Grand Canyon OF Tyler Wilson, son of former major league LHP Steve Wilson (Victoria, BC) earned WAC Player of the Year.

May 20, 2024

WAC News Release

ARLINGTON, Tex. – The major award winners and all-conference teams for the 2024 Western Athletic Conference season were voted on by the 11 WAC member head coaches.

Grand Canyon’s Tyler Wilson was named WAC Player of the Year. Wilson became GCU’s first player to win WAC Player of the Year since Quin Cotton in 2018.

A .405 hitter in conference play, OF Wilson led the WAC. He was in the conference’s top 10 in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, hits, runs scored, RBIs, doubles and home runs. He hit .300 or better for his fourth consecutive college season.

Wilson, who was born in Tainan, Taiwan and grew up in Chandler, Ariz., hit .383, with 16 doubles, two triples, 15 homers and 59 RBIs, this spring. He also had a 1.132 OPS in 52 games. Wilson is 43rd in the nation in hitting. All of which makes him the best Canuck to wear the Lopes uniform since Mike Irving (Mississauga, Ont.) who is now the coach of the Mississauga Majors.

His father Steve Wilson (Victoria, BC) was a fourth-round selection of the Texas Rangers in 1985 from the University of Portland Pilots. Wilson pitched in 205 games during his six-year career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and the Rangers. All of which makes Tyler Wilson eligible for the World Baseball Classic.

A member of Canada’s first Olympic team, which competed at Los Angeles in 1984, Wilson is currently an international cross checker/pitching analyst with the New York Yankees.

Grand Canyon led All-WAC recognition for the sixth straight season by collecting 10 different awards, headlined by Wilson being named the WAC Player of the Year and Lopes head coach Gregg Wallis earning WAC Coach of the Year.

In addition to the two major awards, GCU landed three players on the All-WAC first team, one on the All-WAC second team and four on the All-WAC defensive teams.

After Wallis became the first rookie head coach in the history of the WAC to be named the conference’s coach of the year last year, he repeated winning the honour in 2024 after the Lopes won the conference’s regular season with a five-game margin over the other challengers.

On the first team, GCU landed: Isaac Lyon (starting pitcher) and Beau Ankeney (DH) and Wilson.

Senior outfielder Cade Verdusco was a second-team selection.

GCU earned four spots on the WAC All-Defensive teams: Emilio Barreras (shortstop), Eddy Pelc (outfielder) and Alton Gyselman (catcher) and Verdusco.

Abilene Christian’s Brett Lanman earned both WAC Pitcher of the Year and WAC Freshman of the Year, California Baptist’s Josh Paino claimed WAC Defensive Player of the Year and Grand Canyon skipper Gregg Wallis repeated as the WAC Coach of the Year.

California Baptist led all teams with five total players (three first team) included on WAC all-conference teams, with the three Lancer players on the first team tied with Abilene Christian and Grand Canyon for the most in the league.

2024 WAC Baseball Awards

(Voted by the conference’s 11 head coaches)

WAC Player of the Year

Tyler Wilson, Sr., OF, Grand Canyon

WAC Pitcher of the Year

Brett Lanman, Fr., LHP, Abilene Christian

WAC Freshman of the Year

Brett Lanman, LHP, Abilene Christian

WAC Defensive Player of the Year

Josh Paino, Jr., SS, California Baptist

WAC Coach of the Year

Gregg Wallis, Grand Canyon

All-WAC First Team

SP – Brett Lanman, LHP, Abilene Christian

SP – Isaac Lyon, So., RHP, Grand Canyon

RP – Grant Garza, Sr., RHP, Tarleton State

C – Burke Camper, Sr., Utah Valley

1B – Gino D’Alessio, Grad, Abilene Christian

2B – Daniel Dickinson, So., Utah Valley

SS – Josh Paino, Jr., California Baptist

3B – Mitchel Simon, Sr., California Baptist

OF – Miller Ladusau, Sr., Abilene Christian

OF – Nicholas Dumesnil, So., California Baptist

OF – Tyler Wilson, Sr., Grand Canyon

DH – Beau Ankeney, Jr., Grand Canyon