United Athletic Conference

Complete Release (PDF)

 

UT Rio Grande Valley's Conrado Diaz and Max Balderrama Jr. have been named TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for March 2 – March 8.

 

Diaz, a senior catcher/infielder from San Diego, paced the UTRGV offense that saw the Vaqueros outscore NJIT 48-3 over the four-game series. Hitting .615 on the weekend, his best game came in the series finale, going 5-for-5 with four doubles, three RBIs and two runs scored in a 10-2 win. He had multiple-RBIs in three of the four games and slugged 1.000 on the week.

 

Balderrama, a senior right-hander from Crosby, Texas, made the most of his first career start, pitching a complete game shutout in a 19-0 win over NJIT. Throwing a career-high seven innings, he also set a career-high in strikeouts with 10, walking just one and scattering four hits. The senior is posting a 2.40 earned-run average over 15.0 innings pitched, having earned the win over the weekend and also picking up a save on Feb. 15 against Kansas State.

 

Other Hitter of the Week nominees: California Baptist's Harrison Spohn batted .438 for the Lancers, posting a .688 slugging percentage thanks to a pair of double and a triple in a series-split at Nevada … Grand Canyon's Juan Colato hit .364 with three home runs and seven RBIs in a busy week for the Lopes as GCU split a two-game series with New Mexico before earning a series win over Pacific … NM State's Austin Duffy reached base in all three games against 24th-ranked Texas A&M, including picking up his first triple of the season on Saturday … Sacramento State's Dawsen Bacho hit safely in each of the Hornets' four games, adding a double, home run and five RBIs in the 2-2 week … Seattle U's Connor O'Brien came within a home run of the cycle on Friday night in an 11-5 win at Boise State … Utah Valley's Mitch Moralez was 4-for-5 on Friday night at Washington, helping the Wolverines earn the 7-0 win to open the series at the Pac-12 foe.

 

Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: California Baptist's Bryan Pope picked up his third win of the season with eight strikeouts and one walk over 6.2 innings at Nevada … Grand Canyon's Pierson Ohl allowed one run on eight hits with five strikeouts to earn the victory in a 12-1 blowout win over Pacific … NM State's Chance Hroch struck out nine and walked just one in a loss at 24th-ranked Texas A&M on Friday night … Sacramento State's Travis Adams earned the win on Sunday at UC Irvine, allowing just two hits with seven strikeouts over seven scoreless innings … Seattle U's Jarrod Billig put together another solid outing, striking out six and allowing just one earned run to earn the win at Boise State … Utah Valley's Jesse Schmit struck out eight over seven scoreless innings to earn the win at Washington on Friday night.

 

The action starts early this week as Chicago State visits sixth-ranked Louisville for games on Tuesday and Wednesday. Grand Canyon will also have a nationally-ranked opponent on Tuesday as the Lopes head to 15th-ranked Arkansas for a pair before continuing on to Baylor this weekend. Utah Valley will host Air Force in a couple games at BYU's Larry H. Miller Field before welcoming first-year program Boise State to Orem this weekend. UT Rio Grande Valley faces off against rival Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and then hosts Texas Southern for a weekend series. Northern Colorado heads across I-80 to Nebraska for a pair before traveling to California for a series at San José State. CSU Bakersfield travels to UC Santa Barbara on Tuesday before hosting UC Riverside this weekend while UC Davis makes the trip to California Baptist for a weekend grouping. Sacramento State travels to Nevada to round out the schedule.

 

NM State leads the league in team batting with a .318 average. Sacramento State has a 2.00 ERA while NM State also leads the league on defense with a .978 fielding percentage. Individually, NMSU's Nick Gonzales has the top batting average at .448 and UVU's Jesse Schmit has the top ERA among eligible pitchers at 1.08. NMSU's Gonzales is tied with UVU's Mitch Moralez and GCU's Juan Colato for the lead in hits (26) while the Aggie leads the league in runs (28), RBIs (36), home runs (12) and total bases. Moralez is tied with UTRGV's Conrado Diaz and SU's Julian Kodama for the lead in doubles (7) while UTRGV's Andy Atwood holds the triples lead (3). On the hill, SAC's Parker Brahms has the strikeout lead at 32 through 23.2 innings pitched.

 

In perhaps the top 24 hours in college baseball this season, NM State phenom Nick Gonzales belted five home runs with 10 RBIs in a doubleheader sweep of Purdue Fort Wayne on Feb. 29. Of those dingers, the most impressive came in the fourth inning of the nightcap as Gonzales hit an inside-the-park grand slam.

 

UT Rio Grande Valley turned the WAC's first triple play on Feb. 25 in Houston. The Cougars had bases loaded with no outs in the bottom of the 11th before Dax Dathe hit a ball to third base for the 5-2-5-6-4 triple play. The Vaqueros went on to score in the top of the 12th to win the game, 6-5.

 

NM State's Nick Gonzales was the first WAC player to hit for the cycle this season, achieving the feat on Feb. 23 against Iona. After hitting a two-run home run in the bottom of the first, he doubled in the third to get him halfway there. His triple came in the sixth inning and after his second home run of the day in the seventh inning, he singled in the eighth to complete the task.

 

Sacramento State senior right-hander Parker Brahms became the Hornets all-time strikeout king with his 278th career strikeout on Feb. 21 against Milwaukee.

 

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.