United Athletic Conference

PLAYER OF THE WEEK Rice second baseman Enrique Cruz, a junior from Houston, Texas (Bellaire HS), hit .500 (5-for-10) with six RBI, three runs scored and a home run in helping the Owls win two of three games against Fresno State over the weekend. On Saturday, he went 3-for-3 with two walks in a 13-2 win versus the Bulldogs and then added four RBI in Sundays 5-1 victory. It is Cruzs first career WAC Player of the Week award and fifth for an Owl this season.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK Nevada right-handed pitcher JT Sherman, a junior from Las Vegas, Nevada (Durango HS/Dixie JC), threw his third complete game of the season in the Packs 7-1 win at Louisiana Tech on Saturday. Sherman allowed just three hits, one run, no walks and struck out a career-high 10 batters. He retired the final 21 hitters of the game. It is Shermans first career WAC Pitcher of the Week award and fourth for a Wolf Pack player this season.

OTHERS NOMINATED Other player of the week nominations included:
Jaziel Mendoza, Jr., OF, Hawaii - hit .417 (5-for-12) in three games for the Rainbows. He also had a double and scored twice.
Chris Gimenez, So., OF, Nevada - was 5-for-13 (.385) in three games last week. Gimenez hit two home runs, drove in seven and scored three runs for the Wolf Pack.

Additional pitcher of the week nominations included:
Clary Carlsen, Jr., Hawaii - was 2-0 in three relief appearances allowing just four hits and one run in seven innings. He struck out nine and walked none during the week.
Jon Lockwood, Jr., Louisiana Tech - struck out a career-high 15 batters in an 8-3 win over Nevada on Friday. He pitched 7.1 innings and allowed seven hits, two walks and two earned runs.
Wade Townsend, So., Rice - made his first start in a conference game on Sunday and earned the win against Fresno State. He allowed just four hits in 7.2 innings and tied his season-high with 12 strikeouts to raise his WAC-leading total to 131 on the season.

RICE HOSTS REGIONAL For the ninth straight year, Rice is playing in the NCAA Tournament. The Owls are hosting a regional beginning Friday, their third straight season as one of 16 hosts. Rice, the number five national seed, will play McNeese State in the first game on Friday. Wichita State and Mississippi will play in the second game that day. The Owls did not meet McNeese State or Wichita State this year, but did beat Mississippi, 6-0, on Feb. 22 in the Rice Invitational. The winner of the regional will advance to the Super Regionals and will face the winner of the College Station Regional that includes Texas A&M, Alabama, Houston and Oral Roberts. The Owls are looking for their fourth trip to the college World Series in Omaha, June 13-21, after making appearances in 1997, 1998 and 2002.

ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICA A total of four WAC players were named to the 2003 Verizon Academic All-America teams as selected by CoSIDA. Nevada junior infielder Erick Streelman was named to the first team while Rice sophomore pitcher Wade Townsend was a second team selection. Rice also had two players named to the third team; junior catcher Jeff Blackinton and sophomore infielder Vincent Sinisi. Streelman was already named an Academic All-American this year as a tight end in football.

ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT The WAC had six players named to the Verizon Academic All-District teams as selected by CoSIDA. Rice had five players named to the District VI team. P Wade Townsend, C Jeff Blackinton and IF Vincent Sinisi were first team selections while P David Aardsma and IF Enrique Cruz were second-teamers. Nevada IF Erick Streelman was a first team selection on the District VIII team.

RICE THIRD IN FIELDING, FOURTH IN ERA In this weeks NCAA rankings, Rice is ranked number three in fielding percentage (.979) and fourth in ERA (2.82). The Owls are also 25th in batting (.322) and are one of four teams ranked in the top 30 in all three categories (Arizona State, Cal State Fullerton, Southern Mississippi). Joining Rice in the top 30 in fielding are Fresno State (5th), Nevada (21st) and San Jose State (25th). Rice pitcher Jeff Niemann is tied for first in wins with 14 and 11th in ERA (1.68). His teammate, Wade Townsend, is second in strikeouts per nine innings (13.7).

