United Athletic Conference

California Baptist's John Glenn and Sacramento State's Scott Randall have been named TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for March 15 to March 21.

 

Glenn, a senior first baseman from Thousand Oaks, Calif., helped the Lancers stay undefeated in WAC play, hitting .357 in a series sweep over Tarleton. His best game came in the series opener, going 2-of-4 at the plate with three RBIs and two runs scored. He finished the week with eight RBIs, three runs scored and a pair of home runs. 

 

Randall, a junior right-hander from Rocklin, Calif., as nearly unhittable on Friday night, striking out 14 batters and not allowing a single walk in a 9-3 win over Dixie State. Over seven innings on the hill, he scattered four hits and allowed just one run. On the season, he now has 41 strikeouts in 38.0 innings pitched and has just walked two batters in 2021.

 

Other Hitter of the Week nominees: Dixie State's Lane Pritchard hit .550 in five games this week, including a 3-for-4 game in an 9-7 upset win at Utah … Grand Canyon's Juan Colato was instrumental in the Lopes' series win at Tulane, going 6-of-13 from the plate with three runs scored and three RBIs … NM State's Ethan Mann had four RBIs through the first three games of the Aggies' WAC series at Seattle U … Northern Colorado's Josh Glenn hit .538 on the week as the Bears split a four-game series with Utah Valley … Sacramento State's Trevor Doyle led the Hornets with a .357 batting average as Sacramento State took three of four at home against Dixie State … UT Rio Grande Valley's Freddy Rojas Jr. extended his home run streak to six straight games in the first two games of a four-game series at Dallas Baptist … Utah Valley's Alexander Marco pounded out four extra-base hits on the week.

 

Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: California Baptist's Chris Burica continued to dominate for the Lancers, picking up 10 strikeouts and allowing just one run on five hits over seven innings in a 6-2 win over Tarleton on Friday night … Dixie State's Dillon Holliday was the pitcher of record in both DSU victories last week, earning the wins at Utah on Tuesday and Sacramento State on Sunday … Grand Canyon's Carter Young earned the win in GCU's first shutout win of the year, striking out six and scattering four hits over six innings in a 6-0 victory at Tulane … NM State's Chris Jefferson recorded his third complete game of the season in a 2-1 win over Seattle U on Saturday … Northern Colorado's Sam Leach earned the complete-game series-opening win over Utah Valley, allowing just two hits over eight innings in to 10-0 victory … Seattle U's Morgan White struck out six and scattered three hits over five innings in a 2-1 win over NM State on Friday … UT Rio Grande Valley's Max Balderrama Jr. struck out five and allowed just one run on three hits over five innings in a no-decision at Dallas Baptist … Utah Valley's Bobby Voortmeyer picked up the win on Saturday at Northern Colorado, allowing one run on four hits over 5.2 innings pitched.

 

Action begins on Monday with Sacramento State hosting 24th-ranked Stanford and NM State finishing up its WAC series at Seattle U. Then on Tuesday, UT Rio Grande Valley hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. In WAC action beginning on Thursday, Dixie State visits Tarleton, Seattle U heads to Northern Colorado, California Baptist travels to UT Rio Grande Valley and Grand Canyon treks to Utah Valley. NM State will also be in action, taking on 20th-ranked Oregon in Eugene while Sacramento State heads to the home of the College World Series to take on Creighton.

 

As a team, NM State has the top batting average (.304), California Baptist has the best ERA (3.88) and Sacramento State boasts the top fielding percentage (.979). NM State's Zerek Saenz has the top individual batting average a .500 and GCU's Carter Young holds the top earned run average (1.86). Saenz is also the WAC leader in hits (34) and triples (3). SAC's Trevor Doyle is the leader in runs scored (26) and NC's Josh Glenn holds the lead in RBIs (29). UVU's Alexander Marco is the doubles leader (10) while NC's Jake Hitter has the home run lead at eight. On the mound, NC's Dylan Bowers has the lead in strikeouts with 50 in 34.0 innings pitched.

 

UT Rio Grande Valley junior Freddy Rojas Jr. went yard in six straight games, two shy of the NCAA record.

 

Due to a travel-related curfew, the Grand Canyon Lopes ended up in a 4-4 tie with 15th-ranked Oklahoma State on March 7.

 

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.