United Athletic Conference

Sam Houston's Carlos Contreras and Cole Wesneski have been named TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for March 7 – March 13.

 

Contreras, a junior outfielder from El Paso, Texas, takes honors for the second week in a row after going 8-for-10 with three walks in a three-game sweep of Tarleton. In addition to his eight hits, he finished the weekend with eight RBIs, five runs scored and a pair of stolen bases, boasting an .800 batting average, .857 on-base percentage and 1.000 slugging percentage.

 

Wesneski, a senior right-hander from Cypress, Texas, used just 91 pitches to strike out 10 over seven innings to earn the win on Friday night against Tarleton. Making a spot start, he battled through cold temperatures and significant winds to finish the night with four runs, just two earned, on six hits and no walks. 

 

Other Hitter of the Week nominees: California Baptist's David Martin was 3-for-5 with four RBIs in the Lancers' series-clinching win at Utah Valley on Sunday … Dixie State's Will Chambers batted .455 with three runs scored in the Trailblazers' series win at Sacramento State … Grand Canyon's Juan Colato had multiple hits in four-of-five games, finishing the week with a .500 batting average … Lamar's Josh Blakenship was 3-for-4 with two runs scored in Saturday's series-clinching win at Stephen F. Austin … UT Rio Grande Valley's Brett Cain had his second-career three-hit game in a 4-0 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi … Utah Valley's Mitch Moralez extended his hitting streak to 11 games and hit .429 on the week in games against UNLV and California Baptist.

 

Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: California Baptist's Ryan Delgado was strong over two appearances in relief, earning the save on Saturday in a 6-0 win at Utah Valley … Dixie State's Brett Porthan picked up his third win of the season, striking out four and allowing three earned runs on seven hits over 5.0 innings in an 18-7 victory at Sacramento State … Grand Canyon's Hunter Omlid struck out four and only allowed one unearned run over six innings in a no-decision against CSUN on Tuesday … Lamar's Braxton Douthit earned his third win of the season, striking out seven and walking two with one run allowed on four hits over 5.0 innings in a 2-1 win at Stephen F. Austin … NM State's Ian Mejia scattered five hits over eight innings with six strikeouts and a walk to earn the victory in a 9-0 shutout of Seattle U on Sunday … Seattle U's Peter Chronowski picked up the win on Saturday at NM State, striking out eight and allowing three runs on six hits over eight innings to earn the victory … UT Rio Grande Valley's Colten Davis retired nine straight and finished with six strikeouts and five hits allowed over 6.2 scoreless innings in a win at Abilene Christian … Utah Valley's Coop Rust took the hill twice, earning the win in relief at UNLV before going four innings in a no-decision against California Baptist on Saturday.

 

A busy Tuesday awaits the WAC, headlined by Grand Canyon opening a two-game set at sixth-ranked Oregon State. Dixie State also plays the first of two at Nevada and NM State has a pair at Nebraska. In weekend play, Sam Houston heads to Lamar in a battle for the top of the Southwest Division, UT Rio Grande Valley travels to Tarleton, Stephen F. Austin heads to Abilene Christian, Sacramento State plays at Seattle U, NM State heads to Dixie State, Utah Valley travels to Grand Canyon and, in the lone non-conference series of the weekend, California Baptist hosts Yale.

 

NM State leads the league in batting average, hitting .323 on the season. Lamar has the low staff ERA at 3.29 while Abilene Christian has the top defense with a .983 fielding percentage. Individually, SHSU's Carlos Contreras is hitting .464 to lead the WAC while CBU's Jared Villalobos has the low ERA at 1.17. Contreras is also leading hte league in RBIs (28) while UTRGV's Brandon Pimentel is the early home run king with seven. On the hill, LU's Braxton Douthit holds a slight lead in strikeouts with 31 Ks in 2022.

 

WAC newcomer Abilene Christian is picked to win the Southwest Division while Grand Canyon has been selected to win the West Division in a vote of the league's 13 head coaches, who could not vote for their own teams. In addition, ACU outfielder Colton Eager was picked as Preseason Player of the Year and UTRGV right-hander Kevin Stevens was named Preseason Pitched of the Year.

 

In the Southwest, Abilene Christian picked up all five possible first-place votes to finish with 25 points. UTRGV earned the other first place vote and 19 points overall to tie with Sam Houston for second place. Lamar was picked fourth with 11 points, followed by Stephen F. Austin and Tarleton.

 

In the West, Grand Canyon picked up five first-place votes and 34 points to hold off Sacramento State, who also picked up a first-place vote and 30 points overall. California Baptist was picked third, garnering the final first-place vote and 27 points. NM State came in third with 20 points, followed by Dixie State with 19 points. Utah Valley was selected sixth and Seattle U rounded out the poll.

 

Eager and Stevens highlight the Preseason All-WAC squad. Eager is joined by teammates Grayson Tatrow and Tommy Cruz. GCU had five recognized as Elijah Buries, Juan Colato, Jacob Wilson, Tayler Aguilar and Carter Young all earned honors. Dixie State was represented by Kaden Hollow, Lamar was represented by Chase Kemp, NM State was represented by Kevin Jimenez, Sam Houston was represented by Coltin Atkinson and California Baptist was represented by CJ Culpepper.

 

Four new teams join the WAC this year with Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin making the move to the league from the Southland Conference. 

 

Sacramento State freshman Colin Hunter had a memorable collegiate debut, tossing a seven-inning no-hitter against visiting Northern Illinois. After facing the minimum through the first four innings before an error let a runner on, the true freshman finished with nine strikeouts and no walks in the 8-0 victory.

 

Lamar made the most of their first game in the WAC, playing 14 innings before defeating Binghamton in the season opener on Feb. 18.

 

The 2023 season will feature two more teams as UIW and UTA will join the WAC as full member institutions, bringing the total of baseball playing institutions to 15 teams.

 

The WAC Baseball Tournament will return 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 19 times and the event hase been held in Mesa 12 times.