United Athletic Conference

PITCHER OF THE WEEK Rice right-handed pitcher Philip Humber, a junior from Carthage, Texas (Carthage HS), tossed his second complete game win of the season in a 3-1 victory over Miami (Ohio) on Friday. Humber scattered eight hits, walked one and struck out 12 in the game. He is now 7-1 with a 1.61 ERA on the year. It is Humbers third career WAC Pitcher of the Week award and fifth for a Rice player this season.

OTHERS NOMINATED Other player of the week nominations included:
Isaac Omura, So., 2B, Hawaii - was 3-for-6 with three RBI in a split of two games against Sacramento State.
Josh Rodriguez, Fr., Inf., Rice - hit .455 (5-11) in three wins for the Owls last week. Rodriguez extended his hitting streak to 11 games and four of his five hits were for extra bases. He had a slugging percentage of 1.182. In Saturdays 9-2 win over Miami (Ohio), he had two triples and a home run.

Additional pitcher of the week nominations included:
Ricky Bauer, Jr., Hawaii - earned a win in relief when he pitched the final four innings of Wednesdays game against Sacramento State. Bauer retired the final 10 batters of the game and allowed no runs, one hit and one walk in earning his sixth win of the year.
Travis Sutton, So., Nevada - pitched seven innings against Louisiana Tech on Thursday to earn his fifth win of the season. He allowed just two earned runs, nine hits, no walks and struck out a career-high seven batters.

OWLS STREAK AT 11 Rice has won 11 games in a row, the longest streak by a WAC team this year. The streak started March 23 with a win at Texas A&M and includes three-game sweeps of Fresno State and Nevada, a two-game sweep of Miami (Ohio) and two wins over Houston. Last year, Rice put together a streak of 30 consecutive wins.

RICE TO BE FEATURED ON CSTV Tonights game between No. 3 Rice and top-ranked Texas in Austin will be televised by CSTV at 6:15 p.m. (CT). This is the fourth meeting between the two teams with Texas winning all three previous contests. The teams are the last two national champions as Rice won it all last year and Texas won it in 2002.

UPCOMING WEEKEND ACTION All six teams will be playing WAC series this week with all three beginning on Friday. Fresno State is at Nevada in a battle of third place teams, Rice hosts San Jose State, and Louisiana Tech is at second-place Hawaii. Only Fresno State and Nevada have not seen each other this year. Rice swept San Jose State in San Jose, March 12-14 while Hawaii won two-of-three against Louisiana Tech in Ruston, March 25-27.

STREAKING Louisiana Tech outfielder Jeff Walker currently has the WACs longest hitting streak at 14 games, which is also the longest streak by any WAC player this year. Walker has hit .393 (22-for-56) with 12 RBI and 11 runs scored during his streak. Three WAC players currently are tied for second with 12-game hitting streaks: Jacob Butler, Nevada; Chris Kolkhorst, Rice; and Richie Robnett, Fresno State. The longest streak last year by a WAC player was 19 games by Nevadas Brett Hayes.

IN THE POLLS In this weeks polls, Rice is third in all four: Sports Weekly/ESPN, Baseball America, NCBWA and Collegiate Baseball. No other WAC teams are ranked.

NON-CONFERENCE In non-conference games, the WAC is 76-66-1 (.535). Fresno State is 12-17 (.414), Hawaii is 15-8 (.652), Louisiana Tech is 9-16 (.360), Nevada is 14-12 (.538), Rice is 16-5 (.762) and San Jose State is 10-8-1 (.553).

BASEHITS Team and individual notes:

Fresno State: has won four of its last six games ... has won two three-game series in a row after losing its first seven ... in Sundays 5-2 win over San Jose State, four of Fresno States five runs were set up with stolen bases ... senior second baseman Ryan Haag leads the WAC in hits with 54 ... sophomore outfielder Richie Robnett leads the WAC in total bases with 88 ... Robnett has a current 12-game hitting streak ... Matt Garza leads the WAC in saves with five.

