The UTRGV baseball team has been picked as the favorite to repeat as Western Athletic Conference (WAC) champions, according to the 2021 Preseason WAC Coaches Poll released Wednesday.
The Vaqueros, who enter the season on an eight-game winning streak, won the 2019 WAC Championship by tying for first place with New Mexico State and California Baptist with a 19-8 record, one game ahead of Sacramento State and Grand Canyon, who went 18-9.
In the preseason poll, UTRGV was picked to tie for first with Grand Canyon and Sacramento State, with each earning 73 points. UTRGV picked up the most first place votes with four, while Grand Canyon and Sacramento State each received three. New Mexico State was picked to finish fourth with 53 points followed by California Baptist with 49 points.
The Vaqueros also landed three graduate students on the Preseason All-WAC Team in catcher Conrado Diaz, first baseman/outfielder Joseph Impeduglia and shortstop Christian Sepulveda.
Diaz was one of 60 catchers in the NCAA on the 2020 Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award watch list, which is awarded to the top Division I collegiate catcher. Last season, Diaz ranked second in the NCAA in times hit by pitch (12) and ranked 34th in doubles
In 2019, Diaz ranked as the 13th toughest hitter to strikeout in the NCAA at just one strikeout every 13.8 at-bats. Overall, he hit .319 with a .434 on-base percentage, 11 doubles, one home run, 31 RBI and 33 runs scored.
Impeduglia is in his first season with the Vaqueros as a graduate transfer from Concordia College. As a senior, he hit .435 with a .559 on-base percentage, a .587 slugging percentage, five doubles, one triple, 12 RBI and scored nine runs in 13 games.
Sepulveda, who has started 70 out of 71 games over the last two years for the Vaqueros, holds a career batting average of .279, 74 hits, 55 runs, 53 RBI and nine home runs with UTRGV. Sepulveda was also named to the All-WAC Second Team in both his junior and senior seasons.
The Vaqueros are scheduled to start the 2021 season with a three-game home series against Lamar starting on Feb.19 at 1 p.m. at UTRGV Baseball Stadium in Edinburg.
