United Athletic Conference

Sam Houston's Carlos Contreras and NM State's Pablo Cortes have been named TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for Feb. 28 – March 6.

 

Contreras, a junior outfielder from El Paso, Texas, had a huge weekend in the Bearkats' three-game sweep of Texas Southern. After recording a double against top-ranked Texas on Tuesday, he turned the dial up to 11 on Friday, going 3-for-4 with six RBIs. He showed he wasn't done on Saturday, going 3-for-4 with five RBIs and four runs scored and then followed that up with four RBIs on 3-of-5 batting on Sunday. On the week, he was 10-for-17 from the dish with 15 RBIs, six runs scored, two home runs, two doubles and a triple, posting a .588 batting average and 1.176 slugging percentage.

 

Cortes, a sophomore right-hander from Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, made a last-second spot start for the Aggies on Saturday and threw a complete-game shutout against Prairie View A&M to earn the victory. His first start in an NM State uniform resulted in six strikeouts and zero walks while allowing four hits over seven scoreless innings for the win.

 

Other Hitter of the Week nominees: Abilene Christian's Hunter Gieser had an RBI in all five games the Wildcats played, finishing the week with eight RBIs … California Baptist's Russell Stevenson hit .500 on the week as the Lancers opened WAC play against Grand Canyon … Dixie State's Shane Taylor was 4-for-4 with a pair of RBIs and three runs scored in the Trailblazers' series-clinching win over Utah Valley on Saturday … Grand Canyon's Jacob Wilson drove in nine runs and scored five times as the Lopes earned a non-conference win over UC San Diego before sweeping California Baptist in the opening weekend of WAC play … Lamar's Josh Blakenship led the Cardinals in nearly every offensive category as LU dropped a tight game at Houston before completing a four-game sweep of Mount St. Mary's over the weekend … NM State's Logan Gallina tallied hits in each of the Aggies' four games with Prairie View, finishing with a 3-for-5 afternoon on Sunday … Tarleton's Carter Dobrinski was 3-for-4 in the Texans' series-finale at Missouri … UT Rio Grande Valley's Brandon Pimentel totaled four home runs in the Vaqueros' series win over Youngstown State over the weekend … Utah Valley's Trey Cutchen led the Wolverines at the dish, hitting .500 with six hits in the WAC-opening series at Dixie State.

 

Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: Abilene Christian's Breck Eichelberger struck out four and allowed one run on two hits over 5.0 innings to earn the win in Saturday's 23-1 blowout of Marist … California Baptist's CJ Culpepper had another quality start on Friday night against Grand Canyon, striking out six and allowing one run on four hits over 6.0 innings in a no-decision … Dixie State's Jacob Taggart was dominant in two appearances, striking out nine Arizona hitters and allowing just one hit over 5.0 innings in a no-decision and then making another relief appearance on Saturday, striking out five UVU hitters and again allowing just one hit over 2.1 innings pitched … Grand Canyon's Daniel Avita earned his first collegiate win, striking out nine and allowing just three hits over 5.2 scoreless innings in a 10-3 win over California Baptist on Saturday … Lamar's Trhea Morse had a pair of quality starts and picked up his first win as a Cardinal in Saturday's 5-0 win over Mount St. Mary's after striking out three and scattering two hits over 4.0 innings … UT Rio Grande Valley's Kevin Stevens struck out nine over five scoreless innings to keep his ERA at 0.00 on the season … Utah Valley's Josh Brown kept his season ERA at 0.00 with three innings of relief to pick up the save in Sunday's 6-3 win at Dixie State.

 

On Tuesday, Utah Valley finishes up a two-game set at UNLV while Sacramento State hosts Saint Mary's, UT Rio Grande Valley hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Grand Canyon hosts CSUN, California Baptist travels to CSU Bakersfield and Seattle U heads to Washington. Wednesday's schedule boasts Lamar at Houston Baptist, CSUN at Grand Canyon, Baylor at Abilene Christian and Tarleton at Texas A&M. The feature features mostly WAC action with Seattle U at NM State, Lamar at Stephen F. Austin, Tarleton at Sam Houston, Abilene Christian at UT Rio Grande Valley, California Baptist at Utah Valley and Dixie State at Sacramento State. Grand Canyon has the WAC bye and will host San Diego this weekend in Phoenix.

 

Abilene Christian leads the league in batting average, hitting .324 on the season. NM State has the low staff ERA at 3.13 while ACU also has the top defense with a .984 fielding percentage. Individually, UTRGV's Kanin Dodge is hitting .489 on the year while CBU's CJ Cullpepper is rocking a 0.53 ERA. Pimental is also leading the league in hits (22), home runs (7), total bases (46) and is tied with SHSU's Justin Wishkoski for the lead in runs scored (18). LU's Josh Blakenship is the leader in RBIs (21) and is tied with NMSU's Antillion Gunner for the lead in doubles (8). On the hill, LU's Braxton Douthit holds a slight lead in strikeouts with 24 through 15.1 innings.

 

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.