United Athletic Conference

UT Rio Grande Valley's Christian Sepulveda and Sacramento State's Travis Adams have been named TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for March 1 to March 7.

 

Sepulveda, a senior infielder from New York City, played a big part in the Vaqueros going 5-0 on the week, including a win at Washington and a four-game sweep of Northern Illinois. Recording a hit in each of the five games, his biggest game came in the series opener with NIU, going 3-for-3 at the dish with three RBIs and a pair of runs scored. On the week, he was 7-for-15 at the plate for a .467 average.

 

Adams, a sophomore right-hander from Desert Hot Springs, Calif., dominated Santa Clara hitters in a 10-0 win on Saturday. Over seven scoreless innings, he scattered two hits, struck out seven and did not walk a batter to earn his first victory of the year. 

 

Other Hitter of the Week nominees: California Baptist's Chad Castillo led the Lancers to a series sweep at UC Davis, hitting .308 with six RBIs … Dixie State's Jake Engel posted a hit in each of the Trailblazers' three games at Wichita State, hitting .556 on the week … Grand Canyon's Channy Ortiz was 3-for-4 with three runs scored in the Lopes' series-ending tie at 15th-ranked Oklahoma State … Northern Colorado's Josh Glenn was 3-for-5 with four RBIs in the Bears' 14-4 win over North Dakota State on Saturday … Sacramento State's Jorge Bojorquez led the Hornets to a trio of wins on the week, posting eight hits and eight RBIs, including five RBIs in a win at Santa Clara … Seattle U's Julian Kodama led the team with six hits and four RBIs in a weekend series at Washington State … Tarleton's Colby Seltzer had a pair of home runs on the week as the Texans earned wins over UAPB and Missouri State … Utah Valley's Alexander Marco hit an even .300 on the week as the Wolverines dropped a series at Cal Poly.

 

Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: California Baptist's Chris Burica had nine strikeouts and allowed just two hits over seven scoreless innings to earn the 6-1 win on Friday at UC Davis … Dixie State's Jimmy Borzone had nine strikeouts and allowed just two runs on five hits over 7.2 innings but took the loss on Friday in a 2-1 game at Wichita State … Grand Canyon's Pierson Ohl allowed just one run on four hits over seven innings and struck out eight but took the loss at 15th-ranked Oklahoma State … Northern Colorado's Dylan Bowers struck out nine North Dakota State hitters on Friday as the Bears earned an 8-4 win … Seattle U's Morgan White picked up his first victory as a Redhawk, allowing two hits with four strikeouts in five scoreless innings in a 6-2 win at Washington State … UT Rio Grande Valley's JC Ariza had a pair of starts and recorded a pair of eight strikeouts games against Washington on Monday and Northern Illinois on Sunday … Utah Valley's Bobby Voortmeyer allowed just one run on four hits over seven innings on Saturday against Cal Poly.

 

Conference play begins this week with Sacramento State traveling to Tarleton, UT Rio Grande Valley making the trip to Grand Canyon, Northern Colorado heads to California Baptist and Dixie State will play at NM State. Seattle U and Utah Valley will also be in action in non-conference play. The Redhawks will take on both Washington and Washington State at Husky Ballpark and Utah Valley will play four games at Portland.

 

As a team, Northern Colorado leads the WAC in batting average at .284, Sacramento State has the top earned run average and Grand Canyon has the best fielding percentage at .981. Northern Colorado's Josh Glenn has the top individual batting average at .441. GCU's Channy Ortiz has the lead in hits (17)  while Glenn also holds the lead in RBIs (16). Three players are tied with 12 runs scored and three are also tied for doubles (5). Tarleton's Corey Young leads the league with two doubles and NC's Jake Fitter has a WAC-best five home runs.

 

WAC teams have recorded four sweeps this season. Sacramento State was the first to get out the broom, sweeping Texas State. Tarleton swept UAPB in a midweek series, California Baptist earned the WAC's only road sweep at UC Davis and UT Rio Grande Valley swept four at home against Northern Illinois.

 

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.