United Athletic Conference

For the first time since 2012, the WAC will have two teams in the NCAA Baseball Tournament as both Grand Canyon and NM State will be competing for a trip to Omaha.

 

The Aggies earned a spot after winning the 2022 WAC Tournament after having to win in the final week of the regular season to just make the conference tournament and will head to Corvallis, Ore. to take on third-seed Oregon State at 7 p.m. PT on ESPNU. The Aggies will be led by WAC Tournament MVP Cal Villareal while the Beavers, who fell in the Pac-12 title game on Sunday night, are led offensively by Jacob Melton, who is hitting .375 with 21 doubles, 15 home runs and 77 RBIs. Joining the Aggies and Beavers will be WCC champ San Diego and perennial national power Vanderbilt.

 

Grand Canyon goes to the tournament for the second straight season with an at-large selection after winning the West Division. The Lopes will take on Arkansas at noon CT on Friday in a netural-site game at Oklahoma State. The Lopes are led offensively by Juan Colato, who holds a .417 batting average, and on the mound by WAC Freshman of the Year and WAC Pitcher of the Year Daniel Avitia, who heads to Stillwater having struck out 107 batters and posting an 8-4 record and 3.59 ERA in 82.2 innings pitched. Missouri State rounds out the regional and will take on host Oklahoma State.

 

The winners of each double-elimination Regional bracket will advance to a best-of-three Super Regional. Those winners advance to Omaha for the College World Series, which begins on June 17.

 

Riding the mantra "Why not us?," the NM State Aggies went from needing to win the final series of the regular season to qualify to winning the 2022 WAC Baseball Tournament in a span of just over a week. Led by tournament MVP Cal Villareal, the Aggies beat Southwest division champs Sam Houston in the opener and then used wins over UT Rio Grande Valley, Sacramento State and Abilene Christian to lift the hardware on Saturday night. Joining Villareal on the All-Tournament team were teammates Pablo Cortes, Nolan Funke, Ian Mejia and Tommy Tabak. Runner-up Abilene Christian had three honored as Tommy Cruz, Mitchell Dickson and Bash Randle all earned the award. Grand Canyon's Daniel Avitia and Juan Colato and UT Rio Grande Valley's Kevin Stevens rounded out the team.

 

California Baptist holds the lead when it comes to batting average, hitting .321 on the season. Lamar holds the low staff ERA at 4.41 while Sacramento State is the top defensive team with a .978 fielding percentage. Individually, SHSU's Carlos Contreras has the top batting average at .400 and UTRGV's Kevin Stevens has the low ERA at 2.66. SHSU's Contreras is also the leader in both hits (92) and RBIs (89) while ACU's Grayson Tatrow has the lead in runs scored (67). CBU's Harrison Spohn is the leader in doubles (27), LU's Kevin Bermudez has the lead in triples (7) and NMSU's Logan Gallina has the home run lead with 21. On the hill, GCU's Daniel Avitia has the lead in strikeouts with 107 in 82.2 innings pitched.

 

The WAC has two teams in the NCAA Baseball Tournament for the first time since Fresno State and NM State represented the league in 2012. The last Super Regional appearance for the WAC ties into the last College World Series appearance and National Championship for the WAC as Fresno State defeated Georgia to win the 2008 national title. The WAC has sent 23 teams to the College World Series with seven of those resulting in national championships.

 

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.