STREAKING Nevada senior Ryan Strain currently has the WACs longest hitting streak at 10 games. Strain hit .444 (16-for-36) with five RBI and nine runs scored during his streak. The longest current streak by a Rice player is five games by junior Enrique Cruz. The longest streak by a WAC player this year was 19 games by Nevada freshman catcher Brett Hayes (Feb. 28-April 6).

IN THE POLLS In this weeks polls, Rice is number one in the Collegiate Baseball and NCBWA polls and number two in Baseball America and Sports Weekly/ESPN. Nevada earned votes in the Sports Weekly/ESPN poll.

ALL-WAC TEAMS The all-WAC baseball teams were announced on May 27. The complete teams can be found later in this release.

NON-CONFERENCE After a 1-1 week, the WAC is 94-66-1 (.587) in non-conference games this season. Fresno State is 16-13 (.552), Hawaii is 19-7 (.731), Louisiana Tech is 8-14-1 (.370), Nevada is 13-14 (.481), Rice is 23-5 (.821) and San Jose State is 15-13 (.536).

BASEHITS Fresno State: the Bulldogs won 30 game for the 17th year in a row ... the last time Fresno State did not win 30 games was during the 1986 season (29-27-1) ...Hawaii: Fridays win against the Spartans was its first at San Jose State since 1998 ... Hawaii won a WAC road series for the first time since 2001 ... the Rainbows won 14 more games than last season ... Hawaii won 30 games for the first time since the 1999 season (37-20) ... the Rainbows are second in the WAC in ERA (3.93) ... senior Brent Cook leads the WAC with four triples ... sophomore pitcher Ricky Bauer allowed only 0.75 walks per game, the best in the WAC ... Rocky Russo was walked 0.74 times per game, also the best in the WAC ...Louisiana Tech: the Bulldogs won 10 of their last 14 home games and three of their last four home WAC series ... Louisiana Techs 10 conference wins surpassed last years total of seven ... the Bulldogs lead the WAC in stolen bases with 86 while seniors Fairon Allen and John Brandon were a combined 37-of-40 ... senior shortstop Wade Robinson finished his career with 221 games played, tied for the most in school history ... Nevada: has won 30 games in nine of its last 10 seasons ... the Pack went 4-5 in their last nine games after winning eight of their previous nine ... the Packs 19 conference wins were the most since joining the WAC in 2001 ... senior Kevin Kouzmanoff leads the WAC in home runs (17), multiple hit games (28) and multiple RBI games (21) ... the 17 home runs are tied for the third most in school history ... Zak Basch is tied for the WAC lead in saves with nine ... the Wolf Pack have 81 home runs, 37 more than Louisiana Techs second best total in the WAC ... Rice: has won at least 40 games the last nine seasons ... has won 11 of its last 14 games ... the 48 regular season wins are the second most in school history (52 in 1999) ... Colin Matheny earned his first career save on Saturday and Rices 17th of the season, a new school record ... the Owls weekend rotation of Jeff Niemann (14-0), Josh Baker (8-0) and Philip Humber (10-2) is now a combined 32-2 ... the Owls are 30-3 at home this season, the most regular season wins in school history ... Jeff Jorgensens 18 stolen bases are tied for second in the WAC and are the most by an Owl since Jason Gray also had 18 in 1999 ... six Owls have had hitting streaks of at least 10 games this season ... Rice has won 21 consecutive WAC series ... Rice leads the WAC in attendance, averaging 2,875 per home game ... the Owls total attendance is 94,889 and should break 100,000 this weekend for the first time ever ... Rice has beaten nine ranked opponents this season ... Rice leads the WAC in hitting (.322), ERA (2.82) and fielding percentage (.979) ... Rice has shut out 10 teams this season, the most in the WAC, which breaks a school record ... Jeff Niemann has won 15 games in a row ... David Aardsma is tied for the WAC lead in saves with nine ... Aardsma has 14 career saves, tied for the school record with Matt Anderson (1997-99) and Philip Barzilla (2000-01) ... the Owls have scored the one less run (428) than opposing teams have hits (429) ... San Jose State: finished with less than 30 wins for the first time since 1996 (28-28) and with a losing record for the first time since 1995 (21-33-1) ... the Spartans eight extra-inning games are the most in the WAC this season (3-5) ... 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 ... Thurman has assumed 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.