@NCBearsBaseball Opens Up WAC Tournament Against Utah Valley

Wednesday, May 24

Mesa, Ariz.

4:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

Utah Valley

Tickets

5/23/2017 3:24:00 PM | Baseball

WAC Tournament Centeral Northern Colorado Notes WAC Notes 2017 WAC Tournament Bracket

Northern Colorado baseball begins the WAC Tournament Wednesday afternoon against Utah Valley

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

Mesa, Ariz. – Northern Colorado (22-28, 10-14 WAC) is set to play in its third straight WAC Tournament this week in Mesa, Arizona, facing Utah Valley (18-34, 11-13 WAC) in the first round on Wednesday, May 24 at 4 pm MT.

Leading Off
• Northern Colorado qualified for its third straight WAC Tournament last week as they swept Chicago State to close out the regular season.
• Two of the three games were played in Pueblo, Colorado. In those games, the Bears won 10-0 in eight innings, and 9-1 over the Cougars.
• UNC had a strong 1-2 punch on the mound last week with Troy Watson and Aaron Hamilton each throwing seven scoreless innings. Watson struck out one more than his teammate with five, while also walking an extra man with three.
• Brett Minnick had a big weekend for the Bears in the batter's box, with a .500/1.083/.571 slash line. He had four extra base hits, a pair of doubles, a triple and two-run home run. He scored six times and drove in four runs.
• Last weekend, UNC's offense hit .382 for the weekend, including 12 extra base hits, averaging 10 runs a scored a game.
• Northern Colorado opens the WAC Tournament against defending champion Utah Valley. The Wolverines and Bears are the No. 4 and 5 seeds, respectively.
• The pitching matchup for the opening round of the WAC Tournament will be RHP Troy Watson (4-2, 4.91 ERA) for UNC against LHP Jackson Cofer (3-7, 4.60 ERA) for UVU. Cofer started against the Bears earlier this year going 6.1 innings allowing no runs and just one hit while striking out seven and walking a pair.

Scouting The WAC Tournament
All six teams that qualified for last season's tournament, are back this year. New Mexico State, CSU Bakersfield, Sacramento State, Utah Valley and Seattle U join Northern Colorado to form the six team field. Utah Valley won last season as the No. 3 seed, and come into this year as the No. 4 seed. UVU defeated last season's No. 1 seed in Seattle to win the tournament and go on to the NCAA Tournament. This season Seattle is the No. 6 seed.

New Mexico State ran away with the top spot going 19-5 in WAC play, finishing five games ahead of CSU Bakersfield, the No. 2 seed. Sacramento State went 12-12 in the WAC to earn the three seed, just a game ahead of Utah Valley, and two above UNC. Seattle beat out UT Rio Grande Valley and Chicago State for the final spot by a game, with an 8-16 record.

All games of the tournament will be played at Hohokam Park, the spring training home of the Oakland A's. The entire tournament can be seen on the WAC Digital Network, and live stats can be found at UNCBears.com.

History At the WAC Tournament
Northern Colorado is making its third trip to the WAC Tournament this season, with a previous record of 0-4. UNC made the 2015 and 2016 tournaments as well, falling to North Dakota, Sacramento State twice and CSU Bakersfield. The Bears joined the WAC in 2014.

Previously Against Utah Valley
Utah Valley visited Northern Colorado during the final week of April, taking the series 2-1 in Greeley. After dropping game one of the series on Friday, UNC and UVU had to play a doubleheader on Sunday due to snow in the area. The Bears won game one of the day 7-0 thanks to a great pitching performance by RHP Aaron Hamilton. The Wolverines earned the series finale win and wrapped up the series thanks to a late error by UNC. Utah Valley scored five runs in the eighth due to the error leading to a 9-5 win.

Honoring a Legend
Northern Colorado baseball honored legendary Hall of Fame head coach Tom Pettroff at its final home game by retiring his jersey. The coach complied a 367-198-1 with six conference titles, three NCAA Division II regional playoff appearances and three NCAA Division I regional appearances. His 1974 club upset No. 1 ranked Arizona at Jackson Field to advance to the College World Series, where they finished fifth. Named the 1971 College Division Coach of the Year. He received the Lefty Gomez Award in 1974. Member of the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He is also a member of the UNC Hall of Fame, class of 1994.

Minnick Doubling Up
Brett Minnick has been a doubles machine this year for UNC. The junior has 24 doubles averaging one every other game. That ranks first in the WAC and fourth nationally. Those 24 doubles this year also have him tied for second most in the single season records for doubles at UNC with Shane Roberts (2003). Minnick is currently three behind record holder Patrick Perry and his 27 in 2004.

Along Came Pauley
Redshirt sophomore, Jack Pauley has made an instant impact for Northern Colorado this season. He leads the team in batting average (.335) and RBIs (43). During the WAC portion of the schedule he hit a team leading .333 with 11 doubles. His slugging percentage of .563 has him ranked 177th nationally, and fifth in the WAC.

Pauley had a monster opening WAC weekend hitting .615 against Sacramento State. He had eight hits on the weekend, including four doubles and two triples. Pauley also had five RBI and scored five times. He came up with the game-tying hit against Sac St on Sunday on one of his three doubles in the game.

He earned his first career WAC Hitter of the Week honor for his performance against NDSU at the beginning of March. He hit .538 in the series with three extra base hits including a pair of homers. He led the team seven RBI and six runs scored.

