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NORTHERN COLORADO'S PAULEY NAMED WAC HITTER OF THE WEEK
Northern Colorado's Jack Pauley has been named WAC Hitter of the Week for Feb. 27 through March 5. Pauley, a sophomore outfielder from Overland Park, Kan. (Saint Thomas Aquinas HS), helped lead the Bears to a series win in their home openers, hitting .538 as Northern Colorado took three out of four from North Dakota State. He posted a WAC-best 1.077 slugging percentage as he recorded hits in all four games. His best game came on Saturday afternoon as he went 3-for-4 with a double, a home run, two runs scored and three RBIs in a 7-6 win over the Bison.
Other Hitter of the Week nominees: CSU Bakersfield's Mahlik Jones hit .636 on the week, going 7-for-11 as the ‘Runners took two out of three from Brigham Young … Grand Canyon's Garrison Schwartz hit .385 on the week and had a career-high four runs scored in the series opener at Saint Mary's … NM State's Marcus Still was 8-for-18 as the Aggies took three out of four from Yale … Sacramento State's PJ Floyd had a pair of home runs at Washington … Seattle U's Aaron Stroosma was 7-for-13 from the plate with four runs scored as the Redhawks split a four-game series with Sacred Heart … UT Rio Grande Valley's Jose Garcia had three multi-hit games on the week in a loss at Houston and a series win against Lamar … Utah Valley's Zac Willis had a pair of home runs and six RBIs in the series with Indiana State.
SACRAMENTO STATE'S DILLON NAMED WAC PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Sacramento State's Justin Dillon has been named Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week for Feb. 27 - March 5. Dillon, a senior from Placerville, Calif. (El Dorado HS), earns honors for the second straight week after throwing a gem against nationally-ranked Washington. One week after throwing a no-hitter, he held the Huskies, ranked as high as 11th in the national polls, to just one hit over six scoreless innings. He struck out eight and walked just one of the 21 hitters he faced to earn the win. In 22 innings pitched this year, he has allowed just one run on two hits with two walks and 25 strikeouts.
Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: Grand Canyon's Jake Wong struck out six over six innings in a win at Saint Mary's … NM State's Kyle Bradish had five strikeouts with no walks over seven innings to earn the win over Yale on Saturday … UT Rio Grande Valley's Luis Acosta earned a pair of saves for the Vaqueros in wins over Lamar … Utah Valley's Patrick Wolfe earned saves in both UVU wins in a split with Indiana State.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
NM State continued to perform well at the plate and it shows up in the statistics as the Aggies lead the WAC with a .366 average. UT Rio Grande Valley has the low staff ERA at 2.68 while Sacramento State holds the top fielding percentage at .982. Individually, UTRGV's Jose Garcia is hitting .478 to lead the WAC and NM State's Austin Botello is the leader with 26 hits. Northern Colorado's Cole Maltese is the early home run king with five this season. On the mound, UTRGV's Eddie Delgado has yet to give up a run in 12.2 innings pitched and teammate Carter Johnson has a league-high 28 strikeouts in 20.0 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.
AGGIE OFFENSE
After scoring just 17 runs in their first three games, the NM State Aggies have been nearly unstoppable on offense, having scored 155 runs in 14 games played.
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.