#7 Texas Arlington Mavericks: Last Year 33-26, (19-11 SBC) 4th Place

Coach Darin Thomas 7th Year

The Basics: The Maavericks were one of the surprise teams in the Sun BElt last year, rebounding from an awful start with some terrible OOC losses, and a 1-5 league start, to finish the season winning 18 of their last 24 league contests. How did they do that you ask? Well Ryan Bottger hit .368, Matt Shortall .344 and Eric Tate .331 to lead a team that finished percentage points shy of hitting .300 as a team. Pitching picked up as well. Daniel Milliman was moved from the bullpen to a starting role in series three, and he finished as the staff ace with a 2.69 ERA, enabling the team to compete on Friday Nights. The Bullpen led by Chad Nack (1.69 ERA 4 saves) pitched to an ERA under 4 as a group, which overcame some move average 4.64 and 5.44 ERA's out of their Saturday and Sunday starter, to finish with a team ERA of 4.42. In short, this team was very good last year, however a poor OOC Start meant that they lost any chance of securing an at large.

This year: Eric Tate is back along with Darrien McLemore (.301 BA) to pace the offense. McLemore is related to the big leaguer by the same name...yes. Nack and his sub 2 ERA will be back to close. The problem? That's pretty much it. The Mavericks have lost Six of their 9 starters in the batting order, and all three weekend starters. That an insane amount to lose for a team that was very good last year, and would normally be ripe for a big run this year.

Who is still here: There are a lot of backups and part time guys still left. A few Key relievers are still around, so there are pieces in place, however all of the super star players are gone outside of Tate and McLemore. To compete in the SBC this year, UTA is going to have to compete with a young lineup, with little D1 experience.

Outlook: This was a scary team to face last year, but they got robbed by a slow start. The same cannot happen this year if the Mavericks intend to contend. With a young team, there is no guarantee they respond to a losing streak like last year';s senior laden bunch did. McLemore, Tate, and Nack are real gems, and any of them could be all conference this year...but can the three of them overcome the many other deficiencies heading into SBC play? For right now, I do not think they can.

(02-07-2015 01:44 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  #7 Texas Arlington Mavericks: Last Year 33-26, (19-11 SBC) 4th Place

Coach Darin Thomas 7th Year

The Basics: The Maavericks were one of the surprise teams in the Sun BElt last year, rebounding from an awful start with some terrible OOC losses, and a 1-5 league start, to finish the season winning 18 of their last 24 league contests. How did they do that you ask? Well Ryan Bottger hit .368, Matt Shortall .344 and Eric Tate .331 to lead a team that finished percentage points shy of hitting .300 as a team. Pitching picked up as well. Daniel Milliman was moved from the bullpen to a starting role in series three, and he finished as the staff ace with a 2.69 ERA, enabling the team to compete on Friday Nights. The Bullpen led by Chad Nack (1.69 ERA 4 saves) pitched to an ERA under 4 as a group, which overcame some move average 4.64 and 5.44 ERA's out of their Saturday and Sunday starter, to finish with a team ERA of 4.42. In short, this team was very good last year, however a poor OOC Start meant that they lost any chance of securing an at large.

This year: Eric Tate is back along with Darrien McLemore (.301 BA) to pace the offense. McLemore is related to the big leaguer by the same name...yes. Nack and his sub 2 ERA will be back to close. The problem? That's pretty much it. The Mavericks have lost Six of their 9 starters in the batting order, and all three weekend starters. That an insane amount to lose for a team that was very good last year, and would normally be ripe for a big run this year.

Who is still here: There are a lot of backups and part time guys still left. A few Key relievers are still around, so there are pieces in place, however all of the super star players are gone outside of Tate and McLemore. To compete in the SBC this year, UTA is going to have to compete with a young lineup, with little D1 experience.

Outlook: This was a scary team to face last year, but they got robbed by a slow start. The same cannot happen this year if the Mavericks intend to contend. With a young team, there is no guarantee they respond to a losing streak like last year';s senior laden bunch did. McLemore, Tate, and Nack are real gems, and any of them could be all conference this year...but can the three of them overcome the many other deficiencies heading into SBC play? For right now, I do not think they can.

uta plays a pretty tough schedule so that may make for another slow start but with the new facilities and lots of new faces there is plenty of excitement to get started.

Home Park of UTA: Clay Gould Ballpark:









Chiefsfan's Take: Clay Gould is a pretty much new park, and it is very nice. Much like ULM, it's one of the hidden gems of the league because so much attention gets paid to Troy, USA, ULL, and now Texas State. Park generally plays fair to all fields. I'ts not a difficult place to homer, but not a terrible place to pitch either. It will be a big help to UTA as they continue to build their way back to the NCAA Tournament.

It's going to start getting difficult to rank from here on out. Lots of good teams left.

(02-07-2015 01:44 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  The Mavericks were one of the surprise teams in the Sun BElt last year, rebounding from an awful start with some terrible OOC losses, and a 1-5 league start, to finish the season winning 18 of their last 24 league contests.

They were only a surprise to the teams in the Sun Belt. They received votes in the pre-season top 25 for a reason. The big surprise was how poorly they performed all around in those non-conference games.

As for Clay Gould, it was built in the '70's and has basically been getting complete makeovers since 2000. This season will premier a clubhouse with player lounge, locker rooms, coaches office, etc. Pretty exciting time for the program. This is one of the biggest projects since the exterior was redone in 2001.

Prior to this, they had been dressing at Maverick Stadium and driving the 1/2 mile to the stadium.

BTW: This team won't finish outside the top 5.

(02-07-2015 12:34 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  

(02-07-2015 01:44 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  The Mavericks were one of the surprise teams in the Sun BElt last year, rebounding from an awful start with some terrible OOC losses, and a 1-5 league start, to finish the season winning 18 of their last 24 league contests.

They were only a surprise to the teams in the Sun Belt. They received votes in the pre-season top 25 for a reason. The big surprise was how poorly they performed all around in those non-conference games.

As for Clay Gould, it was built in the '70's and has basically been getting complete makeovers since 2000. This season will premier a clubhouse with player lounge, locker rooms, coaches office, etc. Pretty exciting time for the program. This is one of the biggest projects since the exterior was redone in 2001.

Prior to this, they had been dressing at Maverick Stadium and driving the 1/2 mile to the stadium.

BTW: This team won't finish outside the top 5.

You're one of currently 7 or 8 teams saying that. Someone has to be wrong.

Two of three. That is all.

(03-09-2015 12:42 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  Two of three. That is all.

If we had a baseball field that could drain, this is an entirely different conversation.

Not to trash talk here...but...If my team were truly the 2nd best in the conference and I was facing the team that truly was the 7th best team in the conference, I'd expect minimum of 2 of three on the road, let alone a neutral site.

(03-09-2015 01:04 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  Not to trash talk here...but...If my team were truly the 2nd best in the conference and I was facing the team that truly was the 7th best team in the conference, I'd expect minimum of 2 of three on the road, let alone a neutral site.

I don't think anyone is happy, but you have to give UTA a ton of credit. You guys drove in over half your runs this weekend with 2 outs, and we made several really poor mistakes on the bases, and our best reliever got drilled.

My point is that its hard for us to be consistent when the team has not been able to practice since Valentine's Day. Without an indoor facility, we can basically only pitch and use various available batting cages. The mistakes we made were mistakes we probably don't make if we're able to practice outside daily like much of the league is right now.