United Athletic Conference

Complete Release (PDF)

 

California Baptist's Harrison Spohn and Dixie State's Jimmy Borzone have been named TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for March 29 to April 4.

 

Spohn, a senior infielder from Upland, Calif., helped the Lancers remain atop the WAC standings, hitting .500 in a four-game series win at UT Rio Grande Valley. Earning hits in all four games, his best game came in the series-finale as he went 3-for-4 with a double, RBI and run scored. Adding a walk and hit-by-pitch, he posted a .571 on-base percentage to go with a .667 slugging percentage.

 

Borzone, a junior right-hander from Vancouver, Wash., recorded the second no-hitter in Dixie State's NCAA era, and the 25th no-hitter in WAC history, in a 5-1 win over Tarleton on Friday afternoon. After surrendering a third-inning run on a sacrifice fly, he retired the final 14 hitters that he faced to earn the seven-inning complete game win. He finished the day with eight strikeouts, one off his career high, and just one walk in the victory.

 

Other Hitter of the Week nominees: Dixie State's Kaden Hollow hit .615 with four extra-base hits and seven RBIs and the Trailblazers took three-of-four at Tarleton … Grand Canyon's Tayler Aguilar posted a .429 batting average as the Lopes won three-of-four at Utah Valley … NM State's Zerek Saenz totaled six hits and scored twice in the Aggies' games at Seattle U and 20th-ranked Oregon … Sacramento State's Matt Smith drove in all three runs, including the walk-off game-winner in the bottom of the ninth, in the Hornets' 3-2 win over 24th-ranked Stanford … Seattle U's Kyle Sherick had a pair of 2-for-3 games as the Redhawks earned wins over NM State and Pacific Lutheran … UT Rio Grande Valley's Freddy Rojas Jr. was 4-for-12 at the plate for the Vaqueros in their WAC series with California Baptist … Utah Valley's Kade Poulsen homered twice and drove in four runs in the Wolverines' WAC  series with Grand Canyon.

 

Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: California Baptist's Chris Burica picked up the road win at UT Rio Grande Valley, striking out six and scattering four hits in a complete game shutout … Grand Canyon's Pierson Ohl recorded seven strikeouts and allowed just one run on three hits in a seven-inning complete game win on Friday at Utah Valley … NM State's Rorik Maltrud struck out seven over seven innings in a tight game with 20th-ranked Oregon … Sacramento State's Jack Zalasky earned the win against 24th-ranked Stanford on Monday, allowing just one hit with six strikeouts over three innings in the 3-2 win … Seattle U's Alex Jemal allowed one hit over three innings pitched in an 8-6 win over Pacific Lutheran on Friday … UT Rio Grande Valley's JC Ariza threw a career-high 6.2 innings, striking out three in a no-decision on Saturday against CBU … Utah Valley's Bobby Voortmeyer picked up his second win of the year after allowing just one run on four hits over six innings in a 4-3 win over Grand Canyon.

 

On Tuesday, Tarleton plays host to seventh-ranked TCU, Dixie State hosts Utah and UT Rio Grande Valley hosts UT Rio Grande Valley while Utah Valley takes on Washington State on Wednesday in Orem. In weekend action, NM State heads ot Sacramento State, UVU hosts UTRGV, Tarleton hosts Seattle U and Northern Colorado visits Grand Canyon. In non-conference play, California Baptist takes on Cal State Fullerton and Dixie State travels to play Southern California.

 

As a team, Sacramento State leads the WAC with a .285 batting average and .979 fielding percentage while California Baptist is the leader in ERA at 3.49. Individually, NM State's Zerek Saenz is the leader in batting average at .449. Grand Canyon's Carter Young holds the low ERA at 1.59, holding a 5-0 record through 34.0 innings pitched. In addition to leading the league in batting average, Saenz is the leader in hits (40) and triples (3). Sacramento State's Trevor Doyle holds the lead in runs scored (27) and Northern Colorado's Josh Glenn has the lead in RBIs (29). Utah Valley's Alexander Marco has the lead in doubles (12) and NC's Jake Gitter is the current home run king with eight. On the mound, NC's Dylan Bowers holds the lead in strikeouts with 50 Ks through 34.0 innings pitched.

 

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.