End of Year

With the Western Athletic Conference Tournament over, UT Arlington baseball again getting eliminated and a sub.500 record, the year is over. With the exception of a few individuals in the track and field sports, that effectively means the 2024/25 athletic season is over.

I'll do a brief recap, later, but in the WAC tourney, the Mavericks over performed as a seven seed and went 2-2 in the field.

In the entry prior to the conference tournament, I pondered how hard it was for a team who swept another in the regular season to win a fourth game in the postseason. UTA took all three from Tarleton State, one by a run, another by two.

Somehow, the opening game was never close and it was UTA, who either wins big or loses close, who bombed the Tarleton State Texans 10-1. TSU had one of the better front-line pitchers in the WAC with Junior pitcher Brian Panneton. For whatever reason, he didn't start. The Mavs got four runs off the starter in the first inning and never looked back. UTA's Sophomore pitcher Caylon Dygert went six and a third innings pitched and gave up the one earned run. 

That was an important win as seeds five through eight play each with the loser's run in the tournament ending at one game. That set the stage for UTA taking on Utah Valley, the three seed. UTA swept the Wolverines in Arlington and going for a fourth win would be tough. 

The eventual tourney champs made short work of the Mavs, winning 17-7 in eight innings. All-time, UTA is 6-5 versus UVU, but 0-2 in the WAC tourney. In the semifinals in 2023, UTA lost 16-0. Something about UVU dominates the Mavs in the postseason.

UTA actually held a 6-4 lead after two innings and a 7-5 after 4.5 innings. The Wolverines put a four spot up in the bottom of the fifth, then a five-run sixth to blow open the game. They added one in in the seventh and two in the eighth to run rule UTA.

The loss sent UTA to the losers bracket. The Mavs didn't know who their opponent would be until the next day. The loser of the Sacramento State, ranked first in the field, and Grand Canyon University would square against UTA. Sac St won 7-5.

I messaged someone and it just seemed inevitable this year that UTA was going to square off against Grand Canyon regardless of the sport. There will be more in depth in the next couple of weeks, but outside of men's tennis and softball, every team sport met the 'lopes in a postseason tournament.

In a very late start time, UTA fell behind early. GCU scored three in the second and another three runs in the third to take a 6-2 lead over UTA at the end of three. Sophomore starter Nicholas Robb was able to weather that storm to go seven complete innings. He gave up seven runs, but only three were earned. Four singles in the fifth inning scored five runs, but even that is underselling it. It looked bleak after Junior centerfielder Xander McAfee was caught stealing, emptying the bases with two outs. 

Sophomore all-everything Caylon Dygert, Freshman shortstop Austin Phillips and Senior catcher Parker Airhart hit consecutive singles, scoring one. Freshman second baseman Cade Dodson walked to load the bases. Junior first baseman Xavier Melendez singled to score two. Junior right fielder Tyce Armstrong singled, scoring one. Senior third baseman Tate Bethel rounded out the scoring with a single. GCU made a pitching change and the next batter was the third out. Six singles and a walk with two outs led to five runs. 

The sixth, eighth and top of the ninth innings were all scoreless and GCU managed a lone run in the seventh. Robb got his fourth win of the year, Senior pitcher Caden Noah pitched the final two innings scoreless and UTA advanced in the tournament. Just as importantly for Mav fans, UTA sent GCU out of the WAC as they depart on July 1. UTA effectively ended GCU's time in the conference.

Abilene Christian lost to Utah Valley in the winner's bracket side of the semifinals and was next up for UTA. I was worried about UTA not being able to win four against Tarleton and I was wrong. I was right when they faced UVU. Now, the only other team for UTA to play that involved a sweep were the ACU Wildcats.

After losing two games by a run, UTA had a chance to eliminate one of the WAC co-champs. I mentioned the lack of pitching depth this year and the late rounds of the conference tournament show that deficiency. 

Senior pitcher Jack Hagan pitched an effective game back from injury against the Seattle Redhawks. He started against ACU and it was not effective. Two walks sandwiched around a single loaded the bases. Sophomore left fielder Reese Borho hit a grand slam. Sophomore lefty Ty Zahradnik came in relief after the home run and had one of the best reliever outings I've seen this year. He went 7.2 innings giving up two earned tuns. He wasn't on the all-tournament team, unsurprisingly so. But he deserved it. The portal era leaves a lot to uncertainty in the future, but he pitched well enough in crunch time to earn a long look.

At the end of the seventh inning, UTA had chipped away at the lead just enough to finally gain a 7-6 lead. Kudos to the Wildcats, who finally chased Zahradnik with a solo shot. Head coach Mike Trapasso had a short leash after the long outing and brought in Junior pitcher Anthony Garcia. Consecutive doubles brought another run to give ACU the lead. After a scoreless bottom eight from UTA, ACU got another solo shot and shut down the Mavs in the ninth.

At 21-33, UTA's season is done. There is no baseball equivalent of the NIT in basketball. UTA's 167 ranking in the NCAA's RPI is second in the WAC behind GCU's 108. That ranking was built largely on a very tough non-conference schedule.

There were some highlights for sure. UTA beat UT San Antonio twice in three games. The Roadrunners are a two seed in the NCAA tournament and 25th in RPI. UTA lost two of three to Houston at home, but the one win was to a top-100 RPI squad. They had late ties at the Southeastern Conference's Texas-Austin (4) and Oklahoma (26) and an extra inning loss against the Big 12's Baylor (75). There were two one-run losses at Lamar (60) followed by a two-run win. UTA had a win at home against TCU (18) and a 3-1 loss at Lupton. UTA swept the WAC tournament champs in Arlington. All told, UTA had eight wins over teams in the NCAA tournament field.

They also had ten losses to those in the field, counting the Utah Valley setback in the WAC tourney. Other bad losses included a home defeat to a 12-43 Sam Houston State, 247 in RPI. UTA lost two of three in Monroe to ULM, 188 in RPI and 22-33 on the year. They also dropped two of three to the eighth-place team in the WAC, 24-31 Utah Tech, 250th in RPI and the last-place team, 20-32 Seattle, 279th in RPI. That is to say nothing of the got-away games, ones they could have won, but an error, bad pitch or missed swing led to a loss.

Now we wait for the portal to make its impact. The pieces are there on a very young team. If the sophomore weekend starters return, if the lineup returns, this team is going to compete for a title. If the Mavericks can make a good pitcher or two addition, one good hitter, this team is set for a run. Had some of the pieces from the last couple of years stayed, that could have been the case this year too.

As it is, most teams in UTA's boat will have to wait and see who leaves, who is recruited by the bigger, higher-resourced schools, who stays and who is available to pick up.