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.

And with that, UTA will open the WAC Tournament against UT, a team UTA beat 2-1 in the regular season at home. Junior righty starter Caylon Dygert won a pitcher's duel 2-0 against another junior righty in Austin Ray. Dygert went seven innings in the shutout. Senior lefty reliever Merek Sears and sophomore righty reliever Hayes Melville flirted with disaster but never broke in the final two innings for the Mav win. UT garnered three hits, six walks and two beaned batters versus the three Mav pitchers, but stranded all of them, one via a double play. In the top of the ninth, the 'blazers had runners at second and third, but could not get the tying hit.

Ray gave up an inside the park home run to the Mavs junior designated hitter/catcher Zach Mazoch. An error led to an unearned run in the same inning via a sacrifice fly by sophomore third baseman Austin Phillips that scored Mav catcher Clark Springs.

Unquestionably, UTA knows who its starter will be. Dygert is 5-5 on the year with a 3.82 earned run average. In 77.2 inning pitched, all in 13 starts, he's given up 79 hits and 29 walks. Since Utah Tech has the second-best offense in the WAC from a statistical perspective, Dygert will need a repeat performance to keep UTA out of the loser's bracket to start.

Dygert's counterpart in the first game, Ray for UT, is 4-6 with a 5.43 ERA. Dakoda West has a better stat line at 6-4 on the year with a 4.70 ERA. The Senior righty went 5.0 innings giving up four earned runs in the 16-4 UT win on May 9th, which was the second game of the series. I don't know for sure, but either could be the Trailblazer starter. Ray started game one of every conference series save the very first one, so my guess is he's up first. 

UT's starting pitching is shaky and UTA will need to get a big outing off either pitcher. Once it gets to the 'blazer bullpen, things get shaky for the suspect Mav offense. UT has four pitchers with a sub 4.00 ERA in a combined 48 appearances. 

I did mention in the previous post that UTA's offensive stat line likely would improve after a weekend against Wolverine pitching. It did indeed. I also said it wouldn't be likely move UTA out of last place offensively, and that too, was true. At a team .264 batting average, they are behind Sac State's .270.

What I didn't see happening was UTA's pitching numbers decline noticeably. They didn't lose their spot in fourth, but the ERA went up to 6.04 from 5.84. I was hoping for better. They needed better.

It is also worthy to note this will be the last conference event under the current WAC banner before the name changes this summer. The winner of game one of the last WAC event will face California Baptist in the winner's bracket the following day. The loser will face the team that drops game two, either Sacramento State or Abilene Christian. 

First pitch tomorrow is penciled at noon central time. The Mavs have an ability to make a run, but see paragraph three of this post to see my current mindset.