United Athletic Conference

Complete Release (PDF)

 

Sacramento State's Trevor Doyle and Tarleton's Alex Pinedo have been named TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for Feb. 22 – Feb. 28.

 

Doyle, a sophomore outfielder from Las Vegas, led the Hornets to a weekend sweep over Texas State, hitting .500 from the plate on the three-game set. He opened Saturday's doubleheader by going 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs and three runs scored in an 8-4 win. In the nightcap, he was 1-of-4 swinging the bat, scoring once. He rounded out the week with a 1-for-2 afternoon on Sunday, picking up a pair of walks and scoring twice as the Hornets completed the sweep with a 7-1 win.

 

Pinedo, a senior left-hander from El Paso, Texas, took care of business on the hill in the Texans' 3-0 win at Northwestern State on Friday. The southpaw struck out seven and walked just one while scattering two hits in a nine-inning complete game win. 

 

Other Hitter of the Week nominees: California Baptist's Chad Minato led the Lancer offense against Saint Mary's, hitting .364 against the Gaels … Dixie State's Tanner Harper was 5-for-15 at the plate as the Trailblazers dropped a series to Washington State … Grand Canyon's Channy Ortiz had a career-high four hits on Saturday against Oregon State … NM State's Ethan Mann had a pair of multi-hit games as the Aggies opened the season with three games at Abilene Christian … Northern Colorado's Aiden Leahy was 3-for-5 with a pair of runs on Sunday against South Dakota State … Seattle U's Justin Mazzone played a big part in a pair of wins over Oregon, going 4-for-8 in the two wins in Eugene … UT Rio Grande Valley's Diego Ramirez put up a career-high three hits in Monday's 8-4 win over Baylor.

 

Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: California Baptist's Liam Rocha allowed two runs on four hits over the first five innings of an 8-5 win against Saint Mary's … Dixie State's Jimmy Borzone struck out five and walked one while allowing three hits over 5.2 innings in the season-opener against Washington State … Grand Canyon's Pierson Ohl struck out nine and didn't walk a batter while scattering just two hits over seven innings in a no-decision against Oregon State … NM State's Chris Jefferson earned a complete-game win, allowing two runs on six hits in a 12-2 seven-inning win at Abilene Christian … Northern Colorado's Jacob Salim allowed one run on two hits with six strikeouts in a no-decision at home against South Dakota State … Sacramento State's Eli Saul picked up his first win of the season in a win over Texas State, allowing just one run on five hits over six innings … Seattle U's Morgan White struck out six and allowed just one hit over 5.2 innings but didn't get the decision in an 8-4 win at Oregon.

 

Another full week on non-conference play is on tap this week, beginning on Tuesday with NM State visiting Texas State on Tuesday and Tarleton hosting UAPB for a two-game set on Tueday and Wednesday. Sacramento State opens a road series at Santa Clara on Thursday while other weekend series feature Northern Illinois at UT Rio Grande Valley, North Dakota State at Northern Colorado, Dixie State at Wichita State, Grand Canyon at 15th-ranked Oklahoma State, California Baptist at UC Davis, Washington State at Seattle U, NM State at Texas A&M and Utah Valley at Cal Poly. Tarleton will also be in action, taking on both Missouri State and Central Arkansas in Conway, Ark.

 

Two weeks in, Northern Colorado leads the league with a .289 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 .476 through seven games while GCU's Channy Ortiz has the lead in hits (12). NC's ake Gitter has the lead in runs scored (9) while Glenn is the leader in RBIs (11). SAC's Dawsen Bacho holds the lead in doubles (4) and 10 players have a single triple this year. CBU's Damon Keith, NC's Jake Gitter and SAC's Martin Vincelli-Simard have hit a trio of home runs. On the hill, GCU's Zach Barnes has the early strikeout lead at 18 while several pitchers will take a 0.00 ERA into week three.

 

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.