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NMSU's ORTIZ NAMED WAC HITTER OF THE WEEK
NM State's Joey Ortiz has been named Western Athletic Conference Hitter of the Week for April 16 through April 22.Ortiz, a sophomore infielder from Garden Grove, Calif. (Pacifica HS), led the WAC with a .500 average on the week as the Aggies picked up a pair of wins and the series victory at Northern Colorado. In the series opener, he was 3-for-3 from the plate, knocking in a pair of RBIs and scoring once himself. He followed that up with a 2-for-5 afternoon on Saturday in the Aggies' 12-9 win, again driving in two RBIs and scoring three times. He finished out the weekend going 1-for-4 with a run scored as NM State took the series with a 6-3 win.
Other Hitter of the Week nominees: CSU Bakersfield's Luis Martinez hit a pair of home runs in a mid-week win over Hawai'i … Grand Canyon's Quin Cotton posted back-to-back three-hit games as the Lopes took 2-of-3 at nationally-ranked Illinois … Northern Colorado's Jack Pauley was 5-for-5 in the Bears' 13-7 win over NM State on Friday … Sacramento State's Ian Dawkins led the Hornets with seven hits as Sacramento State won 3-of-4 on the week, including 2-of-3 at CSU Bakersfield … Seattle U's Sean Sutton drove in the game-winning run in Sunday's extra-inning win over UT Rio Grande Valley … UT Rio Grande Valley's Noah Lee had a hit in each of the Vaqueros' games this week, including a 2-for-4 day in the win over Seattle U.
SAC ST'S DALTON NAMED WAC PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Sacramento State's Tanner Dalton has been named Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week for April 16 through April 22. Dalton, a junior right-hander from Lethbridge, Canada (Prairie Baseball Academy), allowed just one hit over four innings to earn a pair of saves in three appearances. In a non-conference win over UC Davis, he allowed one hit and struck out one over one inning on the hill. On Saturday, he struck out two over one hitless inning to earn the save in a 3-1 win. He followed that up with two innings of no-hit ball to earn the save on Sunday in an 8-6 victory.
Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: CSU Bakersfield's Kyle King earned a pair of saves in three appearances for the ‘Runners … Chicago State's Robert Gutierez struck out six and allowed just one hit over five innings of relief to earn the win on Sunday against Utah Valley … Grand Canyon's Jake Wong struck out three and allowed just one run on two hits over six innings to earn the win on Friday against Illinois … NM State's Brock Whittlesey earned two wins on the week, including a five strikeout win on Saturday at Northern Colorado … Northern Colorado's Keenan Lum allowed two runs and struck out four but took the no decision in a 6-3 loss to NM State … Seattle U's Tarik Skubal matched his season high with 12 strikeouts over 5.2 innings in a 12-8 win over UT Rio Grande Valley … UT Rio Grande Valley's Jorge Flores struck out five over seven innings to earn the win on Saturday at Seattle U … Utah Valley's Jake Mayer threw a complete game shutout to earn the 1-0 win on Friday at Chicago State.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
NM State leads the WAC in batting (.327), Sacramento State is the leader in pitching (3.91 ERA) and Grand Canyon holds the lead in fielding (.979). NMSU's Nick Gonzales is the individual batting leader at .384 while SAC's Parker Brahms holds the low ERA at 1.77 through 61.0 innings pitched. Indvidually, GCU's Quin Cotton is the hits leader (60) and NMSU's Logan Ehnes is the runs scored leader (43). Fellow Aggie Caleb Henderson is the RBI leader (47) while teammate Trey Stine has a WAC-best 15 doubles on the season. UVU's Paul Estrada, NMSU's Ehnes and CSUB's Ryan Koch are tied for the lead in triples with four each. NM State's Tristen Carranza is the home run leader with eight and teammate Kyle Bradish is the strikeout leader with 82 in 56.2 innings pitched.
In WAC-only play, Grand Canyon holds a league-best .324 batting average. Sacramento State is tops in both pitching (2.43 ERA) and fielding (.980). NMSU's Logan Bottrell has the best individual batting average (.405) while UTRGV's Ryan Jackson has the low ERA (0.69) against conference opponents. UVU's Trevor Peterson leads in hits (23), NMSU's Ehnes is the leader in runs (18) and NMSU's Henderson is the leader in RBIs (26).
ON DECK
There are a handful of games against Power 5 opponents this week, beginning with UTRGV visiting Washington on Monday. Chicago State heads to Purdue and Sacramento State visits California on Tuesday. Seattle U hosts Washington State on Wednesday while NM State visits Arizona State, also on Wednesday. In conference play, Northern Colorado heads to Chicago Statee, CSU Bakersfield makes the trip to Seattle, U, Sacramento State treks to UT Rio Grande Valley and NM State matches up with Grand Canyon in Phoenix. Utah Valley has the bye and will head to California for a non-conference series with Saint Mary's.
SERIES STREAK
Grand Canyon's series win at UT Rio Grande Valley was the 13th-consecutive WAC series win for the Lopes, the longest active streak in the nation. Grand Canyon's last series loss was May 12-15, 2016 at Sacramento State.
