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SEATTLE U'S HURD NAMED WAC HITTER OF THE WEEK
Seattle U's Dalton Hurd has been named WAC Hitter of the Week for March 6 through March 12. Hurd, a junior outfielder from Bend, Ore. (Bend HS), had the hot bat for Seattle U on the week, hitting .529 with nine hits, including three doubles. He drove in four runs, scored four runs himself and stole four bases on the week as the Redhawks split games with Indiana State and Pacific. His best game was a 2-for-2 day with a pair of doubles against Indiana State.
Other Hitter of the Week nominees: Grand Canyon's Austin Bull hit .500 on the weekend with four runs scored … NM State's Brent Sakurai was 5-for-11 in a three-game series at defending Pac-12 champion Utah … Northern Colorado's Evan Johnson hit .412 in games at Nebraska and Omaha … Sacramento State's PJ Floyd reached base multiple times as the Hornets went 1-2 against Penn State … UT Rio Grande Valley's Jose Garcia hit his third home run of the season at No. 11 Texas A&M.
SEATTLE U'S PRIZINA NAMED WAC PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Seattle U's Jake Prizina has been named Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week for March 6 - March 12. Prizina, a sophomore from Sparks, Nev. (Spanish Springs HS), made two starts last week and earned a pair of wins for the Redhawks. Against Indiana State, he went eight scoreless innings, allowing three hits and one walk with four strikeouts to earn the victory. On Sunday, he faced Pacific and allowed two runs on seven hits over six innings with six strikeouts for his second win in six days.
Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: Grand Canyon's Jake Wong allowed just one earned run over six innings against San Francisco … NM State's Jonathan Groff threw 8.1 scoreless innings with five strikeouts to earn the win at Utah … Sacramento State's Parker Brahms retired the first 14 batters he faced to earn the win against Penn State on Friday … UT Rio Grande Valley's Carter Johnson struck out eight over eight innings in a losing effort against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
As a team, NM State leads the WAC in batting with a .338 average. Sacramento State is the leader both on the mound and in the field with a staff ERA of 3.06 and a .980 fielding percentage. Individually, UT Rio Grande Valley's Jose Garcia leads the league with a .466 batting average and Sacramento State's Justin Dillon holds a WAC-best 1.24 ERA. NM State's Austin Botello is the hits leader with 29 and also leads in RBIs with 23. His teammate Brent Sakurai has a league-high 19 runs scored. Utah Valley's Jackson Overland is the doubles leader with 10 while CSU Bakersfield's Mark Pena has three triples to lead the conference. NM State's Tristen Carranza and Northern Colorado's Cole Maltese each have five home runs to lead the league while Seattle U's Aaron Stroosma is 8-for-9 on stolen bases to pace the WAC. UTRGV's Carter Johnson is the early strikeout king with 36 in 28.0 innings pitched.
NO, YOU MAY NOT HAVE A HIT
Sacramento State right-hander Justin Dillon threw the WAC's first no-hitter in nearly seven years on Feb. 23 against Northern Kentucky. Dillon faced just two batters over the minimum for the first no-no in Sacramento State's Division I history.
SIT DOWN
The CSU Bakersfield pitching staff had a week for the ages on Feb. 20-26, striking out 51 batters in five wins. Three of the five starting pitchers set new career highs in the category.
BEAR DOWN
Northern Colorado junior Aaron Hamilton had a career game on Feb. 24 against San José State, striking out a WAC season-high and personal best 14 bitters and walking none in a 1-0 complete game win.
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 Feb. 22, Grand Canyon traveled to Salt River Fields at Talking Stick to take on the Arizona Diamondbacks in an exhibition game, falling 9-1 in seven innings. The Lopes skipper Andy Stankiewicz was on the D-backs roster for their inaugural season in 1998.
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.