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GRAND CANYON'S EVANS NAMED WAC HITTER OF THE WEEK
Grand Canyon's Ian Evans has been named WAC Hitter of the Week for April 24 through April 30. Evans, a junior first-baseman from Covina, Calif. (Charter Oak HS/GateWay CC), led the Lopes to a series sweep at NM State, going 9-for-13 against the Aggies. He opened the series with a 4-for-6 night, including a double and two home runs with four RBIs and two runs scored in an 11-9 extra-inning win. He was 2-for-4 in Saturday's win and helped secure the sweep on Sunday with a 3-for-3 performance, also drawing two walks.
Other Hitter of the Week nominees: CSU Bakersfield's Sergio Robles hit .583 on the week as the ‘Runners earned the series win at Sacramento State … Chicago State's Zach Thomas was 6-for-12 as the Cougars earned a win at UTRGV … Northern Colorado's Evan Johnson was 4-for-9 in the Bears' series with Utah Valley … Sacramento State's Vinny Esposito had two triples and a home run in the Hornets' win over CSU Bakersfield on Saturday … Seattle U's Griffin Andreychuk collected his 200th hit last week as part of a 9-for-16 week at the plate … UT Rio Grande Valley's Conrad McMahon was 8-for-18 on the week with seven runs scored as the Vaqueros went 3-1 … Utah Valley's Jake Berry had his first career four-RBI game in Sunday's series-clinching win at Northern Colorado.
UT RIO GRANDE VALLEY'S JOHNSON NAMED WAC PITCHER OF THE WEEK
UT Rio Grande Valley's Carter Johnson has been named Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week for April 24 through April 30. Johnson, a junior from Encitas, Calif. (La Costa Canyon HS/Palomar College), carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning of a 7-1 win over Chicago State on Saturday. He fanned 12 Cougar hitters while allowing CSU to just one run on three hits in the complete game win. It was his second complete game of the season.
Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: CSU Bakersfield's Naithen Dewsnap recorded a pair of saves in CSUB's wins at Sacramento State … Chicago State's Grant Trower held UTRGV to three runs on five hits in the Cougars' win on Sunday … Grand Canyon's Jack Schneider earned the win with seven scoreless innings at NM State on Sunday … Northern Colorado's Aaron Hamilton struck out six in the Bears' 7-0 win over Utah Valley on Sunday morning … Sacramento State's Parker Brahms allowed one run in seven innings to earn the win over CSUB … Seattle U's Connor Moore struck out six batters in the Redhawks' 1-0 win over UNLV … Utah Valley's Jackson Cofer struck out seven and allowed just one hit over 6.1 innings to earn the win against Northern Colorado.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
As a team, CSU Bakersfield leads the WAC with a .315 batting average. Sacramento is both the top pitching team and defensive team with a 3.77 staff ERA and .981 fielding percentage. Individually, CSUB's Ryan Grotjohn is the top hitter with a .417 batting average. Grand Canyon's Jake Wong holds the low ERA at 2.42. NM State's Brent Sakurai leads the WAC with 63 hits while UTRGV's Jose Garcia has a league-high 40 runs scored. NMSU's Dan Hetzel has a WAC-high 48 RBIs. Northern Colorado's Brett Minnick leads the league with 18 doubles while Sakurai is the leader in triples with six. Fellow Aggie Tristen Carranza has a league-best 12 home runs this season. On the hill, NMSU's Marcel Renteria has 77 strikeouts in 65.0 innings pitched to lead the WAC.
In WAC-only play, CSUB is hitting .321 to lead the league. Grant Canyon has the low staff ERA at 2.83 while Sacramento State has the best fielding percentage at .981. CSUB's David Metzgar is hitting .450 in league play while GCU's AJ Franks hasn't allowed a run in 22.1 innings to lead the league with a 0.00 ERA.
ON DECK
With just three weeks remaining in the conference schedule, teams will try to solidify their travel plans to Mesa this week. Grand Canyon, who hold a 3.5 game lead atop the standings, returns to Phoenix to host Seattle U in a three-game series. Northern Colorado makes the trip to CSU Bakersfield as both the Bears and Roadrunners will be looking to pick up crucial wins. NM State travels to Utah Valley as the Aggies still have a conference title and top seed at the tournament in their sights while Sacramento State heads to Chicago State for three important games. UT Rio Grande Valley has the bye this week and will rest their arms following a mid-week non-conference game at home against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
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.
AMAZING METZGAR
CSU Bakersfield's David Metzgar reset a pair of school records at Sacramento State by extending his hitting streak to 22 games and on-base streak to 36.
TIE DOWN
Due to another game scheduled at the part, Seattle U and Portland were forced to settle for a 10-10 tie after eight innings on April 5. It was the first tie in the WAC this season and the fourth in the WAC over the last five season.
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, MESSERVEY, 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.