ARLINGTON – The UT Arlington softball team (8-12) will travel 100 miles down south to take on the #23 Baylor Bears (17-4) in Waco, Texas at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday night inside Getterman Stadium.
 
UTA is coming off a weekend in which the team went 1-3 overall in the Easton Crimson Classic against its stiffest competition yet as the Mavericks faced two programs ranked in the top 10 nationally – #7 Arizona and #8 Alabama.
 
The Mavs' victory came against McNeese as they split the two-game series against the Cowgirls while UTA lost once to #7 Arizona and twice to tournament host #8 Alabama – the second of which went down to the wire in a one-run game.
 
UTA will head into Waco looking for a bounce-back win to revive its early season success as the Mavs won six of its first eight games to begin the season before dropping 10 out of its past 12 contests.
 
UTA NEWS & NOTES

• Through 20 games, UTA has been led offensively by a cast of characters as five different Mavs have a batting average of .300 or better while six have recorded at least one home run on the year, including senior Avery Grimes who hit the first long ball of her career on Sunday against #7 Arizona.
• The second baseman tore the cover off the ball this past week as she went 8-16 at the plate with two doubles, four RBI, four runs scored and the aforementioned four-bagger. She now sits with a .333 batting average across 51 at-bats on the season and is one of two players who have double-digit totals in both RBI and runs scored.
• The other is Kimber Cortemelia who leads the team in six statistical batting categories including home runs (5), hits (20), total bases (38), RBI (17) runs (12) and slugging percentage (.691). The Blinn College transfer already has two multi-home run appearances and totaled seven RBI in one game alone.
• Senior shortstop Whitney Walton is the team's tone-setter as she leads off atop the Mavs' lineup and is tied for second in multiple categories including hits (18), runs (11), doubles (3), stolen bases (6) and home runs (2). She has the most at-bats (61) and walks (9) on the team, yet she has the fewest strikeouts (4) of anyone with 30 at-bats or more. If she keeps the pace she's on, this will be the third season in a row she will have more free-passes than strike outs. 
• Other notable performances include senior first baseman Aileen Garcia who has 16 hits across the past 16 contests. Both she and junior right fielder Madison Miller have four multi-hit efforts on the year while Miller has the highest batting average of .367 and leads the team in doubles with four.
• As a team, the Mavs are an aggressive bunch as UTA has stolen 37 bags on the year, the most in the SBC while ranking fifteenth nationally.
• Senior catcher Reagan Wright leads the team with seven stolen bases already this year after haven stolen five bags her previous three seasons combined. Not only does she take bases herself, but she's ripped off six baserunners attempting to steal on her behind the plate. 
• UTA keeps itself in most games with the solid defense it plays behind its pitching staff as the Mavs rank first in the SBC and sixteenth nationally in fielding percentage (.979).

 
KNOW YOUR OPPONENT – #23 Baylor (17-4)

• Baylor leads the all-time series 26-52 against the Mavs. Coming into last season, the Bears had won 10 in a row against UTA before the Mavs won twice last season in Waco, Texas as part of the Getterman Classic.
• The two games last season marked the first time the two programs had faced each other since 2013.
• After the team's early season success, the Bears positioned itself inside the USA Today/NFCA Coaches Top 25 poll last week at number 23. Baylor has many notable wins on its resume including then-ranked #23 Auburn and currently ranked #22 Arkansas, #18 Minnesota (last year's national champion) and #9 Florida State. The Bears have also beaten Tulsa, a team receiving votes for the top 25 poll.
• Of their four losses, two have come against top 25 teams including #21 Missouri and the aforementioned #9 Florida State.
• Baylor's latest win came against Kent State by the score of 5-2, a team UTA lost 1-0 to earlier in the season.
• The Bears' offense is led by sophomore Lou Gilbert and junior utility player Maddison Kettler who both have batting averages north of .390.
• Freshman infielder/pitcher Aliyah Pritchett leads the team with four home runs and 12 RBI while she's also won seven games in the circle so far this season. She's pitched to a 1.91 ERA across 40.1 innings pitched.
• Graduate student Gia Rodoni leads the pitching staff with a 1.30 ERA with four complete games and a team-high 80 strike outs across 59.1 innings pitched.
• After tomorrow's contest, Baylor will face UTA again this season in Arlington on Tuesday, April 7 at 6:30 p.m. at Allan Saxe Field.

 
ON DECK
The Mavs will open conference-play with a three-game home-series against Troy starting on Friday at 5:00 p.m. at Allan Saxe Field. Having won its last seven games in a row, the Trojans have gotten off to a torrid start in 2020 as the team currently sits atop the SBC with a 14-3 record.