Hawaii: has won six of its last nine games ... in last Tuesdays game against Sacramento State, the game was delayed 2 hours and 21 minutes due to power outages ... when it plays Louisiana Tech on Friday, April 16, it will be the first game for the Rainbows since April 7 ... junior outfielder Greg Kish, a transfer from Oklahoma, is first in the WAC in hitting with a .389 average ... sophomore outfielder Matthew Inouye leads the WAC in doubles per game with 0.48 and is 14th in the nation ... senior Clary Carlsen has six wins including four in a row.

Louisiana Tech: has lost six games in a row, tied for the longest losing streak by a WAC team this year (Fresno State) ... has lost nine of 10 games ... allowed 27 runs and 20 walks against Nevada on Saturday, both school records ... Jeff Walker has a season WAC-high 14-game hitting streak while Kyle Spangler has hit safely in nine straight games ... Spangler is hitting .458 in conference-only games, the second best in the WAC ... Tech leads the WAC in stolen bases with 53 on the season ... junior second baseman Brandon Haygood leads the league with 16 stolen bases in 21 attempts ... the Bulldogs have committed 93 errors, 44 more than the next worst team in the WAC.

Nevada: swept Louisiana Tech last week and in the process, picked up its first Saturday win of the season (1-9) ... Brett Hayes hit a home run in each game against Louisiana Tech ... two players had 12 RBI for Nevada last week: Ben Mummy and Jacob Butler ... Nevada scored two or more runs in 14 of 27 innings against Louisiana Tech ... the Pack leads the WAC in home runs with 46 ... last week in four games the Pack hit .405 with 13 home runs and scored 63 runs ... Nevada beat Louisiana Tech, 27-9, on Saturday ... Wolf Pack players were walked 20 times in that game ... the 27 runs and 20 walks are season WAC-highs ... Carlos Madrid had eight at-bats in that game while Chris Gimenez had six RBI, both WAC season-highs ... junior outfielder Chris Gimenez has been hit by a pitch a WAC-high 19 times this year ... Gimenez has been hit by a pitch 54 times in his career, the most of any player currently in the WAC ... sophomore catcher Brett Hayes was named to the 2004 Johnny Bench Award watch list ... Hayes was the WACs Freshman of the Year last season.

Rice: has won 13 of its last 14 games including its last 11 ... clinched the Silver Glove Trophy last Wednesday as the winner of its season-long best-of-five game series with Houston as Rice won three of the first four games ... Josh Baker struck out a career-high 14 batters in just 6.2 innings in that Houston game ... its team ERA of 2.72 is ranked fifth in the nation while its winning percentage of .818 is sixth ... Wade Townsend leads the WAC and is eighth nationally with a 1.46 ERA ... Philip Humber leads the WAC and is seventh nationally with 12.3 strikeouts/game ... is the only team in the WAC to not lose back-to-back games this season ... is the only team in the WAC to not play an extra inning game this season ... three of its six losses have come against top-ranked Texas ... the Owls have won 25 consecutive WAC series (17 of which have been sweeps) dating back to the end of the 2001 season when they swept TCU, May 18-20, after Fresno State won 2-of-3, May 11-13 ... senior outfielder Austin Davis is 15th in WAC history in career hits (276) and tied for 12th in doubles (57) ... junior Wade Townsends career ERA of 2.01 is currently the sixth best in WAC history (min. 200 IP) while his 13 saves is tied for 13th ... junior Philip Humber has 352 career strikeouts, the most of any active WAC pitcher.

San Jose State: has lost four of its last five games ... sophomore outfielder Travis Becktel is tied for the WAC lead with three triples ... junior Matt Durkin has pitched a WAC-high 72.1 innings ... Kevin Frandsen has been the toughest WAC player to strike out this season with 0.29 per game.

WAC ADDS NEW MEXICO STATE On Oct. 23, 2003, the WAC issued invitations to New Mexico State and Utah State effective July 1, 2005, the same date that Rice, SMU and Tulsa are moving to Conference USA. In baseball, New Mexico State is 24-12-1. Utah State does not sponsor baseball.

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 bid into this years NCAA Tournament which begins June 4.