GRAND CANYON'S PANACCIONE NAMED WAC HITTER OF THE WEEK
Grand Canyon's Paul Panaccione has been named the Western Athletic Conference Baseball Hitter of the Week for Apr. 6 - Apr. 12.
Panaccione, a junior from Peoria, Ariz. (Liberty HS), once again led the Lopes' offense, going 8-for-13 with seven RBIs and seven runs scored. He secured an extra-base hit in each of GCU's wins over Northern Colorado and now has 17 multi-hit games and seven multi-RBI games this season.
The other hitter of the week nominations: Seattle U's Dalton Hurd hit .462 on the week with six runs scored as the Redhawks remained atop the WAC standings…North Dakota's Tyler Follis was 11-for-16 as UND earned four wins on the week…Northern Colorado's Jensen Park led the team in hitting, going 8-for-15 with a pair of extra-base hits…Bakersfield's Ryan Grotjohn hit .571 on the week as the Roadrunners swept Texas-Pan American…Texas-Pan American's Logan Landon put together his 16th and 17th multi-hit games of the season in a non-conference split against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi…Utah Valley's Zac Fuller was 6-for-8 in a trio of games for the Wolverines, hitting a home run in Saturday's 11-9 win over Sacramento State…Sacramento State's Chris Lewis hit .444 on the week, going 8-for-18 as the Hornets went 2-2.
SEATTLE U'S DOYLE NAMED WAC PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Seattle U's Kyle Doyle has been named the Western Athletic Conference Baseball Pitcher of the Week for Apr. 6 - Apr. 12.
Doyle, a senior left-hander from Covington, Wash. (Kentwood HS), was stellar out of the bullpen for the Redhawks, finishing three of Seattle U's four wins. Against Portland, he came into the game with bases loaded and nobody out and retired five straight batters to earn the save. He picked up the win in Saturday's extra-winning victory over New Mexico State before returning to the mound on Sunday to earn his second save of the week in a 9-7 win over the Aggies.
The other pitcher of the week nominations: Grand Canyon's Coley Bruns pitched his third complete game of the season in a 10-0 win over Northern Colorado...North Dakota's Alex Twenge tossed a three-hitters against Chicago State, striking out seven in the 11-1 win…Northern Colorado's Matt Loutzenhiser went five innings in Friday's loss at Grand Canyon…Bakersfield's Hayden Carter threw his third complete game as the Roadrunners earned a 5-1 win over Texas-Pan American on Friday…Texas-Pan American's Parker Gallegos used his first career complete game to earn the win against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi…Utah Valley's Danny Beddes threw the team's first complete game of the season, striking out six and scattering five hits in a 12-3 win over Sacramento State on Friday…Sacramento State's Ty Nichols picked up the win on Wednesday at UC Davis, striking out a pair and allowing four hits over four innings of work.
BY THE NUMBERS
Grand Canyon leads the WAC at the plate, hitting .301 in 35 games played. On the mound, Sacramento State has the lowest staff ERA at 3.14 while Bakersfield is the top defensive team with a .978 fielding percentage.
Individually, North Dakota's Tyler Follis took over the WAC batting lead with a .426 batting average. Sacramento State's Ty Nichols holds the lowest ERA among individuals at 1.79. Grand Canyon's Paul Panaccione leads the conference in hits (53) and runs scored (38). Teammate Brandon Smith has a conference-high 32 RBIs. Four players are tied for the lead in doubles at 10 while Bakersfield's Ryan Grotjohn and Chance Gusbeth are tied with Sacramento State's Scotty Burcham for the triples lead with five. North Dakota's Jeff Campbell, Grand Canyon's Chad De La Guerra and Texas-Pan American's Logan Landon are tied for the home run lead with six on the season. Seattle U's Skyler Genger continues to lead the WAC in strikeouts with 67 in 59.1 innings pitched.
In conference only play, Grand Canyon is hitting a WAC-best .376. Bakersfield holds the low ERA at 2.36 while GCU is fielding at a .990 clip. Individually, Pannacione leads the conference with a .548 average and Seattle U's Tarik Skubal has a league-best 1.09 ERA in WAC play. Panaccione also leads the league in hits (23), runs scored (18) and total bases (31). Northern Colorado's Brandon Vaughn has the most RBIs in league paly with 19 while Utah Valley's Kade Andrus has three triples in WAC play to lead the conference. Grand Canyon's Coley Bruns leads the WAC with 31 strikeouts in 32.0 conference innings pitched.
BREAK OUT THE BROOMS
For the first time since the weekend of May 19-21, 2006, all WAC series for the weekend of April 2-4 ended in sweeps as Seattle U, Utah Valley, Bakersfield, North Dakota and Grand Canyon all added a trio of wins to their season totals. In 2006, it was Fresno State, Hawai'i and Nevada earning sweeps over Sacramento State, San Jose State and New Mexico State respetively.
THE OLD HIDDEN BALL TRICK
Bakersfield pulled off the hidden ball trick for an out for the third time in the past five season on Sunday against Utah Valley. The Roadrunners' third baseman Joey Sanchez tagged out Seth Rhineer off third with one out in the top of the eighth.
SAVE KING
Sacramento State closer Sutter McLoughlin earned his 30th career save on March 31 to pass Louisiana Tech's Caleb Dudley for top spot on the WAC career saves list.
