United Athletic Conference

PLAYER OF THE WEEK Nevada first baseman JaRell McIntyre, a senior from Elk Grove, Calif. (Laguna Creek HS), hit. 538 (7-13) in three games last week against Hawaii. He was 3-for-4 with one RBI in the first game, 3-for-5 and scored two runs in the second game and was 1-for-4 with a run in the final contest. Between the first and second games, McIntyre had a streak of six consecutive hits.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK San Jose State right-handed pitcher Matt Durkin, a freshman from San Jose, Calif. (Willow Glen HS), improved to 5-1 on the season after a complete-game 2-1 victory versus third-ranked Rice on Sunday. Durkin allowed one run, one walk, nine hits and struck out 10 to snap the Owls' 15-game conference winning streak.

OTHERS NOMINATED Other player of the week nominations included:
Arthur Guillen, Jr., CF, Hawaii - hit. 400 (4-10) in three games against Nevada as the lead-off hitter last week. Guillen went 2-for-4 on both Thursday and Saturday. He hit two doubles and drove in two runs in the series.
Kyle Humphreys, Jr., 1B, Louisiana Tech - was 6-for-12 (.500) in three games against Fresno State and had two hits in each contest. Humphreys also scored twice and drove in a run during the series.
Paul Janish, Fr., SS, Rice - hit .429 (6-14) in four games last week. Janish also had four RBI and scored twice during the week.
Kevin Frandsen, So., 3B, San Jose State - returned from an ankle injury and was 3-for-12 in three games last week. Against Rice on Friday, he was 2-for-5 with two RBI.

Additional pitcher of the week nominations included:
Ben Fritz, Jr., Fresno State - pitched a complete-game in a 1-0 victory against Louisiana Tech last Friday. Fritz struck out a career-high 10 batters and allowed just five hits and no walks in the game.
Chris George, Jr.., Hawaii - struck out 11 batters in 6.2 innings in a 10-6 win against Nevada last week. George allowed seven hits and walked four in the game.
Mateo Miramontes, So., Nevada - picked up a complete-game 5-0 victory versus Hawaii last Friday. Miramontes struck out eight and allowed five hits in his first career shutout. He retired the side in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.
Philip Humber, Fr., Rice - threw his first complete-game in an 8-2 win at San Jose State. Humber gave up just four hits, two runs (one earned) and four walks while striking out 11. He didnt allow a hit until the eighth inning.

SPARTANS HAND RICE FIRST LEAGUE LOSS San Jose State defeated Rice, 2-1, on Sunday afternoon to give the Owls their first WAC loss of the year. It also snapped a 15-game conference winning streak dating back to last year for Rice.

FRESNO STATE WINS THREE ONE-RUN GAMES For the second time this season, Fresno State swept Louisiana Tech. All three games were one-run contests and two were won in the bottom of the ninth inning with RBI singles by Casey McGehee and Tobey Riday-White on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

WAC TEAMS TAKE ON TOP 10 OPPONENTS Tonight, two WAC teams play two top 10 opponents (according to Baseball Weekly) as Rice travels to No. 9 Texas and San Jose State plays at No. 2 Stanford. Its the first of two games between Rice and Texas this year as the Longhorns have a return visit to Houston on May 14. Stanford will also make an appearance in San Jose on April 30.

HAWAII MAKES FIRST TRIP TO THE MAINLAND Hawaii travels to Louisiana Tech for a three-game series beginning Saturday afternoon. It will be the first trip away from the state of Hawaii this year for the Rainbows. Earlier in the season, UH traveled to Hawaii-Hilo where it lost all four games of the series. In other WAC action, Rice travels to Nevada and San Jose State hosts Fresno State. Both of those series begin on Friday. Rice swept Nevada earlier in the season in Houston, while Fresno State won two of three in Fresno. Hawaii and Louisiana Tech have not met this year. The two teams play in Honolulu, May 9-11.

STREAKING Fresno State third baseman Casey McGehee currently has the WACs longest hitting streak at 12 games. McGehee is hitting .440 (22-50) with 10 RBI and nine 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 received a vote in the Baseball Weekly/ESPN poll to rank tied for 52nd.

NON-CONFERENCE In non-conference games, the WAC is 83-58 (.589). Fresno State is 12-12 (.500), Hawaii is 11-14 (.440), Louisiana Tech is 13-9 (.591), Nevada is 12-11 (.522), Rice is 17-6 (.739) and San Jose State is 18-6 (.750).

BASEHITS Fresno State: swept Louisiana Tech for the second time this season (6-0) ... has the WACs longest winning streak at three games ... Ben Fritz pitched his sixth complete game of the year last week ... head coach Bob Bennett 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 ... Bennett is retiring after this season ... Hawaii: the Rainbows have dropped two in a row after a season-long four-game winning streak ... junior 3B Brent Cook leads the WAC in stolen bases (14-for-15) ... Louisiana Tech: the Bulldogs have lost 11 of their last 13 games ... Fresno State outscored Tech 13-9 in the last five meetings, all Louisiana Tech losses ... Techs ERA of 3.85 is its best since the 1985 season ... in Lee Gwaltneys last four starts (1-3) against WAC opponents, the Bulldogs have scored a total of six runs ... Gwaltneys ERA is 3.68 over those four games ... Nevada: has won five of its last seven games ... two freshmen helped Nevada defeat Hawaii, 5-4 on Saturday, as Carlos Madrid hit a game-winning home run and Bryan Johnson picked up the win after pitching five innings of relief ... Nevada has pitched two shutouts this year, one more than all of last season ... Wolf Pack pinch hitters are batting .362 (17-47) ... Nevada led the WAC in hitting (.316) and home runs (73) last year but are third in hitting (.287) and fifth in home runs (30) this season ... Rice: has won 16 of its last 19 games ... Rice leads the WAC in hitting (.332) and ERA (2.79) ... the Owls are the only WAC team hitting over .300 and the only team with an ERA below 3.00 ... Rice had nine hits on Sunday against San Jose State, snapping its streak of 10 or more hits in every conference game this year ... Eric Arnold now has 759 career at-bats, becoming the Rice record holder last week ... the Owls have the top two hitters in the WAC in Vincent Sinisi (.393) and Paul Janish (.389) ... Arnold leads the WAC in multiple hit games (18) and multiple RBI games (12) ... in WAC games only, Rices ERA of 2.44 is nearly two runs better than San Jose States second best mark of 4.33 ... San Jose State: had its eight-game winning streak snapped last week against Rice, but became the only team in the WAC to defeat the Owls this season ... 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.