This Week In WAC Baseball - March 23
This Week In WAC Baseball - March 23
SAM HOUSTON THE ONLY WAC TEAM UNBEATEN IN CONFERENCE PLAY
Sam Houston enters the third week of conference play as the only WAC team that has yet to surrender a league game this season. The Bearkats have started a perfect 6-0 in WAC competition, sweeping Seattle U and UTRGV to open the league calendar. Abilene Christian and No. 25 Grand Canyon remained one game behind Sam Houston at 5-1.
GCU CHECKS INTO THE TOP 25
Grand Canyon became the first WAC team to break into one of the recognized national top-25 polls this season by landing at 25 in this week’s D1Baseball.com rankings. The Lopes also checked in ranked 27th this week according to the NCBWA’s top 25.
PILING UP RUNS
As of March 23, 11 of the 13 WAC baseball members were averaging more than 5.0 runs scored per game across all starts this season. Tarleton paced the conference with 9.6 runs per contest, followed by Grand Canyon at 7.4 runs per game and Sam Houston at a 7.2 runs average. Tarleton’s 8.0 RBI per game was also best among WAC teams.
LONGEST ON-BASE STREAKS IN THE WAC
Two WAC players, Joe Redfield from Sam Houston and Brandon Pimentel from UTRGV, enter conference games on March 24 tied for the active lead in the league by reaching base in 20 consecutive games. Redfield is also the WAC pace setter with an active 16-game hit streak.
THE WAC IN THE NCAA RPI
In the latest release of the NCAA RPI on March 22, UT Arlington was the leader among all WAC teams by ranking 55th with the fourth-hardest strength of schedule in the nation to date. Grand Canyon was 65th and California Baptist was 85th in the most recent RPI.
THE WAC IN THE NCAA STATISTICS RANKINGS
In the NCAA DI baseball statistics rankings that were released on March 21, Abilene Christian was fourth in the nation with a .986 team fielding percentage. Individually, California Baptist’s Jacob Wilson remained the NCAA leader in pitching victories (5), UT Arlington’s Connery Peters and Sacramento State’s Jack Zalasky were second in saves (6), UTRGV’s Kade York was second in sacrifice bunts (7), Sam Houston’s Steven Beard, ACU’s Tyler Morgan and Seattle U’s Nestor German were fifth in complete games (1), Sam Houston’s Joe Redfield was fifth in total doubles (11) and Grand Canyon’s Jacob Wilson checked in fifth in total triples (4).