The UT Arlington softball team may well be the most surprising team of the current athletic season. The volleyball team won a regular season and tournament crown, bucking a general UTA trend of disappointing performances in the postseason in all sports, but were picked second in the preseason polls. The cross country teams finished in the approximate position of their pre-race picks prior to the conference race. Same with the indoor track teams. The women's basketball team was like the volleyball girls. The men's basketball team may be in the running, but in today's era of transfers nothing surprises me regardless of the preseason pick.
This blog entry would have been a little more on topic two weeks ago, but consecutive 1-2 weekends have dropped their position in the Western Athletic Conference standings. Picked in a tie for seventh in the WAC, the Mavs are currently in a tie for third. After five straight losing seasons, they are currently 22-16 overall and 8-7 in the WAC.
Looking at the stat lines for the team, there is no one dominant reason for the over .500 record. What we have seen over the last few weeks has been team play, getting a timely hit or out when needed, stiff defense and a general improvement in the team performance.
It's almost eerie how similar the baseball and softball teams are when looking at team stats. UTA is only in the top three in two offensive categories: walks (2nd) and fewest strikeouts (3). The pitching isn't much better: saves (2), runs allowed (3), walks given (2) and doubles allowed (3). Like baseball, the defense has been leading the way. For the softball team, the Mavs appear in a greater percentage of defensive categories: fielding percentage (3), assists (3) and double plays turned (1).
Individually, Junior catcher Kailee Bautista has been doing a fantastic job at both ends of the game. She is the only Mav over .300 in batting average at .333. Unsurprisingly, she is first in hits too with 37, but leads other offensive categories as well. She's first in runs with 22, doubles with 12, runs batted in with 22, total bases with 61, walks with 24, hit by pitch with 7, slugging percentage at .550 and on base percentage at .476. She is also second in at bats at 111 and is tied for third in home runs with four. Hard to find a more dominant offensive stat line than that.
Sophomore Mia McNulty, who also plays catcher but fills in at the designated player often, leads in at bats with 112, is second in hits with 29, tied for first in home runs with five, second in RBI with 21 and second total bases with 51. Freshman utility player Talia Maldonado has been a pleasant surprise. She is third in batting average, hits, runs and RBI.
As a whole the pitching staff is above average, but two pitchers as a whole have been carrying the load. Senior Jessica Adams leads the staff in ERA at 2.55 and innings pitched with 55.0. She's only started five games, which is uncommon for softball players as a whole. Those five games started are tied for third overall, but her 16 appearances are tied for first.
Sixth-year pitcher Emilie Hoelscher is the pitcher Adams is tied with in appearances, though she has started 11 of those 16. Her 2.87 ERA is good for second, also joining Adams as the only two Mavs under 3 in ERA. Their combined 13-6 record is good for almost two-thirds of UTA's wins and only a third of the losses.
Now unfortunately, most of the top UTA players do not appear at the top of WAC stat categories. Bautista is 15th in the WAC in batting average, out of nine teams. That's about as high a ranking as any Maverick offensive player has in conference.
Pitching is a bit better as Adams is fifth in ERA in the WAC while Hoelscher is eighth. Outside of UTA, only Grand Canyon has more than one in the top eight. Sophomore pitcher Abi Gutierrez joins her teammates in the top ten with a 3.35 mark.
Based upon fielding chances, UTA has three players in the top nine in fielding percentage, freshman all-around player Madi McDonnell with 88 chances, Junior utility Marley Neises, 55 and Senior outfielder Nicole Hill at 54. Utah Tech and California Baptist are the only other school with two in the top nine and if the list goes to ten, Utah Valley then becomes only the fourth university with multiple players in the top ten. None have three.
When looking at the schedule, UTA has done very well at home, going 12-4 to this point. Within the WAC, UTA has won both series, but has not scored a sweep. While on the road, UTA has won one of three conference series, but a sweep was not involved in any of the three.
UTA started the conference slate with a 2-1 mark in each of the three conference series: at home to Utah Tech, in Stephenville at Tarleton State and in Arlington versus Abilene Christian. The last two conference weekends were both on the road and both ended in a 1-2 UTA loss, two weeks ago to Utah Valley and last weekend to Cal Baptist.
As far as sites go, the last three series favor UTA. UTA hosts the league leader this weekend, which is better than playing in Phoenix, then go on the road to play Southern Utah, who is in last place in the conference. The final weekend is in Arlington against Seattle University, with whom the Mavericks are tied with at third.
As mentioned, entering this coming week, UTA is 12-4 at Allan Saxe Field, 6-6 on the road and has a 4-6 mark on a neutral field. Six of the remaining ten games are in Arlington with one mid-week game remaining against Texas Tech in Lubbock.
This weekend, the good news is a home series. The compounded bad news is it is against the Conference leaders, which just so happens to be the Grand Canyon Antelopes, which most readers know my feelings on the spending of the academic dollars on athletics that come from that school.
UTA took two of three from the second-place team at their place, so they are capable of winning a game or two in the series on their home field.
But another wrinkle, the late and legendary professor Allan Saxe, the obvious namesake of Allan Saxe Field, will be honored prior to the start of the first game on Saturday. He is an integral part of program as his donations helped give the venue its first upgrades in 1993, a time of vast change in the athletic department.
The ceremony starts at 11:45 Saturday.
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