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GRAND CANYON'S BULL NAMED WAC HITTER OF THE WEEK
Grand Canyon's Austin Bull has been named WAC Hitter of the Week for March 20 Through March 26. Bull, a sophomore infielder from Chandler, Ariz. (Perry HS), had a hit in all five games for the Lopes this week and opened WAC play by reaching base in his first seven plate appearances as GCU opened up the conference season with a sweep over CSU Bakersfield. The Lopes second-baseman was 8-for-15 in a split at New Mexico and the sweep over CSUB. He finished the week with two doubles, a triple and seven walks, adding three RBIs and four runs scored.
Other Hitter of the Week nominees: CSU Bakersfield's Max Carter hit the ‘Runners first home run of the season in a win over Nebraska … Chicago State's Joe Baier hit .625 as the Cougars took two-of-three at Seattle U to open WAC play … NM State's Dan Hetzel was 2-for-5 in the Aggies' win over 2016 CWS participant UC Santa Barbara … Northern Colorado's Jack Pauley was 8-for-13 at the dish in the Bears' series sweep over Sacramento State … Sacramento State's Ian Dawkins was 4-for-5 in the Hornets' loss to Northern Colorado on Saturday … UT Rio Grande Valley's Conrad McMahon hit .389 on the week … Utah Valley's Jackson Overlund was 5-for-5 in a win at UTRGV, finishing the week 7-for-13 at the plate.
UTAH VALLEY'S WOLFE NAMED WAC PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Utah Valley's Patrick Wolfe has been named Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week for March 20 through March 26. Wolfe, a senior left-hander from Reno, Nev. (Bamonte Ranch HS), made three appearances for the Wolverines and finished the week with a win and two saves as the Wolverines went 4-0. In a non-conference game at Utah, he threw a perfect inning to earn the save over the defending Pac-12 champions. He followed that up with a 1.1-inning save on Friday at UTRGV and earned the win with 1.1 perfect innings in an extra-inning win against the Vaqueros on Sunday. On the week, he struck out four and walked just one without allowing a hit.
Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: Grand Canyon's Jack Schneider earned the win on Sunday against CSU Bakersfield … NM State's Matthew McHugh made a pair of appearances in relief, allowing just one hit over four innings against UC Santa Barbara … Northern Colorado's Aaron Hamilton struck out three over six innings to earn the win against Sacramento State … Sacramento State's Max Karnos allowed three hits over five scoreless innings on Sunday at Northern Colorado … UT Rio Grande Valley's Luis Acosta allowed a single hit over two appearances against Buffalo and Utah Valley.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
As a team, NM State leads the WAC in batting with a .322 average. UT Rio Grande Valley leads on the mound with a 3.59 staff ERA while Sacramento State holds a .980 fielding percentage to lead the league on defense. CSU Bakersfield's Ryan Grotjohn holds a WAC-high .452 batting average while Grand Canyon's Jake Wong holds a league-low 1.62 ERA. NMSU's Joey Ortiz leads the league with 38 hits while teammate Austin Botello is the league-leader with 29 RBIs. UTRGV's Jose Garcia has a league-high 27 runs scored while Utah Valley's Jackson Overlund leads the WAC with 12 doubles. CSUB's Mark Pena and NMSU's Brent Sakurai are tied for the lead in triples with three each while Northern Colorado's Cole Maltese and NMSU's Tristen Carranza are the home run leaders with six each. On the mount, UTRGV's Carter Johnson has a WAC-high 53 strikeouts.
ON DECK
WAC play enters its second week with a number of key matchups. Utah Valley looks to stay undefeated and Sacramento State will look for its first league wins of the season when they two teams meet up in Orem. Northern Colorado and Grand Canyon both enter their series this weekend in Phoenix undefeated as one team will look for an early lead in the conference standings. NM State opens up conference play this week when the Aggies visit Seattle U while UTRGV and CSU Bakersfield will both be looking for their first conference wins this weekend in Bakersfield. Chicago State holds the bye and will host Eastern Michigan and Butler in non-conference play.
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.