Tournament with a 5-2 record ... the Rainbows two losses came against tournament winner UC Santa Barbara ... Hawai'i has won eight of its last 10 games ... Hawai'i-Hilo has lost 15 of its last 16 games ... after a 2-9 start, Nevada has won 16 of its last 21 games ... Nevada' Darrell Rasner has won his last six starts and has posted a 2.14 ERA over that stretch ... Rice is 28-6, its best start ever, while its 17-1 conference record is also its best start in any conference ... Rice has the WAC' longest winning streak at six ... the Owls play its next six WAC games on the road and 10 of its next 14 overall away from Reckling Park ... Rice has won 12 straight WAC series ... Rice' Kenny Baugh has won 10 straight WAC decisions and Jon Skaggs has won his last 12 decisions overall ... San Jose State hosts the top two teams in baseball this week when it takes on Stanford on Tuesday and Rice, Friday-Sunday ... SJSU leads the WAC in fielding percentage (.977) ... TCU catcher Jason Price is one of 35 players nationally to be named to the Johnny Bench Award watch list ... after a seven-game winning streak, the Horned Frogs have lost three in a row.
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 year' 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 Hawai'i-Hilo are leaving. The teams will continue to play each other a total of six times for a 30-game schedule.