2008 UT Arlington Softball Schedule 
Nov. 19, 2007
ARLINGTON, Texas - UT Arlington's softball team will take to the road for 16 games to start the 2008 season.
That suits Mavericks coach Debbie Hedrick just fine for a couple of reasons.
First, the season-opening Florida International Tournament beginning Feb. 8 and the New Mexico State Tournament a week later will give UTA's five newcomers and 12 returning players a chance to play 10 games right off the bat. And the first two conference series - beginning on the road at Texas State Feb. 16 and continuing at Nicholls State - come after a nine-day break.
"That's just the way the conference schedule worked out, playing those first two series on the road, but every team has to do that once during the year in league play," Hedrick said. "I would rather get that out of the way early because everybody is still fresh. It's much better than doing that toward the end of the year. And with a weekend off, we should be just fine heading down to San Marcos for those three games."
Fans who want to see the defending Southland Conference champions will get their first opportunity on March 8.
After the two tournaments and the six conference games, UTA returns to Allan Saxe Field for a doubleheader against UTSA. First pitch is at 1 p.m., while the second game begins at 3 p.m. The Mavericks and Roadrunners close out the series at noon Sunday, March 9.
The Mavericks have filled the mid-week, non-conference slate with regional rivals.
On March 19, Louisiana Tech travels to Arlington for a doubleheader beginning at 4 p.m.
One week later, North Texas and UTA play at Allan Saxe Field. Last season, the Mavericks and Mean Green split their two-game season series. This year, two games against UNT also are on the schedule with the second game in Denton on April 30. UTA has one Big 12 school on the non-conference slate as the Mavericks travel to Texas Tech for a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. on April 22.
"Conference is the most important thing to us, so we try to keep everything at a very high level on the weekend," UTA senior outfield April Clougherty said. "We want to win those mid-week games, but we look at them as a time to work on things that we can improve for conference."
UTA returns all three starting pitchers and six starting position players from a team that went 36-16 overall and 19-5 in conference play to capture the 2007 regular-season championship.