Close Calls
One or two run ball games have been common for Northern Colorado this season, through 50 games, 20 have been decided by that margin. UNC is 13-7 in those games.

Five of them have gone into extra innings all lasting just 10 innings. UNC is 3-2 in those games winning at San Francisco and twice at UT Rio Grande Valley, while falling to BYU and Regis.

In the team's last four games all have been decided by two-runs or less. The Bears and UTRGV played within one run of each other all three games, while UNC won by two at Air Force. In those games against Rio Grande Valley, two went to extras, while the other was decided on a walk-off.

Lords of the (SAC) Flys
Northern Colorado baseball has become the Lords of the Sac Fly this season recording 26 on the season ranking second the WAC, and rank 51st in the NCAA. Leading the Bears is Jack Pauley and his seven, ranking second in the WAC and 16th in the nation. Tyler Yamaguchi and Cole Maltese are also in the Top 75 of the rankings with six, each.

Bears Dig The Long Ball
UNC can hit the long ball. The team has 43 home runs this season including 12 of multi-home run games. They are ranked 97th in the NCAA in home runs hit. Eleven different Bears have hit a long ball this season, led by Cole Maltese's nine.

The Bears had a day of long balls against Air Force on April 11th. They hit five home runs in the game, including back-to-back-to-back solo shots from Maltese, Jack Pauley and Brett Minnick. Maltese ended up hitting two dingers in the game.

Jackson Magic
Jackson Magic has made a few appearances this season for Northern Colorado as they have earned a pair of big comeback victories at home. The first against Sacramento State on March 26, and then again on April 14 against Metro State. For the year the Bears have enjoyed the friendly confines of Jackson going 11-6 in home games.

On Sunday, March 26th afternoon UNC scored six runs in the bottom of the ninth to earn the comeback win and sweep of Sacramento State. The Bears trailed by as much as seven in the game as the Hornets scored at least one run in five of the first six innings. The trio of Evan Johnson, Jack Pauley and Nick Tanner came up with big hits for the Bears in the comeback. Johnson put UNC within one on a bases loaded clearing double, while Pauley tied the game up on his third double of the game. Nick Tanner had the walk-off hit with a single to left scoring Cole Maltese.

Having trailed all game long, Northern Colorado scored four in the bottom of the ninth for a walk-off win against Metro State on April 14th. Alex Kiel hit his first career home run, a three run shot to end the game.

14 K Gold Performance
Aaron Hamilton turned in a performance for the ages against San Jose State. He pitched a complete game two-hit shutout striking out 14, and allowing no walks. The 14 strikeouts tied a school-record, with Donnie Alexander.
He went mono-a-mono with Sacramento State ace Justin Dillion as both put up zeros through the first five innings. Hamilton allowed two runs in the sixth, while Dillion five, ending both of their days and Hamilton earning the win.

Hamilton combined for UNC's second shutout of the season with a strong 7.0 innings pitched allowing six hits while striking out six as well. Dylan Shiraki closed out the shutout for the team facing the minimum over the final two innings.

For the season Hamilton is 4-5 with a 4.35 ERA, he has struck out 59 and walked 28 over 68.1 innings pitched.

New Faces
Three of the fresh faces for the Bears are receiving some attention nationally. They are RHP Aaron Hamilton, OF Jack Pauley and RHP Troy Watson. DIBaseball.com rated both Hamilton and Pauley as some of the top draft prospects for the 2017 and 2018 draft, respectively from the WAC. Watson was ranked the No. 3 impact freshman for this season.

UNC also welcomes Nate Rasmussen as a volunteer assistant to staff. Rasmussen will serve as outfield coach, first base coach, and camp director as well as assisting hitters.

Exceeding Expectations
In the preseason WAC coaches poll, Northern Colorado has been picked to finish eighth in the conference for the second consecutive year. The Bears once again exceeded expectations this year by finishing sixth in the WAC standings.

UNC has been able to exceed expectations the past two seasons. Last year the team was picked to finish eighth and ended up fifth in the conference. While in 2014 Northern Colorado was picked last, but finished seventh in the WAC.

Following the Bears
Want to stay up to date with all things UNC Bears Baseball? There are a few ways to. During all games this year there will be live updates on the team's Twitter account @NCBearsBaseball.

For home games there will also be a live stream and live audio broadcast of the games as well as live stats on UNCBears.com.

Making the Grades
There were seven UNC players who earned spots on the 2016 Academic Honors list. Those earning honors are Jake Garcia, Cam Huber, Brett Minnick, Cole Maltese, Dan Reese, Payton Tapia, Corey Nakakura.

Wild Wild West
The Bears roster is comprised of almost every state in the western part of the US. Eleven different states are represented on the roster, as far east as Nebraska and as west as Hawaii.

Home Grown
Head coach Carl Iwasaki and his staff have done a good job of keeping the home grown talent in the state. 12 of UNC's 35 hail from the Centennial State.

Hawaiian Connection
The Bears have four players who hail from Hawaii plus head coach Carl Iwasaki and assistant Kaiona Correa all coming to Colorado from the islands.

Class of 2018
Help arrives for Northern Colorado with eight new players joining their roster for the 2018 season. The Bears add three infielders, a catchers, two utility players and a pair of right handed pitchers.

On Deck
By winning the WAC Tournament Northern Colorado would qualify for the 64-team NCAA Tournament. The field, and regionals will be announced on Memorial Day, May 29 at 10 am MT on ESPNU.