The Last WAC Tournament

As soon as the first game of the previous series for the UT Arlington baseball team was in the books, I immediately thought of my last post. I was talking about how well their chances were to go as high as fourth or even third in the upcoming Western Athletic Conference tournament. 

Their chances were high because they were facing a team who had not won a conference series entering the sixth and final one of the season. The Utah Valley Wolverines had been swept three times. UTA's pitching was clearly superior while the offenses were a bit more even with a slight nod to UVU. Pitching usually wins out in these scenarios.

But the one part of the post stood out Thursday and especially after Friday's loss, giving Utah Valley the series win, their first of the year.

In more good news, UTA faces one remaining team in the WAC race, the last place team. Utah Valley, at 2-13 has been swept three times in five WAC series' and has not won a single series to this point. Now the cycnist in me will say this will be the time because their opponent is the Mavs. We Mav fans have seen heartbreak way too often to ever be comfortable. 

The rest of the WAC outcomes didn't favor UTA and as a result, the Mavericks fell to sixth in the standings. Utah Tech swept Abilene Christian, vaulting the Trailblazers to third. That put ACU in a tie for fifth with UTA, but the Wildcats won the series against the Mavs, giving ACU the higher seed. Sacramento State won their series against the regular-season champions in Tarleton State, giving them the fourth seed.

Crunch Time

The 2026 sprint of a baseball season, at least on the conference level, is entering it's last weekend and the UT Arlington squad is in a good position. Not great mind you, and certainly not at historic levels we've seen over this decades, but given the recent history after COVID cancelled the 2020 season, the prospects look promising.

Much of the last post about baseball still ring true: the pitching is above average, the offense is struggling, there have been close wins and large losses. But I'll cut to the chase. At 7-8 in the Western Athletic Conference, UTA has clinched a spot in the WAC tournament, the field is set, the seeding is not and the Mavericks sit in a tie for fifth with Utah Tech, but are a game out of third as Abilene Christian and Sacramento State are tied at 8-7.

The good news, UTA just won their series against the trailblazers 2-1 and have not been swept by any team in the conference. Bad news, the 9-8, 10-inning loss to Abilene Christian on April 25th cost them that series while a 2-1 loss on day one of the previous series against the Hornets cost UTA that WAC three-game set. To really hammer that point, after winning the opening series against the WAC leaders in Tarleton State, who have clinched a tie for the regular season trophy with three games remaining, UTA dropped a 6-4 decision to second place California Baptist that lost them that series. A slightly more potent offense and UTA has an outside shot at a regular season title at this point in the season. 

Softball's Changeover

The regular season has concluded for the UT Arlington softball team and for the first time in six years, UTA will have a winning record. At 24-21, regardless of the results in the upcoming Western Athletic Conference tournament, the Mavericks are guaranteed to have more wins than losses. A late 3-8 stretch last year put the UTA one game below .500.

This year came on the strength of a 12-6 conference mark. With a .667 winning percentage, that is the best conference mark since the COVID year's 2-1 mark. The last in a full season was a 20-10 mark in 2011 during the Southland Conference era. In the Sun Belt, there weren't many winning conference seasons, but 2019's 17-10 mark was the high-water mark. It's the first winning WAC season in five tries, including the lone year in 2013.

The results came on the backs of a relentless offense. UTA hit 59 home runs this year, a program best. In the WAC, second-place Tarleton State hit 42 for comparison. What's impressive, is UTA's 45 games played is last in the WAC. The range is a high of 55 by TSU and California Baptist (the top two teams in the WAC standings) to a low of 47 by sixth-place Southern Utah. Keep that in mind for the following stats.

In addition to being first in home runs, UTA sits second in runs with 304, second in RBI with 268, second in slugging percentage at .519, third in hit by pitches at 35 and third in on base percentage at .390. Had they played the same number of games as TSU and CBU, many of those stat categories see UTA at the top. Also note, these numbers were gathered with one game left for every other team in the conference and are subject to change.

With such a dominant performance, of course there will be some players atop the conference.