United Athletic Conference

Tarleton's London Green and Seattle U's Peter Chronowski have been named TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for April 12 to April 18.

 

Green, a junior outfielder from Grapevine, Texas, hit .500 on the week as the Texans picked up a series win at Utah Valley, taking three of four from the Wolverines. He started the week with a 2-for-3 performance against nationally-ranked TCU, driving in a run in the loss. Against UVU, he was 8-of-17 from the plate, with a pair of doubles, four runs scored and a pair of RBIs.

 

Chronowski, a sophomore right-hander from Littleton, Colo., threw a complete game shutout in a 5-0 win over Sacramento State on Saturday. Scattering four hits over the seven-inning game, he recorded six strikeouts against just two walks and only allowed one runner past first base.

 

Other Hitter of the Week nominees: California Baptist's Russell Stevenson went 7-for-12 with a pair of home runs and a double in a series split at Dixie State … Dixie State's Lane Pritchard batted .692 with a pair of extra-base hits in a split against league-leading California Baptist … Grand Canyon's Tayler Aguilar appeared in 4-of-5 games for the Lopes this week, hitting .462 and recording GCU's second four-hit game of the season on Sunday … NM State's Zerek Saenz extended his hitting streak to 11 games, hitting .545 against Grand Canyon … Sacramento State's Dawsen Bacho hit a team-best .438 in a four-game series with Seattle U … Seattle U's Connor O'Brien was 7-of-16 at the plate as the Redhawks took three-of-four from Sacramento State … Utah Valley's Alexander Marco homered twice and drove in three runs in a close loss to Tarleton on Saturday.

 

Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: California Baptist's Bryan Pope had eight strikeouts in a complete game performance but took the tough loss in a 2-1 decision at Dixie State on Saturday … Dixie State's Dillon Holliday struck out a career-high five batters and scattered four hits over 5.2 innings to pick up the win over California Baptist on Friday night … Grand Canyon's Dawson McCarville extended his scoreless streak to 23 innings,  striking out seven and allowing five hits over seven innings to earn the win at NM State … NM State's Sammy Natera surrendered just a single earned run over five innings in tight 3-1 loss to Grand Canyon on Saturday … Sacramento State's Travis Adams threw seven shutout innings against Seattle U but took the no decision in a 3-0 loss on Saturday … Tarleton's Bryce Hackett allowed just three hits with six strikeouts over seven innings in a win at Utah Valley on Saturday … Utah Valley's Dylan Cook earned his first collegiate save, allowing three hits over four innings in an 8-4 win over Tarleton on Sunday.

 

This week's schedule begins on Tuesday with six non-conference rivalry games. Dixie State makes the trip to Brigham Young while not far away, Utah Valley hosts Utah. UT Rio Grande Valley plays host to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, NM State travels to Arizona and Grand Canyon makes the short trek to Arizona State. ASU and GCU will meet up again on Wednesday, this time at Grand Canyon. Once WAC weekend action begins, NM State travels to Tarleton, Northern Colorado hosts Sacramento State, Seattle U treks to UT Rio Grande Valley and Utah Valley heads to California Baptist. Dixie State also hits the road, traveling to San Diego State for a non-conference series.

 

As a team, Sacramento State leads the WAC with a .280 batting average and .980 fielding percentage. On the hill, Seattle U has the low staff ERA at 3.61. Individually, NM State's Zerek Saenz has the top batting average a .427 and also leads the WAC in hits (50) and triples (3). GCU's Channy Ortiz is the leader in runs scored (35) and Northern Colorado's Josh Glenn is tied with NMSU's Ethan Mann for the lead in RBIs (30). UVU's Marco Alexander holds the top spot in doubles (15) while NC's Jake Gitter and CBU's Damon Keith are the home run leaders (8). On the hill, GCU's Carter Young leads the league with a 2.00 ERA and teammate Pierson Ohl has the lead in strikeouts with 70.

 

Dixie State's Jimmy Borzone fired the WAC's first no-hitter in over four years in a 5-1 win at Tarleton on April 2. In addition to being the first in the league since Sacramento State's Justin Dillon no-hit Northern Kentucky on Feb. 23, 2017, it was the first no-hitter in a league game since Fresno State's Greg Gonzalez no-hit Hawai'i on April 10, 2010.

 

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.