Diamond Disappointments

 Between the conference tournament drop off in men's basketball and the situation surrounding the passing of my dad, I'm not going to post much regarding the spring sports this year. Congrats to the men's tennis team on the defense of their Western Athletic Conference title. They will be the only sport to bring a title and play in the postseason this year. The track teams performed well in their outdoor meets as well. Both golf teams were top of the bottom half with some marked performances that give cause for hope.

But the baseball and softball teams had less than stellar seasons in 2024. Despite the hype I heard regarding the baseball team heading into the year, they earned 22 wins versus 34 losses. I didn't hear much about the softball team in the preseason either way. They earned one more win than their baseball counterparts against the same amount of losses.

There's quite a bit to break down with the baseball results. First, UTA performed poorly in mid-week games. Once conference play started in the second weekend in March, they went 2-10 in non-conference play. Factoring out Houston, which was a weekend series due to the WAC having an odd number of teams, they were 1-8 in mid-week games during that stretch. I don't know what has happened to UTA baseball, but that's the second time in three years with that bad a non-conference stretch. Last year's wasn't much better either, just not this bad.

But the losses weren't blowouts. There were six total one-run losses, eight losses by two runs, two losses by three runs and six losses by four runs. That's 22 of 34 losses by a grand slam or less.

The frustrating part was some games were a 3-2 loss. Others were on the short end of a 11-9 score. Between offense, pitching or defense, there was always a reason the Mavericks were short on the scoreboard.

The team finished sixth in the WAC with a 16-14 mark. But within those 30 games is an oddity. At exactly halfway, there were five teams ahead and behind the Mavs in the standings. UTA was never swept in conference. They swept one team. That means they won and lost at least one game to nine of the ten WAC opponents. There were no rainouts. Of the five teams ahead of UTA, the Mavericks won the series three times to two losses. Of the five teams behind UTA, the Mavs lost the series three times. 

In short, had they beat the teams they should have based on the standings by winning two of three, they would have been second overall in the conference. The mark of teams that perform well in the postseason is they are remarkably consistent against teams they should beat. 

That overall WAC performance put them in the bottom half of the tournament qualifiers and on the single-elimination side to start the postseason tournament. Much like the regular season, the Mavs were close, but ultimately short in an 8-5 loss to UT Rio Grande Valley. 

I don't know what illed UTA, but something was just off. Offensively, they were ninth of 11 in batting average in conference, eighth in runs scored, seventh in earned run average, sixth in earned runs and fifth in fielding percentage. I heard on a broadcast where Josh Sours mentioned injuries, but I didn't see anyone miss extended time on a scale much different than the average season. Unless a guy like Garrison Berkley, who underperformed compared to the prior year, was nursing something while playing, I don't think that's the answer.

Ultimately, it's frustrating because they had some good wins, three Power-five wins, a close 2-1 series loss to Lamar, who was second in the nation in total wins, evened a four-game series to UTSA, who finished second in the American Athletic Conference, and a win over every conference school, one through ten (outside of themselves).

But something was missing. Despite playing in a top ten, many years top six conference for a decade, and being competitive most years, this is now two years in a row where UTA played in a much, much softer conference and they did not make a run at the top. Maybe year three will be better, but the outcome-to-hype ratio for this year's squad finished quite a bit out of whack.

As mentioned earlier, the softball ladies had a similar trajectory. They also finished sixth in the WAC, though with only ten teams. Unlike their baseball counterparts, they didn't play inconsistent versus the two halves of the conference.

They were swept by the regular season champs, GCU, as well as Utah Tech. They lost the three-game series to Tarleton St and Seattle. They won the series against Abilene Christian and Utah Valley. They swept Southern Utah. California Baptist saw a game rained out and ended in a split. Stephen F. Austin was a scheduled two-game series (for some odd reason), which also saw a split.

Utah Tech finished only one game ahead for the Mavs, so that sweep really hurt. Had UTA swept Seattle at home, they would have finished ahead of the Redhawks. Win one game from each and they finish fourth overall. That said, I don't think many feel UTA is any better than an even draw. Below the Mavericks, only Tarleton won the series, and the Texans were exactly one spot back. Ultimately, they finished probably where they belonged.

Other than a win at Baylor, ranked in the top 25 at the time, the softballers didn't have many marquee wins, but didn't get upset terribly much either. Baylor won a Regional and took Florida to three games in the Super Regional, so that was a nice win. In short, UTA won when they were supposed to and lost the same, with minor exceptions.

They avenged the Tarleton and Seattle losses by getting those wins in the Conference tournament, both elimination games. They did come up short to UVU and ultimately CBU to end their run at 2-2. A bright sport to end the year.

Pitching seemed a bit suspect to me all year. They did finish fifth in the conference, but a full run and a half behind the top two teams. At 4.45 runs per game, they need to get to a sub-3 to be competitive in game and out.

Coach Kara Dill has to find something offensively, as the Mavs were bottom half of most offensive categories. Some that were in the top half included strikeouts, caught steals, at bats and plate appearances. They also got hits too, but couldn't turn them into runs. The Mavs could get on base but couldn't get them across home plate.

Defense was near the bottom as they had a .951 fielding percentage with 80 errors, good for last in the conference for both. 

Continuing the diamond parallels, softball's transition from the Sun Belt to the Western Athletic should have preceded a better conference performance. UTA won the National Invitational Softball Championships a half decade ago, getting P5 and quality mid-majors wins to the title. While the SBC wasn't the softball power it is in baseball, it's still a top 10-12 conference as the top is just as good, or usually better, as the baseball top. UTA competed okay, getting third twice and two other top half finishes.

Yet the results in the WAC are just the same as the SBC, but in a conference ranked lower in the RPI. While I fully understand the WAC is dominated by GCU's funding model, the diamond sports are struggling to keep their head above water against everyone else. 

An average finish of sixth in the conference last year (with 13 members) yielded to an average finish of fourth this year (with 11 members) across all 15 sports is a decent improvement. However, were it not for men's tennis, there would have been no championships this year, compared to both tennis squad's championships last year.

We made some good strides this year, I'll likely give that its own post. Sadly, the spring ends to the athletic year are late to the party. As they say, there's always next year.