United Athletic Conference

PLAYER OF THE WEEK Fresno State catcher Brandon Marcelli, a junior from Eureka, Calif. (College of the Sequoias), hit .400 (6-15) in four wins for the Bulldogs last week. On Saturday, he hit a game-tying three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning against Louisiana Tech. On Sunday, he was 1-for-3 with three RBI including a two-run double to break a scoreless tie in the second inning to help Fresno State sweep Louisiana Tech. For the week, he scored six runs, drove in seven, hit two doubles, one home run and was walked twice. It is Marcellis first career WAC Player of the Week award and second for a Bulldog this season.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK Rice right-handed pitcher Wade Townsend, a sophomore from Dripping Springs, Texas (Dripping Springs HS), pitched seven and a third innings in a 4-3 win over then sixth-ranked Baylor on Tuesday. Townsend allowed five hits, two walks and two runs while striking out seven. He is now 3-0 on the season with all three victories coming against top 25 opponents. Townsend leads the WAC with a 1.64 ERA. It is Townsends first ever WAC Pitcher of the Week award and fourth for Rice this season.

OTHERS NOMINATED Other player of the week nominations included:
Matt Inouye, Fr., Hawaii - was named the Rainbow Easter Tournaments Most Outstanding Player after hitting .400 in five games. His best game came in the semifinals against Air Force when he was 4-for-4 with one RBI and three runs scored, including the game-winner in the 10th inning.
Wade Robinson, Sr., SS, Louisiana Tech - was 8-for-17 (.471) in four games for the Bulldogs. He had two hits in each game and also had three doubles and three RBI.
Tony Cappuccilli, Sr., DH/C, Nevada - hit .471 (8-17) with five runs, five RBI, two doubles and two home runs in four games. His slugging percentage was .941 for the week. In the first two games against UC Riverside, he was 6-for-8 with five RBI and four runs scored.
Chris Kolkhorst, Jr., OF, Rice - was 11-for-20 (.550) in four wins for the Owls. Kolkhorst scored seven runs, drove in six, hit two doubles and a home run. On Saturday against San Jose State, he was 4-for-6 with four RBI, three runs scored and a home run.

Additional pitcher of the week nominations included:
Josh Glynn, Sr., Fresno State - recorded his first two wins of the season in Fresno States sweep of Louisiana Tech. He earned the first win in 1.2 innings of relief and then pitched a career-high seven innings in an 8-4 win on Sunday. For the week, he had a 2.08 ERA, allowed five hits, two runs, four walks and struck out three.
Ricky Bauer, So., Hawaii - pitched a complete-game, allowing one run, six hits and no walks, in a 9-1 win against Western Illinois.
Mateo Miramontes, Jr., Nevada - won his fourth consecutive start in a 17-8 win against UC Riverside on Friday. He pitched 6.1 innings allowed nine hits, five earned runs and three walks.

RICE WINS 25TH STRAIGHT Rice was 4-0 last week to extend its nations best winning streak to 25 in a row. The Owls began the week with a win over Baylor and then swept San Jose State in three games to improve to 28-1 on the season. The WAC record for consecutive wins is 32 set by Arizona State in 1972. The NCAA record is 34 in a row set by Texas in 1977 and matched by Florida Atlantic in 1999. Rice has also won 16 straight conference games dating back to last year and 20 consecutive at home.

UPCOMING WEEKEND ACTION This weeks schedule includes a full slate of conference games, but only one non-conference contest. Rice is the only WAC team that plays a non-conference game when it hosts Houston tonight at 7:00 p.m. (CT). On Friday, three WAC series begin as Nevada hosts Louisiana Tech, Fresno State travels to San Jose State and Rice hosts Hawaii. Its the first meeting between the former two, while Rice swept Hawaii in Honolulu, March 14-16.

STREAKING Nevada freshman catcher Brett Hayes currently has the WACs longest hitting streak at 16 games. Hayes has hit .449 (31-69) with 19 RBI and 14 runs scored during his streak. It is also the longest hitting streak by any WAC player this year.

