May 7, 2008
ARLINGTON, Texas - - With two weekends remaining in the regular season, UT Arlington's baseball team is fighting for a spot in the postseason, but Mavericks coach Darin Thomas says his bunch will have to fight harder than it did last weekend.
UTA dropped the second game of the three-game series last weekend against last-place Nicholls State; then let a four-run lead slip away in Game 3.
"There is no excuse for what happened last weekend, and as a coaching staff, we can't figure out why our team didn't seem to have a sense of urgency," Thomas said. "We're not good enough to take a single game for granted, but I think that's what our team did. As individual players, our guys competed, but there wasn't the attitude and urgency there needed to be. I'll take the blame for not having them properly prepared."
This weekend, Thomas says the Mavericks had better be prepared if they want to reach this season's goal of making the Southland Conference Tournament scheduled May 21-24 in Huntsville. The top two teams in each division make the postseason, plus the next six best records.
The Mavericks (21-27, 12-12) stand in seventh place, 2 ½ games against of this weekend's opponent Stephen F. Austin (22-25, 9-14) and one game ahead of Southeastern Louisiana (24-23, 11-13). Central Arkansas would be in the fight for a playoff spot with a 10-14 record, but the Bears are a new conference member and aren't eligible for postseason play this year.
UTA is trying to regain the form it had two weeks ago when the team enjoyed one of its best streaks in the past three seasons. The Mavericks won 12 of 14 games from March 30 to April 19. That included series victories against Sam Houston State, McNeese State and Southeastern Louisiana.
Since that time, the Mavericks have dropped seven of their past nine. They have lost two or three in each of the past two conference series against Northwestern State on the road and Nicholls State at home.
"We're in a position to get into the postseason, but we're going to have to play a lot better than we have the past two weekends," Thomas said. "We're playing the hottest team in the league at their place, so we have some work to do. Right now, these are two teams headed in different directions, and we have figure out a way to change that this weekend."
Stephen F. Austin has won eight consecutive games, beginning with a two game series sweep April 28 and April 29 in a non-conference series against UT Pan American. Since then, the Lumberjacks swept Nicholls State on the road and swept Texas State in Nacogdoches last weekend.
The Lumberjacks offense is led by senior slugger Kevin Crabtree, who hits .369 and has a team-high nine homers. Crabtree is this week's Southland Conference Hitter of the Week.
On the mound, Lance Leutge leads SFA with a 5-6 record and 4.07 earned run average.
