United Athletic Conference

Grand Canyon's Jacob Wilson and Daniel Avitia have been named TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for March 14 – March 20.

 

Wilson, a sophomore infielder from Thousand Oaks, Calif., had multiple hits in each of the Lopes' five games on the week and had a streak of 10 consecutive at-bats with a hit. He started the week with a 4-for-4 game at Oregon State on Tuesday and then went 3-for-5 in Corvallis the next day to help the Lopes earn a 13-7 win over the fifth-ranked Beavers. Returning home for WAC play, he was 11-of-14 at the plate in a three-game sweep of Utah Valley, including a 5-for-5 game on Saturday. On the week, he finished with 18 hits, 13 RBIs, nine runs scored, four doubles and three home runs for a .783 batting average and 1.348 slugging percentage.

 

Avitia, a freshman right-hander from Phoenix, was dialed in on Saturday against Utah Valley, going 6.2 shutout innings to earn the victory in an 8-0 win over the Wolverines. On the day, he struck out a career-high 11 batters while allowing just three hits and one walk to pick up his second win of the season. 

 

Other Hitter of the Week nominees: Abilene Christian's Colton Eager drove in a team-high seven runs, including four in Sunday's series-finale against Stephen F. Austin … California Baptist's David Martin hit .692 on the week with three multi-hit games as the Lancers picked up a win over UNLV before taking a weekend series from Yale … Dixie State's Kaden Hollow batted .353 for the week with three extra-base hits and seven RBIs as the Trailblazers split a series at Nevada before taking a WAC series from NM State … Lamar's Josh Blakenship drove in six runs for the Cardinals, including four in the Cardinals' 8-2 win over Sam Houston on Saturday … NM State's Kevin Jiminez hit .333 with three extra base hits, including a grand slam at Nebraska … Tarleton's Carter Dobrinski compiled seven hits in four games, including a 3-for-5 outing in a midweek-win against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi … UT Rio Grande Valley's Brandon Pimentel was 4-for-5 with a pair of runs scored in the Vaqueros' middle-game at Tarleton … Utah Valley's Mick Madsen led the Wolverines on the week, batting .333 with a home run, three runs scored and one RBI.

 

Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: Abilene Christian's Carter Sells recorded his first career win at ACU, providing 3.2 innings of no-hit relief in Sunday's 11-6 win over Stephen F. Austin … California Baptist's Jared Villalobos earned a pair of wins in relief, going 0.2 innings against UNLV on Monday before returning to the mound on Friday against Yale … Dixie State's Dillon Holliday earned his second win of the season, allowing two runs, one earned, on seven hits over seven innings in a 12-2 win over NM State on Friday … Lamar's Adam Wheaton allowed four runs on four hits over seven innings to earn the win on Saturday against Sam Houston … NM State's Rorik Maltrud struck out seven Nebraska hitters on Wednesday, allowing two runs, just one earned, on one hit over seven innings in a no-decision … Tarleton's Luke Baley earned the win on Friday against UT Rio Grande Valley, allowing five hits over six scoreless innings in the 6-2 victory … UT Rio Grande Valley's Jesus Aldaz set a new career-high with 11 strikeouts over 6.0 innings in a loss to Tarleton on Sunday afternoon … Utah Valley's Nick Sims made a pair of appearances for the Wolverines, allowing three hits over four combined innings in a pair of games against Grand Canyon.

 

With the schedule starting on Tuesday, Abilene Christian will be hosting a top-25 team when 19th-ranked TCU comes to town. California Baptist will be taking on a ranked opponent on the road, traveling to 11th-ranked Texas Tech. In a couple rivalry games, Utah Valley hosts BYU and Grand Canyon heads to Phoenix Municipal Stadium to take on Arizona State. On Wednesday, Seattle U takes on sixth-ranked Oregon State. Once the weekend starts, the schedule features Dixie State at Seattle U, Tarleton at Abilene Christian, California Baptist at NM State, Grand Canyon at Sacramento State, Sam Houston at Stephen F. Austin and Lamar at UT Rio Grande Valley. Utah Valley has the bye this week and will head to California to take on former WAC foe CSU Bakersfield.

 

California Baptist holds the lead when it comes to batting average, hitting .316 on the season. The Lancers also have the low staff ERA at 4.13 while Abilene Christian is the top defensive team with a .983 fielding percentage. Individually, CBU's Michael Carpentier has the top batting average at .464 and teammate Jared Villalobos has the low ERA at 0.93. GCU's Jacob Wilsonis the leader in hits (39) while SHSU's Clayton Chadwick and Carlos Contreras are the leaders in runs (26) and RBIs (32) respectively. ACU's Colton Eager and CBU's Harrison Spohn are tied for the lead in doubles (11) while Contreras is tied with SFA's Cameron Crawford and PJ Villareal for the lead in triples (3). UTRGV's Brandon Pimentel is the current home run king with eight while CBU's Spohn has the most stolen bases with seven. On the hill, UTRGV's Kevin Stevens is the leader in strikeouts with 36 in 22.1 innings pitched.

 

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.

 

When it comes time for the 2022 WAC Baseball Tournament, the top four eligible teams from each division will head to Mesa, Ariz. The first and third place teams from each division will be placed in a four-team bracket with the second and fourth place teams from the other divisions with the winner of each double-elimintation bracket playing in a winner-takes-all championship game on Saturday night.

 

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.