MILESTONE WINS
Seattle U skipper Donny Harrel earned his 200th career win on March 13 with the Redhawks 9-6 win at Portland. GCU head coach Andy Stakieeicz also hit the 200-win mark on April 8 against Utah Valley. Sacramento State leader Reggie Christansen recently won in 100th WAC game on April 7 against Chicago State. NM State skipper Brian Green is the latest to meet a milestone, beating rival New Mexico for win 100.
OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION
NM State's 39-0 win on Feb. 23 against Mississippi Valley reset a couple WAC records. The 39 runs scored set a new top mark that was previously held by Rice in 1997 against Cincinnati and NM State in 2006 against Northern Iowa with 37 each. The 35 RBIs also set a new mark, besting the previous record of 33 by Arizona State in 1974 against UTEP and NM State in 2006 against Northern Iowa.
ONE OF EACH PLEASE
Utah Valley's Jackson Overlund became the first WAC player of the season to hit for the cycle, doing it on Feb. 24 in the nightcap at Pacific. He hit a home run in the second, single in the fifth, triple in the seventh and double in the ninth to complete the feat.
WAC COACHES SELECT GCU, BRADISH, FISHBACK AS PRESEASON FAVORITES
Grand Canyon is the preseason favorite to win the 2018 Western Athletic Conference baseball title while NM State's Kyle Bradish and Mason Fishback 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 Lopes received five first place votes to finish atop the preseason poll with 61 points. NM State was second, earning two first place votes and 54 points overall. Sacramento State earned one of the remaining first place votes to finish third with 51 points. Seattle U was selected fourth with 46 points and the last first place vote, followed by CSU Bakersfield, Utah Valley, UT Rio Grande Valley, Northern Colorado and Chicago State.
Bradish and Fishback highlighted the Preseason All-WAC squad as NM State led the way with four players. The Aggies' Joey Ortiz and Tristen Carranza joined Bradish and Fishback on the list. Sacramento State had three earn honors as the Hornets were represented by Vinny Esposito, Ian Dawkins and James Outman. Grand Canyon was represented by three as well with Ian Evans, Austin Bull and Jake Wong selected to the team. CSU Bakersfield had two selections with Andrew Penner and Naithen Dewsnap earning honors. Northern Colorado outfielder Jack Pauley and Seattle U pitcher Tarik Skubal rounded out the 14-member squad.
CSUB'S DEWSNAP EARNS NCBWA PRESEASON HONORS
The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) released its 18th annual Preseason All-America Teams and CSU Bakersfield's Naithen Dewsnap became the first Roadrunner in program history to earn a spot on the squad. He was also among 52 players named to the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Watchlist. Dewsnap, a native of Norco, Calif., was selected Preseason All-America Third Team as a relief pitcher after a stellar first year with the Roadrunners in 2017. A transfer from Chaffey College, the then junior reset the school record for most saves in a season as well as the CSUB career record with 14. Two of those saves came in the WAC Tournament, where Dewsnap was named to the All-Tournament Team after throwing six scoreless innings for Bakersfield.
NEW SKIPPER IN EDINBURG
UT Rio Grande Valley announced in June that Derek Matlock, who spent the last five years as the recruiting coordinator and pitching coach at West Virginia and the 19 years prior coaching in Texas, is the new head coach of the UTRGV baseball team. West Virginia is coming off its first NCAA Regional berth in 21 years after earning the first at-large bid in program history by going 36-26. In Matlock's five seasons, West Virginia went 160-127 (.557) and made the Big 12 Tournament every year. Matlock recruited and coached five All-Americans and had six pitchers drafted, including three in the top 15 rounds of the MLB Draft.
KEEPING THE BEARD
CSU Bakersfield announced in July that it was removing the interim title from Jeremy Beard as he was hired as head coach after serving in the temporary position for the entire 2017 season. Under Beard's first season at the helm, the Roadrunners rebounded from a 19-37 season in 2016 to post a 32-24 mark in 2017. The Roadrunners also improved their WAC record to 14-10 this season, earning a third-place finish in the regular season, a second-seed in the WAC Tournament where they advanced to the championship against Sacramento State.
READY TO GO
After playing through a four-year transition period to NCAA Division I, Grand Canyon is eligible for the postseason this year. The Lopes are predicted to win the WAC after winning the regular season title last season.
COMING SOON
California Baptist is scheduled to join the WAC for 2018-2019 competition. They will begin their four year transition process to Division 1. This will make them ineligible to compete in post season tournaments (WAC and NCAA) until 2022-2023 season. They will be coming from the Pacific West Conference where they won five championships (M&W Cross Country, W. Basketball, W. Golf, and Softball) during 2016-2017 season.
WAC TOURNAMENT RETURNS TO HOHOKAM STADIUM
For the fourth 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, an experienced stadium manager in Mark Gallo 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 16 times (1963, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 76, 78, 2010, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17) and the event was held in Mesa in 1971, 1973, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Sacramento State won the 2017 tournament, earning the WAC's automatic qualification to the NCAA Tournament.