United Athletic Conference

PLAYER OF THE WEEK Rice first baseman Vincent Sinisi, a freshman from The Woodlands, Texas (The Woodlands HS/Texas), was 9-for-17 (.529) from the plate with six RBI and six runs in four games last week. Sinisi began the week with a 3-for-4 performance against Texas. In a three-game sweep of Nevada, he was 6-for-13. On Friday, he was 3-for-5 with a triple, a home run and four RBI. It was his 15th game this year with three or more hits. Sinisi continues to lead the WAC in conference-only hitting with a .516 batting average.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK Rice left-handed pitcher Justin Crowder, a senior from Flower Mound, Texas (Marcus HS/TCU), helped Rice sweep Nevada yesterday pitching eight innings of a 13-7 victory at Reno. Crowder scattered 11 hits and struck out seven as he battled wind gusts of more than 40 miles per hour. Nevada scored four runs against him, but only one was earned. He also walked two in the game. Crowder currently leads the WAC with a 1.96 ERA.

OTHERS NOMINATED Other player of the week nominations included:
Gregg Omori, Sr., 1B, Hawaii - hit .429 (3-7) in two games against Louisiana Tech with four RBI. He hit a game-winning three-run home run in the seventh inning on Saturday. It was his first homer of the season after hitting 11 last year.
Josh Laidlaw, Sr., OF, Nevada - was 6-for-10 with a double, home run and two RBI in three games against Rice.
Gabe Lopez, Sr., 2B, San Jose State - hit .375 (6-16) in four games last week. In a three-game sweep of Fresno State, Lopez was 5-for-12 (.417) from the plate. In Saturdays game, he was 2-for-4 with three RBI and a run.

Additional pitcher of the week nominations included:
Chris George, Jr., Hawaii - pitched a complete game victory on Saturday at Louisiana Tech. He struck out seven and allowed four runs, nine hits and three walks.
Jahseam George, Sr., San Jose State - picked up a complete game 6-4 win on Saturday against Fresno State. He allowed four runs off of five hits in the first inning but then retired the next 19 batters he faced. It was his first complete game of the year and second of his career.

RICE AND SAN JOSE STATE SWEEP SERIES Both Rice and San Jose State swept their WAC series last week as the Owls beat Nevada in Reno and the Spartans defeated Fresno State in San Jose. Rice has now swept four of their five conference series this year while San Jose State earned its first conference sweep of the year.

NO. 3 RICE HOSTS NO. 7 HOUSTON Rice takes on crosstown rival Houston tonight in a game at Reckling Park. The Owls lead the series this season, 3-1, after winning the first three and losing the last game at Houston on April 2. This will be the last time the two teams will meet in the regular season this year. Rice is 19-1 at home on the year and bring a 10-game home winning streak into tonights contest.

RICE CONTINUES TO LEAD AT HALFWAY POINT With four of the six teams in the WAC reaching the mid-season mark in conference games, Rice has a five-game lead over second-place San Jose State. The other four teams are all within five games of the Spartans. This week, Rice hosts last place Hawaii, San Jose State travels to Louisiana Tech and Fresno State hosts Nevada. The Owls swept the Rainbows in Honolulu, March 8-10, and the Spartans won two of three against Louisiana Tech in San Jose, March 15-16. This will be the first meeting of the year between Nevada and Fresno State. The two teams will meet again in Reno, May 10-12.

STREAKING Fresno State third baseman Casey McGehee currently has the WACs longest hitting streak at 15 games. McGehee is hitting .397 (25-63) with 10 RBI and 11 runs during that span. San Jose State second baseman Gabe Lopez had the longest hitting streak in the WAC this season when he hit safely in 21 straight games from Feb. 16-March 26.

IN THE POLLS In this weeks polls, Rice is 3rd in the Baseball America poll, 3rd in the Baseball Weekly/ESPN poll and 4th in the Collegiate Baseball poll. The Owls are also 3rd in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll. San Jose State is ranked 30th in the Collegiate Baseball poll and 31st in the Baseball Weekly/ESPN poll.

NON-CONFERENCE In non-conference games, the WAC is 83-61 (.576). Fresno State is 12-12 (.500), Hawaii is 11-14 (.440), Louisiana Tech is 13-10 (.565), Nevada is 12-11 (.522), Rice is 17-7 (.708) and San Jose State is 18-7 (.720).

BASEHITS Fresno State: the Bulldogs had leads in all three losses against San Jose State last week ... pitcher Mike Hernandez, the WACs freshman of the year in 2000, has missed the last six games due to injuries ... after starting 2-8 at home, Fresno State has won 11 in a row at Beiden Field ... head coach Bob Bennett (who is retiring at the end of the season) is the fifth winningest active coach in Division I with 1,290 victories ... he is 10 wins shy of becoming the seventh baseball coach in NCAA Division I history to reach 1,300 wins ... Hawaii:the Rainbows have lost four of their last five games ... junior pitcher Chris George won his fourth straight start on Saturday against Louisiana Tech ... junior 3B Brent Cook leads the WAC in stolen bases (15-for-16) ... Louisiana Tech: the Bulldogs have won two games in a row after losing 13 of their previous 15 contests ... last Wednesday, Jonathan Whalen pitched 6.1 hitless innings at Northwestern State ... Tech has an ERA of 3.71, 1.88 better than last year ... Nevada: led the WAC in hitting (.316) and home runs (73) last year but are third in hitting (.288) and fourth in home runs (34) this season ... pitcher Ryan Leake was ejected in Saturdays game against Rice after hitting Chris Kolkhorst and suspended for four games ... Rice: has won 19 of its last 23 games ... the Owls were 5-3 on their recently completed road trip with all three losses coming by one run ... Rice has won 10 home games in a row and nine WAC home games in a row ... Rice leads the WAC in hitting (.334) and ERA (2.86) ... the Owls are the only WAC team hitting over .300 and the only team with an ERA below 3.00 ... in conference games only, the Owls are hitting .384 and have the top five hitters in the league led by freshman Vincent Sinisis .516 average ... Rice is the only team in the country ranked in the top 20 in batting, pitching and fielding ... Sinisi is the only WAC player with an overall batting average over .400 (.407) ... Sinisi leads the WAC in multiple hit games (20), getting at least three hits in 15 of those games ... senior shortstop Eric Arnold leads the conference in multiple RBI games (13) ... in WAC games only, Rices ERA of 2.69 is over one and a half runs better than Louisiana Techs second best mark of 4.20 ... San Jose State: the Spartans have won four of their last five games ... senior second baseman Gabe Lopez has a 10-game hitting streak, currently the second longest in the WAC ... Lopez earlier this season had a 21-game hitting streak and has now hit safely in 31 of his last 32 games ... Lopez also has the WACs best fielding percentage (.982) for any player with at least 100 assists (94-127-4) ... catcher Adam Shorsher leads the WAC with 11 home runs.

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 31.