United Athletic Conference

The 2020 season begins this weekend and a pair of WAC squads will face some nationally-ranked opponents right off the bat. Grand Canyon will host 17th-ranked Oklahoma State in a three game series in Phoenix while Northern Colorado heads to Lubbock to take on third-ranked Texas Tech, as well as a couple neutral site games with Houston Baptist. Sacramento State plays host to UC Santa Barbara in a three-game rematch of the NCAA Regionals last year that saw the Hornets eliminate the Gauchos. Four other WAC teams will open the season at home with NM State taking on Texas Southern, Seattle U hosting Creighton, CSU Bakersfield welcoming Washington State and UT Rio Grande Valley battling against Kansas State. Chicago State heads to the east coast to take on Western Carolina, California Baptist makes the trip north to take on Pacific and Utah Valley heads to Texas to take on Abilene Christian.

 

Grand Canyon is the preseason favorite to win the 2020 Western Athletic Conference baseball title while NM State's Nick Gonzales and GCU's Kade Mechals were selected WAC Preseason Player and Pitcher of the Year respectively in a vote of the league's 10 head coaches, who could not vote for their own team or players.

 

The Lopes received just two first-place votes but picked up six second-place votes to top the preseason poll with 73 points. Sacramento State was a close second, using four first-place votes to total 71 points. NM State was third with two first-place votes and 66 points overall, followed by UT Rio Grande Valley, with two first-place votes, and California Baptist tying for fourth at 55 points. CSU Bakersfield was selected sixth with 39 points, followed by Seattle U (35), Utah Valley (29), Northern Colorado (18) and Chicago State (9).

 

Gonzales and Mechals highlight the Preseason All-WAC squad. Gonzales is joined by teammates Kevin Jimenez and Tristan Peterson while Mechals is joined by fellow Lopes Pierson Ohl and Frankie Scalzo. UT Rio Grande Valley also had three selected as Conrado Diaz, Coleman Grubbs and Christian Sepulveda represented the Valley. Sacramento State had a pair honored as Matt Smith and Scott Randall each made the list. California Baptist's Chad Castillo earned a nod, CSU Bakersfield was represented by Tyler Jorgensen and Utah Valley's Mick Madsen was honored to round out the 14-member team.

 

Coming off a sophomore campaign where he led the nation in batting average with a .432 clip and ranked third in slugging percentage and fifth in on-base percentage, NM State junior infielder Nick Gonzales has been named First Team Preseason All-American by D1Baseball.com, Baseball America, and Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. He was also named a Second Team Preseason All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

 

The 2018 WAC Freshman of the Year heads into 2020 with a 66-game reached base streak after ending his freshman year with an 11-game streak and successfully reaching base all 55 games as a sophomore. Playing for the Cotuit Kettleers, Gonzales was named the Player of the Year in the Cape Cod League.

 

Grand Canyon right-hander Kade Mechals earned First Team Preseason All-American honors by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association after going 11-1 with a 2.16 ERA as a junior. Mechals was also named Third Team Preseason All-American by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. He was joined on the CBN Third Team by teammate Cuba Bess.

 

NM State first baseman Tristan Peterson was named a First Team Preseason All-American by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and picked up Second Team Preseason All-American honors by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.  Teammate Chance Hroch was also honored by the NCBWA, earning third team honors.

 

Two WAC schools will take on their local Major League Baseball clubs this spring as Grand Canyon will face off against the Arizona Diamonbacks on March 17 at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale, Ariz. and Chicago State will take on south-side neighbor Chicago White Sox on March 18 at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Ariz.

 

Following the departure of Brian Green to take over the baseball program at Washington State, NM State hired Mike Kirby to lead the Aggies into 2020. Kirby comes to the City of Crosses with a championship pedigree, having one won seven conference titles – including the 1995 College World Series Championship at his alma mater Cal State Fullerton. He's also seen 104 players selected in the MLB Draft during his coaching career – including 27 that have played in the Major Leagues. The Huntington Beach, Calif., native spent the last five seasons at Nebraska (2014-19) where he served as an assistant head coach. While in Lincoln, Kirby worked with the infielders and served as the team's third-base case. In those five seasons, he helped see 13 players selected in the MLB Draft.

 

The WAC has 53 non-conference games scheduled this season against 2019 NCAA tournament qualifiers. Of those games, 15 are against Super Regional participants and nine come against College World Series participants. Grand Canyon plays the most with 16 non-conference games against 2019 NCAA tournament participants with Chicago State also reaching double-digits as the Cougars take on 10 postseason schools from last season.

 

Dixie State and Tarleton State will join the Western Athletic Conference as full-time members in 2020-21 in conjunction with CSU Bakersfield leaving the conference. The Blazers and Texans will begin their four-year transition process to Division I in July 2020, making them ineligible to compete in post season tournaments (WAC and NCAA) until the 2024-25 season.

 

For the sixth 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.  Managed for one more season by hall of famer Mark Gallo, 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 18 times and the event hase been held in Mesa 11 times.  Sacramento State became the first ever team to win six-straight games to win the 2019 tournament, earning the WAC's automatic qualification to the NCAA Tournament.