ARLINGTON, Texas – The UT Arlington Mavericks announced their schedule for the upcoming 2016 season Tuesday with 31 games scheduled for Clay Gould Ballpark. Nine games against Power Five conferences are on the slate, including a March 15 meeting with Texas Tech at Globe Life Park.
“It is going to be a very challenging schedule,” UTA coach Darin Thomas said. “We have some very great nonconference games and some opportunities to raise our RPI on midweek games once we get going. And, as usual, it is going to be a very challenging SBC schedule on the weekends.”
The Mavs will open up the season at home on Feb. 19 with a pair of games against Oklahoma State and Stephen F. Austin on the first day of the UTA Tournament. The Cowboys are coming off a 38-20 season that that included a trip to the Big 12 Tournament championship game and the top seed in the Stillwater Regional. The round-robin event will showcase two games per day with UTA also facing the Cowboys a second time on Feb. 20 and the Lumberjacks again on Feb. 21 in the tournament finale.
“Oklahoma State is coming back after being here two years ago, as is SFA,” Thomas said. “It will be a round-robin tournament that gives us a great opportunity to start off the season, at home, against some very quality opponents.”
The following two weeks will feature midweek contests at Baylor and SFA, as well as a weekend trip to Louisiana Tech beginning Feb. 26 and a four-game home series against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. A midweek trip to TCU on March 8 – the first of three midweek games against the Horned Frogs, and two trips to Fort Worth for the Mavs – will serve as the final tune-up for UTA before opening up its 30-game Sun Belt Conference schedule at home against Arkansas State on March 11.
“The league is going to be very good again this year,” Thomas said. “UL has a lot back, especially on the mound from a young team last year that won the conference tournament and advanced to a Super Regional. South Alabama is the reigning conference champion and returns a lot, while Texas State also has a lot back. We are going to have our work cut out for us.”
Following its series with Arkansas State, the Mavs will host Texas Tech – a team just two years removed from a trip to the College World Series – at Globe Life Park on March 15. It will be the fourth consecutive season UTA will play a game at the home of the Texas Rangers.
The Mavs then travel to Mobile, Ala., for a three-game series at defending SBC champion South Alabama beginning March 18 before returning home for their final nonconference series of the year against Incarnate Word beginning March 24 at Clay Gould Ballpark.
The month of March includes midweek games at home against Baylor and TCU before April begins on the road at Georgia State on April 1. Following its final meeting with the Horned Frogs on April 5, the Mavs then return home for its longest homestand of the season with eight straight games at Clay Gould Ballpark, including a pair of weekend series’ against ULM and Georgia Southern along with midweek games against Houston Baptist and Dallas Baptist.
UTA will square off with Troy for three games in Alabama starting April 22 before going to Texas A&M on April 26, setting things up for a home weekend tilt with the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns that begins on April 29 to close out the month.
After a second midweek home game against Dallas Baptist to close out the midweek schedule, the Mavs will turn their attention solely to SBC play the final three weeks of the year with three straight league series’. The first two come on the road at Little Rock (May 6-8) and at Appalachian State (May 13-15) before the team closes out the regular season at home against Texas State starting May 19.
The Sun Belt Conference Tournament is set for May 24-28 at Bobcat Ballpark in San Marcos, Texas.
