WAC 2023 Baseball Award Winners Announced
ARLINGTON, Texas – The major award winners and all-conference teams for the 2023 WAC baseball season were revealed on Monday, as voted on by the 13 WAC baseball member head coaches. Abilene Christian’s Grayson Tatrow was named WAC Player of the Year, California Baptist’s Liam Rocha earned WAC Pitcher of the Year, Sacramento State’s Wehiwa Aloy was tabbed WAC Freshman of the Year, Grand Canyon’s Jacob Wilson was selected as WAC Defensive Player of the Year and Grand Canyon skipper Gregg Wallis was voted by his peers as the WAC Coach of the Year.
Tatrow was a fixture at the top of WAC offensive statistical standings over 29 conference starts, ranking first in home runs (17), slugging percentage (.946) and total bases (106), third in runs scored (39), fourth in RBI (38) and fifth in base hits (47) and on-base percentage (.492). Tatrow fashioned 16 multi-hit games in conference play, driving in two or more runs on 11 different occasions against league foes that included five RBI versus Sacramento State on March 26 and against Tarleton on May 14.
Rocha was a three-time conference pitcher of the week during the regular season and shined with a 4-0 record and 2.96 ERA over 10 starts, limiting opposing WAC batters to just a .242 average over 54.2 league innings pitched. Rocha’s ERA and 64 strikeouts were atop the conference standings in league play, with his signature game an eight-inning start with only two hits allowed, no runs, a walk and seven strikeouts in an 8-5 win at NM State on April 7.
Aloy was a force at the plate in his debut season with Sacramento State, leading the WAC in hits (56) over 30 conference games to go along with a .415 batting average, 10 home runs, 24 RBI and 41 runs scored. Aloy logged 21 multi-hit games against WAC opponents and scored at least one run in 25 of his 30 conference games played.
Wilson posted a .953 fielding percentage in conference games at shortstop, making 35 putouts and 46 assists in 85 league chances in the field. Wilson helped turn 11 double plays for Grand Canyon during WAC games and logged only four errors in 21 league appearances. Wilson recorded six games with three or more putouts and 10 games with three or more assists in the field against league foes.
In his first season at the helm of Grand Canyon, Wallis led the Lopes to a 36-19 (22-7 WAC) record to capture a conference regular-season championship and the top seed in the 2023 University Credit Union WAC Baseball Tournament. The Lopes closed the regular season with wins in 13 straight games, outscoring opponents 100-42 during the winning streak. GCU paced the WAC with 254 runs scored, a .404 team on-base percentage and 277 pitching strikeouts over 29 conference games.
Grand Canyon led all teams with six players (three first team) included on WAC all-conference teams, with the four Sam Houston players on the first team out of five total selections the most in the league.
2023 WAC Baseball Awards (as voted by the conference's 13 head coaches)
WAC Player of the Year
Grayson Tatrow, Sr., OF, Abilene Christian
WAC Pitcher of the Year
Liam Rocha, Jr., RHP, California Baptist
WAC Freshman of the Year
Wehiwa Aloy, SS, Sacramento State
WAC Defensive Player of the Year
Jacob Wilson, Jr., SS, Grand Canyon
WAC Coach of the Year
Gregg Wallis, Grand Canyon
All-WAC First Team
SP - Liam Rocha, Jr., RHP, California Baptist
SP - Daniel Avitia, So., RHP, Grand Canyon
SP - Casey Anderson, Jr., RHP, Utah Valley
RP - Chandler David, Jr., RHP, Sam Houston
C - Martin Vincelli-Simard, Sr., Sacramento State
1B - Tyler Davis, Sr., Sam Houston
1B - Brandon Pimentel, Grad, UTRGV
2B - Daniel Dickinson, Fr., Utah Valley
3B - Justin Wishkoski, Jr., Sam Houston
SS - Jacob Wilson, Jr., Grand Canyon
OF - Grayson Tatrow, Sr., Abilene Christian
OF - Homer Bush Jr., Jr., Grand Canyon
OF - Joe Redfield, Jr., Sam Houston
DH - JP Smith, Fr., Sacramento State
All-WAC Second Team
SP - Zach Thornton, Jr., LHP, Grand Canyon
SP - Coltin Atkinson, Jr., RHP, Sam Houston
SP - Angelo Cabral, Jr., RHP, UTRGV
RP - Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis, Grad, RHP, Grand Canyon
C - Michael Carpentier, So., California Baptist
1B - Zach Yorke, Fr., Grand Canyon
2B - Kevin Jimenez, Sr., NM State
3B - Mitchel Simon, Jr., California Baptist
3B - Christian Perez, Fr., NM State
SS - Wehiwa Aloy, Fr., Sacramento State
OF - Dusty Garcia, Sr., California Baptist
OF - Keith Jones II, Jr., NM State
OF - Matt Boissoneault, Sr., Seattle U
DH - Ryan Black, Fr., UT Arlington
WAC All-Defensive Team
OF - Logan Britt, Jr., Abilene Christian
OF - Garret Ostrander, Jr., California Baptist
IF - Emilio Barreras, Fr., Grand Canyon
OF - Cade Verdusco, Jr., Grand Canyon
SS - Jacob Wilson, Jr., Grand Canyon
1B - Zach Yorke, Fr., Grand Canyon
C - Nick Gore, Jr., NM State
OF - Alec Williams, Jr., Tarleton
2B - Isaac Lopez, So., UTRGV
1B/OF - Brandon Pimentel, Grad, UTRGV
--WAC--