United Athletic Conference

PLAYER OF THE WEEK Nevada outfielder Mike Hass, a sophomore from Redmond, Wash., (Redmond HS) hit .615 (8-13), drove in 12 runsand scored four. He also added three home runs and two doubles for the Wolf Pack last week. Hass started all three games in right field in Nevadas 3-0 week. Of his eight hits, five went for extra bases, two doubles and three home runs, giving him a 1.462 slugging percentage. Hass two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh against No. 7 Stanford was the eventual game winner. His eight RBI against Hawai`i is a Nevada single-game high this season.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK San Jose State right-handed pitcher Matt Durkin, a freshman from San Jose, Calif., (Willow Glen HS) earned a 9-2 win over California, throwing eight shutout innings. Durkin allowed no runs on five hits, walking two, while striking out six. After a leadoff hit by Cal, Durkin didnt give up another hit until the seventh inning. Durkin became the first 10-game winner for the Spartans and the winningest freshman in Spartan history, surpassing Anthony Teleford who went 8-5 in 1985.

OTHERS NOMINATED Other player of the week nominations included:
Cullen Simmons, Sr., OF, Louisiana Tech - was 5-for-12 (.417) in three games against Nebraska with one RBI.
Enrique Cruz, So., SS, Rice - hit .500 (6-12) in three games for the Owls last week. Cruz was 0-for-2 against Texas on Tuesday, but was a combined 6-for-10 on Saturday and Sunday versus Fresno State. He hit two home runs in each game against the Bulldogs and drove in a total of seven runs.

Additional pitcher of the week nominations included:
Bryan Johnson, Fr., Nevada - in two relief appearances last week, he picked up a win against Stanford and a save versus Hawaii. He pitched a total of 5.2 innings and allowed just one unearned run, five hits and no walks.
Steven Herce, Jr., Rice - pitched a complete game in the Owls 4-1 victory over Fresno State on Friday. He gave up just five hits, didnt walk a batter and struck out six in the game.

FINAL WEEKEND COMING UP The end of the WACs regular season is this weekend and all six teams are in action. On Thursday, Nevada travels to San Jose State, and on Friday, Louisiana Tech hosts Rice and Hawaii is at Fresno State. Earlier this year, San Jose State took two out of three at Nevada, Rice swept Louisiana Tech in Houston and Fresno State won two of three in Honolulu.

ALL-WAC TEAM This years all-WAC teams will be announced Monday, May 27.

NCAA TOURNAMENT BEGINS NEXT WEEK This years NCAA tournament begins next Friday, May 31 with the regional tournaments. The bracket will be announced live on ESPN2, Monday, May 27 at 10:30 a.m. (MT). There will be 16 regionals with four teams at each site. The winners will advance to one of eight Super Regionals, June 7-9. The eight Super Regional champions move on to play in the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., June 14-22.

RICE WINS SIXTH WAC CHAMPIONSHIP Last week, Rice clinched the WACs outright league title and the Owls sixth straight as members of the WAC. Rice has only shared the title once when it tied San Jose State in 2000.

STREAKING San Jose State outfielder Nate Corrick currently has the WACs longest hitting streak at 14 games. Corrick is hitting .393 (24-61) with 6 RBI and 12 runs during that span. The longest streak of the season was by Fresno States Casey McGehee who hit safely in 31 games from March 15-May 18.

IN THE POLLS In this weeks polls, Rice is 1st in the Baseball America poll, 2nd in the Baseball Weekly/ESPN poll and 3rd in the Collegiate Baseball poll. The Owls are also 2nd in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll. San Jose State is ranked 22nd in Baseball America, 23rd in Collegiate Baseball, 23rd by Baseball Weekly/ESPN and 24th in the NCBWA poll.

NON-CONFERENCE In non-conference games, the WAC is 94-72 (.566). Fresno State is 13-16 (.448), Hawaii is 11-14 (.440), Louisiana Tech is 14-14 (.500), Nevada is 15-12 (.556), Rice is 19-9 (.679) and San Jose State is 22-7 (.759).

BASEHITS Fresno State: head coach Bob Bennett (who is retiring at the end of the season) is the fifth winningest active coach in Division I with 1,299 victories ... he is one win shy of becoming the seventh baseball coach in NCAA Division I history to reach 1,300 wins ... Hawaii: the Rainbows have lost 15 of their last 17 games ... junior pitcher Chris George has all five conference wins for the Rainbows this year ... Louisiana Tech: the Bulldogs have lost five of their last seven games ... head coach Jeff Richardson is one win shy of 100 for his career ... Brandon Haygood has a 12-game hitting streak, the longest by a Bulldog this year and currently the second longest active streak in the WAC ... Tech has an ERA of 4.54, 1.05 better than last year ... Nevada: has a four-game winning streak, its longest of the year ... the Pack will not reach 30 wins for the first time in nine years ... Mike Hass had eight RBI in Saturdays game against Hawaii, tying Rices Vincent Sinisi for the WAC high this year ... senior Curtis Wickwire has 13 hits this season, eight of which are home runs ... the Pack has hit 18 home runs over the last eight games, including a season-high five in yesterdays game against Hawaii ... Rice: has won three in a row after losing three of its previous five games ... the Owls have won 40 or more games for the eighth straight season ... after hitting four home runs over the weekend, Enrique Cruz leads the WAC with 15 home runs ... the Owls are 10-4 against ranked teams this year ... Rice leads the WAC in hitting (.328) and ERA (2.93) ... Rice pitchers have struck out 484 batters in 498.1 innings ... in conference games only, the Owls are hitting .357 and have the top three hitters in the league led by freshman Vincent Sinisis .509 average ... the Owls have 51 stolen bases, seven more than their total from last year ... 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 (.434), 65 points higher than the next best player in the WAC ... his average is currently the best ever by an Owl as current Houston Astro Lance Berkman set the record of .431 in 1997 ... Sinisi leads the WAC with 20 games with three or more hits ... in WAC games only, Rices ERA of 2.91 is 1.20 runs better than San Jose States second best mark of 4.11 ... San Jose State: the Spartans have won 16 of their last 19 games ... SJSU has 42 wins, one shy of tying the school record set in 1990 ... Matt Durkin picked up his 10th win last week, the most ever by a Spartan freshman ... San Jose State is the only team in the WAC undefeated in extra inning games (4-0) ... SJSU is third nationally in fielding percentage (.974) ... senior second baseman Gabe Lopez has the WACs best fielding percentage (.980) for any player with at least 100 assists (134-163-6).

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.