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Former Wenatchee infielder Dillon Baird of Arizona wins Pac-10 batting title

Ex-Wenatchee AppleSox first baseman Dillon Baird of the Arizona Wildcats was named Pac-10 Player of the Week for the week of May 18-24, the final week of Pac-10 play.

Baird went 7-for-13 vs. University Oregon at PK Park to improve his Pac-10 leading batting average to .433 and capture the conference’s batting crown.

Dillon further separated himself from the Pac-10 field in conference games hitting a robust .472 in Pac-10 contests. The conference’s next best hitter in Pac-10-only games was Washington State’s Jared Prince, also an alum of the West Coast League (Aloha Knights/2006), who hit a full 65 percentage points lower at a still impressive .407 mark.

Arizona’s junior left-handed hitting slugger’s .504 on-base percentage and 84 hits also led the Pac-10.

In addition, Baird led UA in RBI with 55 and tied for the Cats lead in doubles with 21 and his 8 HR were second best on the team.

Baird played for the Wenatchee AppleSox in 2007 and was named second-team All-WCCBL. Dillon hit .299 with a Sox-leading 3 HR that summer and won the Home Run Derby at the 2007 WCCBL All-Star Game in Bellingham, Washington.

Former Knight senior outfielder Jared Prince was named the Pac-10 Player of the Week for May 11-17.

Ex-Wenatchee AppleSox junior outfielder Kyle Conley of University of Washington finished second in the Pac-10 in home runs with 19 and ex-Corvallis Knights senior ace Matt Way of Washington State was second in the Pac-10 in strikeouts with 114.

Five of ten Pac-10 teams featured leading hitters that competed in the West Coast League.

Baird led Arizona in hitting, senior catcher Gino Aielli (Wenatchee AppleSox/2008) of UCLA led the Bruins in batting with a .353 average, first baseman Alex Burg (Corvallis Knights/2008) of Washington State hit .355 to lead the Cougars, senior outfielder Jake Rife (Bend Elks/2006) of University of Washington led the Huskies hitting at a .328 clip and sophomore second baseman Colin Walsh (Kelowna Falcons/2008) of Stanford hit .320 to lead the Cardinal.