United Athletic Conference

Grand Canyon's Ryland Zaborowski and Zach Barnes have been named TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for Feb. 15 – Feb. 21.

 

Zaborowski, a freshman from Gilbert, Ariz., made the most of his first collegiate weekend, posting four-straight multi-hit games as the Lopes took 3-of-4 from Missouri. In his GCU debut, the freshman went 3-for-4 from the plate, driving in a pair of RBIs and scoring twice in the Lopes' 11-3 win. In Saturday's doubleheader, he was a combined 4-for-8 from the dish with three RBIs in the twin bill split. In Sunday's finale, he was 2-for-4 with a pair of runs to help GCU clinch the series with a 10-3 win. His nine hits are a WAC-high through the first weekend of the 2021 season.

 

Barnes, a senior from Chandler, Ariz., took the ball and dealt on opening night to lead the Lopes to a season-opening win over Missouri. Over six scoreless innings pitched, he scattered two hits and recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts without a walk.

 

Other Hitter of the Week nominees: California Baptist's Damon Keith hit three home runs in the Lancers opening-weekend series win over WCC-favorite Pepperdine … Northern Colorado's Jake Gitter posted a .538 batting average as the Bears opened the season by taking 2-of-3 from Colorado Christian … Tarleton's Wade Raburn went 3-for-4 at the plate with five RBIs to lead the Texans to their first Division I win on Sunday against Abilene Christian … UT Rio Grande Valley's Christian Sepulveda had a career-high four RBIs in UTRGV's season-opening game against Baylor … Utah Valley's Mitch Moralez led the Wolverines with a .357 average in a road split at St. Mary's.

 

Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: California Baptist's Bryan Pope struck out nine and allowed just one hit over five innings pitched to earn the win on opening night against Pepperdine … Northern Colorado's Sam Leach earned the win on Saturday evening against Colorado Christian, allowing one run on one hit with five strikeouts in five innings pitched … UT Rio Grande Valley's Deryk Serbantez picked up the win against perennial power Baylor, allowing one run with a career-high four strikeouts over two innings to earn the W … Utah Valley's Jesse Schmit started right where he left off in 2020 by tossing five innings of shutout baseball with four strikeouts and two walks over five innings to earn the win at Saint Mary's.

 

A busy week begins on Tuesday in the place where the 2020 MLB season concluded as Tarleton heads to the metroplex to take on UTA at Globe Life Park, home of the Texas Rangers. The Texans will remain on the road on Wednesday, heading down to College Station to take on Texas A&M before venturing to Louisiana for a weekend series at Northwestern State. Sacramento State takes on Pacific in a four-game split series that will take place both at John Smith Ballpark in Sacramento and in Stockton, Calif. Seattle U takes on Oregon in Eugene while Grand Canyon hosts Oregon State in Phoenix. Dixie State kicks off the Division I era at home aginast Washington State and NM State will also open the season this weekend on the road at future WAC school Abilene Christian. California Baptist hosts Saint Mary's, UT Rio Grande Valley heads to Washington, Northern Colorado hosts South Dakota State and Utah Valley visits old friend CSU Bakersifeld.

 

Just one weekend into the season, Northern Colorado leads the league with a .345 batting average, Utah Valley has the low ERA at 1.59 and Grand Canyon boasts the top fielding percentage at .981. Indvidually, NC's Josh Glenn is hitting .700 through three games while GCU freshman Ryland Zaborowski has the lead in hits (9). Both CBU's Damon Keith and NC's Jake Gitter hit a trio of home runs on the opening weekend. On the hill, GCU's Zach Barnes has the early strikeout lead at 10 while several pitchers will take a 0.00 ERA into week two.

 

Perhaps sad about all the baseball they missed in 2020, Northern Colorado played 15 innings in its season-opening loss to Colorado Christian.

 

Grand Canyon, Sacramento State and UT Rio Grande Valley sit in a three-way tie as the preseason favorites to win the 2021 Western Athletic Conference baseball title while GCU's Juan Colato and Sacramento State's Scott Randall 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.

 

UTRGV held the slight edge in the trio at the top, collecting four first-place votes while totaling 73 points. GCU and Sacramento State each received three first-place votes and had 73 points each as well to secure the three-way tie. NM State was selected fourth with 53 points, followed by California Baptist in fifth with 49 points. Seat tle U is predicted to finish sixth with 37 points and Utah Valley is seventh at 32 points. Newcomer Dixie State was selected eighth and Northern Colorado and Tarleton tied for ninth in the preseason prognostication. 

 

Colato and Randall highlight the Preseason All-WAC squad. Colato is joined by teammates Pierson Ohl and Frankie Scalzo. UT Rio Grande Valley had three selected as Conrado Diaz, Joseph Impeduglia and Christian Sepulveda earned honors. Seattle U had two honored as Justin Kodama and Connor O'Brien represented the Redhawks and California Baptist also had a pair earn honors as Ulises Caballero and Chad Castillo were named to the team. NM State was represented by Noah Haupt, Tarleton was represented by Blake Burns and Utah Valley's Jesse Schmit was honored to round out the 14-member team.

 

The WAC will feature a couple new teams as Dixie State and Tarleton joined the conference as full members on July 1, 2020. Chris Pfatenhauer enters his ninth season leading the Dixie State Trailblazers while Aaron Meade will embark on his second season leading the Tarleton Texans. The two teams replace CSU Bakersfield, who departed the league for the Big West, and Chicago State, who discontinued their program.

 

A pair of WAC closers have been named to the NCBWA Preseason Stopper of the Year Watch List. Both Grand Canyon's Frankie Scalzo and Sacramento State's Stone Churby are among 45 players listed.

 

On Jan. 14, the WAC announced the addition of five new schools in the upcoming years. Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin and Southern Utah were all offered and accepted membership invitations. With the addition, the WAC will have six schools in Texas, more than any other conference in the country, and three schools in Utah, also a national best. The four Texas schools will join the league on July 1, 2021 and Southern Utah, who does not sponsor baseball, will follow 365 days later, officially joining the WAC on July 1, 2022.

 

The 2021 season will mark the final season in the WAC for Northern Colorado. The Bears, who are in their eighth season as an affiliate member, will move to the Summit League for baseball while keeping their other sports in the Big Sky Conference. 

 

After having to cancel the tournament last 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 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.