Pac-12 Announces Baseball Players of the Week

SAN FRANCISCO - The Conference office announced today Alfonso Rivas III of ARIZONA was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week and Colton Hock of STANFORD was tabbed Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week for the action during the week of Feb. 22-28.

Rivas (San Diego, Calif.) returned home for the weekend to play at the inaugural Tony Gwynn Classic. Playing against a quality field, the freshman went 9-15 with seven RBI on the weekend, including a 5-6, four RBI effort in a win against Nebraska on Saturday. Rivas' five hits in a single game tied an Arizona record. He began the weekend with a three-hit night against Tulane, driving home two runs in the process. In Sunday's matchup against the Aztecs of San Diego State, Rivas's lone hit of the game drove in a run to contribute to the Wildcats win. Rivas was also named to the Tony Gwynn Classic All-Tournament Team for his efforts. He posted a batting average of .600 for the weekend and a slugging percentage of .867. This is Rivas' first-career weekly honor and the 63rd all-time for Arizona.

For the second-straight week, a member of the Cardinal pitching staff earned the Pac-12's weekly accolade. This week, Hock (Bloomsburg, Pa.) played a key role in Stanford knocking off No.23 Texas, 1-0, in a 12-inning road shut out on Thursday. The extra-inning pitchers dual was highlighted by Hock, who pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings in relief and struck out a career-high eight batters. He allowed just three hits, walked three batters and recorded an opponent's batting average of .158. In the longest outing of his career, Hock kept the game scoreless through the 10th. He inherited a runner on second with one out in the fourth inning but got a quick ground out and then stranded the runner at third with the first of many big punch outs on the night. The first time Hock allowed a Texas baserunner in scoring position was in the ninth. But with two outs and runners on first and second, he came through with another strike out. In the bottom of the 10th, the Longhorns loaded the bases with two outs. But Hock came up with yet another big strikeout. Stanford scored in the top of the 12th to earn the win. Stanford has 82 all-time weekly pitcher accolades, the most in league history.

The Wildcats have a busy week ahead, starting with an exhibition against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday. Following that, they host No. 22 Cal State Fullerton on Wednesday, Northwestern State on Friday, CSU Bakersfield on Saturday and a doubleheader on Sunday against St. Mary's (Calif.) and Northwestern State. For the Cardinal, they also take on St. Mary's (Calif.) on The Farm on Tuesday. Following that, Stanford welcomes No. 2 Vanderbilt for a three-game series in which Saturday and Sunday's 1 p.m. PT games will be televised on Pac-12 Bay Area. .

ALSO NOMINATED
Player: Brett Cumberland, CAL; Jakob Goldfarb, ORE; Billy King, OSU; Brett Urabe, UCLA; Adalberto Carrillo, USC; DaShawn Keirsey, Jr., UTAH; Josh Cushing, WASH; Trek Stemp, WSU.
Pitcher:  Seth Martinez, ASU; Ryan Mason, CAL; David Peterson, ORE: Luke Heimlich, OSU; Griffin Canning, UCLA; Brent Wheatley, USC; Jayson Rose, UTAH.

2015-16 PAC-12 PLAYER AND PITCHER OF THE WEEK