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CSU'S LOWE NAMED WAC HITTER OF THE WEEK
Chicago State's Tyler Lowe has been named Western Athletic Conference Hitter of the Week for April 23 through April 29. Lowe, a junior infielder from Northville, Mich. (Northville HS/Elgin CC) led the Cougars to their second-straight WAC series win, hitting .600 on the week with a 1.100 slugging percentage. In the Cougars' two non-conference games, he was 3-for-4 against both Purdue and Bradley to warm up his bat for conference play. Against Northern Colorado, he was 6-for-12 with a pair of home runs, 8 RBIs and six runs scored. On the week, he recorded four multi-hit games with three home runs, seven runs scored and 11 RBIs.
Other Hitter of the Week nominees: CSU Bakersfield's Noah Barba hit .500 on the week, including a 3-for-5 night in a 7-5 win at Seattle U on Friday … Grand Canyon's Quin Cotton was 5-for-5 with three doubles and a home run in Sunday's series-clinching win over NM State … Sacramento State's Ian Dawkins hit .353 on the week as the Hornets earned a non-conference win over California and a series win at UT Rio Grande Valley … Seattle U's Curtis Perrin was 8-for-15 on the week as the Redhawks picked up a win over Washington State and a series win over CSU Bakersfield … UT Rio Grande Valley's Roger Varella III went 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored in Saturday's 7-6 win over Sacramento State … Utah Valley's David Modley hit a three-run go-ahead home run in a win at Saint Mary's.
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 23 through April 29. Dalton, a junior right-hander from Lethbridge, Canada (Prairie Baseball Academy), earns honors for the second straight week after having a near perfect week out of the bullpen, not allowing a hit in five innings pitched and picking up three saves in three opportunities. In a non-conference game at California, he threw two no-hit innings to earn the save in a 4-1 win over the Bears. In Friday's WAC contest at UT Rio Grande Valley, he struck out three of the five hitters he faced to earn the save and again returned to the hill on Sunday, striking out two over two no-hit innings to earn his third save of the week and ninth of the season.
Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: CSU Bakersfield's Andrew Ciandro earned the win on Friday, allowing two hits over three innings in a 7-5 victory … Chicago State's Zach Thomas struck out eight and allowed just one run on five hits over six innings to earn the win on Saturday against Northern Colorado … Grand Canyon's Ethan Evanko struck out eight and allowed one run on six hits over six innings in an 8-4 win over NM State on Sunday … Utah Valley's Jake Carr struck out four in 3.1 innings of scoreless relief to earn the win at Saint Mary's.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
NM State leads the WAC in batting (.328), Sacramento State is the leader in pitching (3.78 ERA) and Grand Canyon holds the lead in fielding (.977). NMSU's Nick Gonzales is the individual batting leader at .402 while SAC's Parker Brahms holds the low ERA at 2.17 through 66.1 innings pitched. Indvidually, GCU's Quin Cotton is the hits leader (70) and NMSU's Logan Ehnes is the runs scored leader (48). Fellow Aggie Caleb Henderson is the RBI leader (52) while teammate Trey Stine has a WAC-best 16 doubles on the season. NMSU's Ehnes is also the triples leader (5) while NM State's Henderson joins teammate Tristen Carranza and SAC's James Outman for the home run lead (8). NM State's Kyle Bradish continues to lead the league in strikeouts with 88 in 61.2 innings pitched.
In WAC-only play, Grand Canyon holds a league-best .328 batting average. Sacramento State is tops in both pitching (2.57 ERA) and fielding (.978). NMSU's Henderson has the best individual batting average (.420) while UTRGV's Ryan Jackson has the low ERA (1.12) against conference opponents. NMSU's Henderson also leads the WAC in hits (29), RBIs (31), doubles (8) and home runs (6) in conference play. NMSU's Ehnes is the leader in runs scored (22) and triples (3). SU's Tarik Skubal and SAC's Brahms are tied for the lead in strikeouts with 40 each.
ON DECK
Another quality non-conference slate leads into an exciting conference weekend. Utah Valley take on Arizona on Monday in Provo, Utah to open the action. Seattle U hosts Washington on Tuesday afternoon, Chicago State heads to Northwestern, Sacramento State visits Nevada, NM State welcomes rival New Mexico, CSU Bakersfield is home against UC Santa Barbara and UTRGV hosts UIW. In conference play, Seattle U visits Sacramento State, Utah Valley heads to NM State, Grand Canyon tries to stay in first place at CSU Bakersfield and UT Rio Grande Valley makes the trek to Northern Colorado. Chicago State has the conference bye and will hit the road for three games at Air Force.
SERIES STREAK
Grand Canyon's series win against NM State was the 14th-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.
WAC BEATING THE PAC
The WAC went 4-0 last week against the Pac-12 with UT Rio Grande Valley winning at Washington, Sacramento State winning at California, NM State winning at Arizona State and Seattle U earning a home win against Washington State. The Pac-12 still holds a 9-16 season advantage but the WAC has held its own against Power 5 opponents this season, going 21-37 against schools from the biggest conferences, including 1-1 against the ACC and 7-5 against the Big Ten.
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.