United Athletic Conference

California Baptist's Harrison Spohn and UT Rio Grande Valley's Kevin Stevens have been named TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for May 10 to May 16.

 

Spohn, a senior infielder from Upland, Calif., hit .611 on the week as the Lancers rolled into Las Cruces and earned a four-game sweep over NM State. In 18 at-bats, he recorded 11 hits, including a pair of doubles and a pair of home runs, and totaled six RBIs. He came around to score seven times and stole a pair of bases, finishing the weekend with a .579 on-base percentage and a 1.056 slugging percentage. On the year, he holds a .304 batting average with 17 doubles and 29 RBIs.

 

Stevens, a senior right-hander from Tucson, Ariz., retired the first 13 batters and final eight batters he faced in a one-hit complete-game shutout of Northern Colorado on Friday afternoon. The strong performance marked his second straight complete game and third of his career. With just 76 pitches needed, he recorded 11 strikeouts in the victory. On the season, he boasts a record of 7-4 with a 2.91 earned-run average and 81 strikeouts.

 

Other Hitter of the Week nominees: Dixie State's Shane Taylor hit .500 with nine runs scored in a four-game sweep of Seattle U … Grand Canyon's Elijah Buries had multiple hits in all four games with seven runs scored, three home runs and eight RBIs in a four-game sweep of Tarleton … Northern Colorado's Garrett Fisher had a pair of hits and a run scored in the Bears' loss at Utah on Monday … Sacramento State's Matt Smith had his second four-hit game of the season as the Hornets took three-of-four from San Francisco … Seattle U's Gavin Rork hit .438 on the week with a pair of multi-hit games in a four-game set at Dixie State … UT Rio Grande Valley's Coleman Grubbs has a pair of doubles in Friday's nightcap with Northern Colorado … Utah Valley's Mick Madsen had a pair of three-hit games in tight losses to Utah and New Mexico.

 

Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: California Baptist's Bryan Pope threw five strong innings on Saturday at NM State, allowing just one run with six strikeouts in a no-decision … Dixie State's Jack Gonzales picked up the save on Friday night against Seattle U, allowing just one hit over 3.2 scoreless innings with five strikeouts and a walk … Grand Canyon's Nick Hull picked up the win in relief on Saturday, pitching three no-hit innings in a 9-4 win at Tarleton … Northern Colorado's Dylan Day struck out four and allowed one hit over 1.2 innings in a relief appearance on Sunday at UT Rio Grande Valley … Sacramento State's Eli Saul threw eight shutout innings and struck out six while scattering four hits in a win over San Francisco on Sunday … Utah Valley's Dylan Cook allowed just one run over 3.2 innings in a pair of appearances for the Wolverines.

 

Just one week remains before the bracket is set for the 2021 WAC Baseball Tournament and all four WAC series have seeding implications. NM State plays their final regular season game, making the trip to Tucson to take on Arizona on Tuesday. WAC play starts on Thursday this week with Utah Valley heading to Seattle U, Northern Colorado visiting Dixie State as NC, SU and UVU are tied for the final two tournament spots. Sacramento State hosts UT Rio Grande Valley in a battle for the second seed and a first-round bye and Grand Canyon, who already clinched the top seed, plays host to California Baptist with the series winner earning the regular season crown.

 

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

As a team, California Baptist is the leader in both batting average (.293) and earned run average (3.78). Sacramento State is the leader on defense, boasting a .983 fielding percentage. Individually, the Hornets' Matt Smith has the lead in batting average at .400. NMSU's Zerek Saenz is the leader in hits (71) and teammate Ethan Mann has the lead in RBIs (50). GCU's Channy Ortiz is the leader in runs scored (51). When it comes to extra-base hits, UVU's Alexander Marco is the leader in doubles (22), NC's Shaydon Kubo and UTRGV's Coleman Grubbs share the lead in triples (4) and CBU's Damon Keith is tied with NMSU's Mann for the lead in home runs (11). On the hill, GCU's Carter Young has the low ERA at 1.79 and SAC's Scott Randall holds the lead in strikeouts (93).

 

Utah Valley head coach Eric Madsen announced his resignation on April 27 after amassing over 300 career victories in 13 seasons leading the Wolverines. UVU also announced the David Carter will take over at the team's interim head coach.

 

Sacramento State's Scott Randall recorded his second 14 strikeout game of the season at Northern Colorado on April 23 while teammate Travis Adams recorded 13 Ks against those same Bears on April 24.

 

Dixie State's Jake Engel went 3-for-3 on Saturday against San Diego State, with all three hits leaving the year for home runs. He added another home run in the nightcap for good measure.

 

Sacramento State's Matt Smith etched his name in the record books over the weekend, becoming the Hornets' all-time leader in both hits and RBIs. In the hits column, he passed current Tampa Bay Rays farmhand Nathan Lukes (144) and in the RBIs, he passed former MLB first round pick Tim Wheeler (142).

 

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.