United Athletic Conference

Grand Canyon's Tayler Aguilar and Abilene Christian's Tyler Morgan have been named TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for April 25 – May 1.

 

Aguilar, a junior outfielder from Evans, Colo., hit five home runs on the week, totaled 13 RBIs and hit .471 on the week for the first-place Lopes. In a midweek game at New Mexico, he was 4-for-5 against the Lobos, hitting a pair of home runs, driving in four runs and scoring four times in a 7-2 win. In WAC play, he was 4-for-12 with three more home runs and nine more RBIs.

 

Morgan, a sophomore right-hander from Flower Mound, Texas, struck out a career-high 12 in a win at Stephen F. Austin. In addition to being the best of his career, it also broke the ACU Division I era for strikeouts in a game. Facing off against the 'Jacks on Friday, he allowed two unearned runs on seven hits over 6.1 innings to earn the victory. With one more strikeout in his next outing, he will become the Wildcats' Division I career strikeout leader as he currently sits at 138.

 

Other Hitter of the Week nominees: Abilene Christian's Grayson Tatrow totaled 14 RBIs as the Wildcats knocked off 13th-ranked Texas Tech before sweeping Stephen F. Austin … California Baptist's Josiah Chavez was 4-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored in Sunday's series finale at Sacramento State … Dixie State's Parker Schmidt hit an even .500 for the Trailblazers, adding six RBIs and four runs scored … Lamar's Reese Durand had a hit in every game as the Cardinals went 3-1 on the week … NM State's AJ Garcia had a pair of multi-hit games as the Aggies picked up a series win against Dixie State … Sacramento State's Trevor Doyle finished with a pair of multi-hit games and led the Hornets to a series win over California Baptist … UT Rio Grande Valley's Brett Cain recorded his fifth and sixth three-hits games of the season during the Vaqueros' weekend sweep of Tarleton … Utah Valley's Spencer Olson tied the school record with six RBIs in Saturday's win over Grand Canyon.

 

Other Pitcher of the Week nominees: California Baptist's CJ Culpepper earned his fourth win of the season with six scoreless innings at Sacramento State on Saturday … Grand Canyon's Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis picked up the save in Friday's 13-6 win over Utah Valley, striking out three in 3.1 no-hit innings … Lamar's Adam Wheaton carried a non-hitter into the fifth inning and earned the victory in a 1-0 win over Sam Houston on Saturday … NM State's Ian Mejia fanned 13 hitters over seven innings of work to earn the win against Dixie State on Friday night … Sacramento State's Kevin Haynes picked up a pair of wins in relief against California Baptist, totaling 4.2 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and two hits allowed … UT Rio Grande Valley's Kevin Stevens moved into ninth place on the UTRGV career strikeouts list with seven strikeouts to bring his career total to 197 in a win over Tarleton … Utah Valley's Mason Gray tossed seven innings to pick up the win in a 10-6 victory over first-place Grand Canyon.

 

In midweek action, Abilene Christian will try to make it two straight against 12th-ranked Texas Tech when the Red Raiders visit the Wildcats on Tuesday. In other Tuesday games, UT Rio Grande Valley heads to UTSA, Lamar travels to Southern, Stephen F. Austin visits McNeese State, Tarleton plays at Baylor, California Baptist visits UNLV, Sacramento State hosts San Francisco and Grand Canyon travels to Arizona. Wednesday features just two games with UTRGV heading to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Dixie State hosting UNLV. Turning to the weekend, Lamar hosts UTRGV, Tarleton hosts Abilene Christian, Sam Houston hosts Stephen F. Austin, Dixie State hosts Seattle U, California Baptist hosts NM State, Grand Canyon hosts Sacramento State and, in non-league action, Utah Valley travels to Washington State.

 

California Baptist holds the lead when it comes to batting average, hitting .320 on the season. Grand Canyon has the low staff ERA at 4.10 while Sacramento State is the top defensive team with a .978 fielding percentage. Individually, SHSU's Carlos Contreras has the top batting average at .426 and LU's Adam Wheaton has the low ERA at 2.84. SHSU's Contreras is also the leader in both hits (78) and RBIs (76) while SHSU's Clayton Chadwick has the lead in runs scored (53). CBU's Harrison Spohn is the leader in doubles (21), SHSU's Contreras has the lead in triples (6) and NMSU's Logan Gallina is the current home run king with 16. On the hill, GCU's Daniel Avitia has the lead in strikeouts with 73 in 62.2 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. 

 

California Baptist's Chad Castillo became the first Lancer since 2006, and the first WAC player this season, to hit for the cycle as he went 4-for-7 with six RBIs and three runs scored in a 21-4 win at Air Force on April 9. He opened the game with a three-run home run in the first before adding a two-RBI triple in the second. His double came in the third and then he singled to left field in the top of the fifth to complete the cycle with plenty of baseball left to play.

 

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.