IN THE POLLS In this weeks polls, Rice is number one in all four polls (Baseball America, Sports Weekly/ESPN,Collegiate Baseball and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association) for the second consecutive week. Last week, marked the first time Rice had ever been an unanimous number one. In the Sports Weekly/ESPN poll, Fresno State is tied for 45th.

NON-CONFERENCE After a 10-4 week, the WAC is 78-53-1 (.595) in non-conference games this season. Fresno State is 13-12 (.520), Hawaii is 16-6 (.727), Louisiana Tech is 7-12-1 (.375), Nevada is 10-13 (.435), Rice is 19-1 (.950) and San Jose State is 13-9 (.591).

BASEHITS Fresno State: the Bulldogs have won four straight and 13 of their last 14 games ... Fresno State is a season-best five games over .500 (18-13) ... after sweeping Louisiana Tech last week, Fresno State is now 9-0 all-time versus Tech ... Josh Glynns seven-inning outing against Louisiana Tech on Sunday tied Cody Smith for the longest outing by a Bulldog starter this season ... Hawaii:the Rainbows won its Easter Tournament for the first time since 1999 ... Andrew Sansaver (1B), Isaac Omura (2B), Brian Finegan (SS), Ricky Bauer (P) were named to the all-tournament team while Matt Inouye was named Most Outstanding Player ... freshman second baseman Isaac Omura had his 12-game hitting streak snapped last week ... the streak was the longest by a Rainbow this year ... Louisiana Tech: the win over Northwestern State on Tuesday snapped a four-game losing streak against the Demons ... four pitchers were used in the 2-0 shutout ... the Bulldogs stole home twice last week and have now stolen home three times this year ... Jon Lockwood struck out 12 Fresno State batters in 8.1 innings before giving up a game-tying three-run home run ... Wade Robinson has a team season-high 12-game hitting streak and has two or more hits in 10 of those games ... Robinson is hitting .458 (22-48) during his current streak ... Nevada: has won five of its last seven games... Mateo Miramontes has won four straight starts and has a 2.05 ERA during that span ... DH Tony Cappuccilli became the first Pack player to hit two home runs in a game this season on Saturday against UC Riverside ... Cappuccilli leads the WAC in slugging percentage (.629) ... Kevin Kouzmanoff leads the WAC in home runs with seven ... the Wolf Pack have 36 home runs, 13 more than Rices second best total in the WAC ... Rice: a crowd of 3,118 attended Sundays game, the most ever for a WAC game at Reckling Park ... the Owls 25 straight wins are a school record ... Rice is 3-0 this season against tonights opponent Houston and has already clinched its third straight Silver Glove (city championship) ... the Owls have played seven games of a 13-game homestand ... Rice has won 19 straight road games and has not lost on the road since losing at Texas, 3-2, in 10 innings on April 9, 2002 ... the Owls only loss this year was against Alabama, 6-5, at a neutral site ... Rice has beaten eight ranked opponents this season ... the Owls are 8-1 in one-run games ... its team ERA is 2.39 ... the top four ERA marks in the WAC are all Owls ... Rice has committed just 13 errors on the year, including six last week ... the Owls have scored more runs (224) than opposing teams have hits (208) ... two Owls are hitting at least .400 Chris Kolkhorst (.405) and Austin Davis (.400) while Vincent Sinisi is hitting .398 ... Davis leads the WAC in RBI with 31 and in doubles with 13 ... Kolkhorst also leads the WAC in hitting in WAC games only at .488 ... sophomore Philip Humber has won 16 straight decisions (including his last nine in 2002) ... David Aardsma leads the WAC in saves with seven ... San Jose State: has lost seven of its last nine games ... SJSU was swept in a WAC series for the second straight week ... the Spartans five extra-inning games are the most in the WAC this season (3-2) ... Doug Thurman, in his eighth season on the San Jose State coaching staff, was promoted to associate head coach prior to the start of the 2003 season ... he will assume all gameday coaching responsibilities for head coach Sam Piraro (536-384-4; 16 years) and will accumulate all of the Spartans wins and losses on his coaching record.

POSTSEASON The WAC does not conduct 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 30.

NCAA STATS The NCAA will not begin compiling national statistics until Tuesday, April 15.