WIN, LOSE AND DRAW
The first WAC baseball series of the season resulted in a win, a loss and a tie for both Bakersfield and New Mexico State as the Roadrunners and Aggies earned the rare three-game series split with a 6-6 tie on March 15 due to Bakersfield travel plans. It was the first tie in WAC conference play since April 11, 2010 when Nevada and New Mexico State played to a 10-10 tie, also in Las Cruces. BYU and Hawai'i played to ties in WAC games in 1988 and 1990 for the only other ties in WAC play.
TRIPLE THE FUN
Texas-Pan American turned the first triple play of the season in the top of the third of the series finale with Arlington Baptist. Not to be outdone, Seattle U turned a triple play of their own in a 5-2 win at home against Portland. New Mexico State turned a triple play in 2014 in a 2-0 loss at Arizona State for the last WAC defensive trifecta.
SACRAMENTO STATE FAVORITE TO WIN WAC TITLE IN 2015
After winning its first ever WAC regular season and tournament title in 2014, Sacramento State is the favorite to win the conference crown again, earning eight first place votes in a survey of the league's 10 head coaches. Grand Canyon earned the two remaining first place votes and will enter 2015 as the favorite to take second in the league table.
Bakersfield, the 2014 preseason favorite, was selected third with 60 points. Seattle U earned the fourth place nod by a single point over Utah Valley while New Mexico State and Texas-Pan American tied for sixth in the preseason poll. Chicago State is predicted eighth, followed by North Dakota and Northern Colorado.
DE LA GUERRA, LEITAO HIGHLIGHT PRESEASON ALL-WAC HONORS
Grand Canyon second baseman Chad De La Guerra and Sacramento State pitcher Brennan Leitao were selected as 2015 Preseason All-WAC Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year respectively. In addition to the individual honor, both players were named to the 2015 Preseason All-WAC Team, as voted upon by the 10 WAC coaches.
Sacramento State led the way with five honorees as Nathan Lukes, Sam Long, Sutter McLoughlin and Scott Burcham joined Leitao. Grand Canyon had three Lopes selected with David Walker and Andrew Naderer joining De La Guerra. Bakersfield was represented by Soloman Williams and Mylz Jones and Seattle U earned recognition from Brian Olson and Landon Cray. New Mexico State's Derek Umphres and Utah Valley's Mark Krueger rounded out the 14-player team.
SACRAMENTO STATE'S LEITAO NAMED PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAN
Sacramento State pitcher Brennan Leitao has been named to the Louisville Slugger Preseason All-American Third Team, as selected by Collegiate Baseball. Leitao, the all-time leader in wins at Sacramento State with 24, is a two-time First Team All-WAC performer. Last season, he helped lead the Hornets to the NCAA Tournament, starting and clinching the WAC Tournament championship game against Utah Valley. In NCAA Regional play, he started against Arizona State and allowed just one run over seven innings in a 5-4 win over the Sun Devils. He ranked second in the WAC in ERA, innings pitched, strikeouts and wins as a junior. In addition to his outstanding performance on the diamond, Leaitao is also a three-time Academic All-WAC honoree.
WAC TOURNAMENT RETURNS TO HOHOKAM STADIUM
For the second straight season, the WAC Baseball Tournament will take place in a new Spring Training Complex in Mesa, Ariz. as the 2015 championship heads to the new Hohokam Stadium, preseason home of the Oakland Athletics. Improvements to Hohokam Stadium are immediately noticeable as the exterior and entrance gates has been painted and re-branded with the familiar Oakland Athletics green and gold color scheme. The stadium also features refurbished seating, a state-of-the art scoreboard and a new and expanded clubhouse. The bleachers along the left field and right field foul lines have been replaced with party decks. The top six teams from the WAC's regular season standings will advance to the tournament.The WAC Baseball Tournament is no stranger to the state of Arizona and the City of Mesa. The league's championship has been played in Arizona 13 times (1963, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 76, 78, 2010, 11, 12, 14) and the event was held in Mesa in 1971, 1973, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014. Sacramento State won the 2014 tournament, earning the WAC's automatic qualification to the NCAA Tournament.
KEY NON-CONFERENCE MATCHUPS
It seems fitting at that WAC schools will face off against 2014 NCAA Baseball Tournament participants, not including WAC-participant Sacramento State, 64 times this season, including 14 games against College World Series teams.
WAC vs. College World Series Teams
Feb. 24 - Texas-Pan American at Texas
Feb. 26 - Sacramento State at Texas Tech
Feb. 27 - Sacramento State at Texas Tech
Feb. 28 - Sacramento State at Texas Tech
Mar. 1 - Sacramento State at Texas Tech
Mar. 10 - New Mexico State at Texas Tech
Mar. 11 - New Mexico State at Texas Tech
Mar. 17 - Texas-Pan American at TCU
Mar. 18 - Texas-Pan American at TCU
Mar. 20 - Bakersfield at UC Irvine
Mar. 21 - Bakersfield at UC Irvine
Mar. 22 - Bakersfield at UC Irvine
Apr. 28 - Grand Canyon at Texas Tech
Apr. 29 - Grand Canyon at Texas Tech
WAC vs. Super Regional Teams
Mar. 13 - Grand Canyon at Oklahoma State
Mar. 14 - Grand Canyon at Oklahoma State
Mar. 15 - Grand Canyon at Oklahoma State