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UTRGV'S GARCIA NAMED WAC HITTER OF THE WEEK
UT Rio Grande Valley's Jose Garcia has been named WAC Hitter of the Week for Feb. 13 through Feb. 19. Garcia, a senior outfielder from San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico (Galveston CC), hit for the cycle in his first four at-bats on Saturday and finished the weekend hitting .588 with a 1.235 slugging percentage. His best game came on Saturday, going 5-for-5 with two doubles, a triple, his first career home run, three runs scored and three RBIs. In a four-game sweep of Texas Southern, his had two home runs, seven runs scored and six RBIs.
Other Hitter of the Week nominees: CSU Bakersfield's Ryan Grotjohn led the WAC with a .636 average in three games against Utah … Grand Canyon's Ian Evans hit .375 as the Lopes split a pair of games with nationally-ranked Oklahoma State … NM State's Brent Sakurai was 3-for-4 in the Aggies first win of the season, a 4-3 decision over Bryant on Saturday night … Sacramento State's Devin Lehman hit .429 on the week, also drawing five walks, against Washington State … Seattle U's Aaron Stroosma was 6-for-15 as the Redhawks split a four-game series with SIUE.
GCU'S WONG NAMED WAC PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Grand Canyon's Jake Wong has been named Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week for Feb. 13 - Feb. 19. Wong, a sophomore from Chandler, Ariz. (Hamilton HS), limited nationally-ranked Oklahoma State to just one hit over six shutout innings to earn the victory in Friday's season-opening 6-1 win. The right-hander struck out seven and walked three against a Cowboy team that made the 2016 College World Series.
Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: Chicago State's Jake Perkins limited Northern Ilinois to just one run over seven innings to earn the win in the Cougars' season opener … NM State's Marcel Renteria struck out five and walked one over six innings to earn the Sunday afternoon win over Bryant … Sacramento State's Justin Dillon allowed one run on one hit over seven innings in a no-decision against Washington State … UT Rio Grande Valley's Connor Grant allowed just one hit over six innings to earn the win against Texas Southern.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
Just one weekend in, UT Rio Grande Valley leads the WAC in hitting (.333 batting average) and pitching (2.31 ERA). Chicago State is the top fielding team with just one error for a .991 fielding percentage. Individually, CSU Bakersfield's Ryan Grotjohn holds the top batting average at .636 while a number of pitchers have yet to allow an earned run. UTRGV's Jose Garcia leads the league with 10 hits, three doubles and 21 total bases and is tied with NM State's Brent Sakurai for runs scored with seven. Seattle U's Aaron Stoosma and NM State's Dan Hetzel hold the lead in RBIs with seven each. UT Rio Grande Valley's Carter Johnson has a WAC-high nine strikeouts through six innings pitched.
EL CICLO
UTRGV outfielder Jose Garcia got the 2017 season off to a good start, hitting for the cycle in his first four at-bats of the Vaqueros' second game of the season. He hit a triple in the bottom of the first, double in the third, single in the fourth and a home run in the fifth to complete the trick.
CURRENT MEET FUTURE LED BY PAST
On Wednesday afternoon, Grand Canyon heads to Salt River Fields at Talking Stick to take on the Arizona Diamondbacks in an exhibition game. The Lopes skipper Andy Stankiewicz was on the Dbacks roster for their inaugural season in 1998.
RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY
Wet weather along the west coast played havoc on the opening weekend schedule. Chicago State lost a game in Arizona to rain on Sunday morning and were forced to settle for a tie with Northern Illinois after heavy rain hit following the eighth inning. Northern Colorado is currently in a suspended game with San Francisco, tied after nine innings, and will finish the game on Tuesday at 2 p.m. PT before taking on San Francisco State in a non-conference game at USF's Benedetti Diamond.
WAC COACHES SELECT SU, MESSERVERY, SCHWARTZ AS PRESEASON FAVORITES
Seattle U is the preseason favorite to win the 2017 Western Athletic Conference baseball title and Redhawks' pitcher Nick Meservey and Grand Canyon outfielder Garrison Schwartz were selected WAC Preseason Pitcher and Player of the Year respectively in a vote of the league's nine head coaches, who could not vote for their own team or players.
The Redhawks received four first place votes to finish atop the preseason poll with 60 points. NM State was selected second, earning one first place vote and 52 points overall. Sacramento State picked up two first place votes for 47 points, edging out Grand Canyon by one point for third as the Lopes earned 46 points. Utah Valley was selected fifth as the 2016 tournament champions finished with 43 points. CSU Bakersfield was sixth, followed by UT Rio Grande Valley, Northern Colorado and Chicago State.
Meservey and Schwartz highlighted the Preseason All-WAC squad. Seattle U led the way with five honorees as Sean Sutton, Griffin Andreychuk, Tarik Skubal and Connor Moore joined Meservey. NM State had four honored as Mason Fishback, Trey Stine, Austin Botello and Kyle Bradish represented the Aggies. Schwartz was joined by GCU teammate Zach Malis while the CSU Bakersfield duo of David Metzgar and Max Carter represented the Roadrunners. UT Rio Grande Valley's Jose Garcia rounded out the 14-member squad.
WAC TOURNAMENT RETURNS TO HOHOKAM STADIUM
For the third straight season, the WAC Baseball Tournament will head to Hohokam Stadium, preseason home of the Oakland Athletics. Renovated prior to spring training in 2015, 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 15 times (1963, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 76, 78, 2010, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16) and the event was held in Mesa in 1971, 1973, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016. Utah Valley won the 2016 tournament, earning the WAC's automatic qualification to the NCAA Tournament.