Baseball
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Darin Thomas enters his second season as UT Arlington's head baseball coach and ninth season on the Mavericks staff in 2008-2009.
In his first season as head coach, Thomas pointed the UT Arlington baseball program in the right direction by doubling the program's victory total from the previous season, defeating three nationally-ranked teams, improving in 18 statistical categories from the prior season, guiding his program to a cumulative grade point average better than 3.0 and had 24 student-athletes named to the Athletic Director's Academic Honor Roll.
Thomas, the sixth head coach in UT Arlington history, began his first season at the helm with a 1-0 victory at Clay Gould Ballpark against Arkansas-Little Rock on Feb. 22. He became the third Mavericks coach to win his debut, and it was the first 1-0 opening-day shutout victory by the Mavs in the program's history. The contest also went into the record books as the fastest opening-day nine-inning game in UT Arlington history (1 hour, 52 minutes).
Thomas' leadership guided the Mavs to a 26-31 overall mark, including a sixth-place finish in the SLC with a 16-14 league record. Competing against a demanding non-conference schedule, Thomas led the Mavs to mid-week non-conference victories at home against No. 14 Oklahoma State (7-3) and Big 12 regular season champion, No. 7 Texas A&M (16-8). The day following his team's victory against the OSU Cowboys at Clay Gould Ballpark, Thomas and the Mavericks captured a 4-3 road victory against Texas. UT Arlington completed the week winning two of three games against Southeastern Louisiana in SLC play.
The Mavericks were rewarded for their excellence receiving National Team of the Week accolades from CollegeBaseballInsider.com. UT Arlington was the only SLC team, and was one of only 12 NCAA D-I programs to receive National Team of the Week honors, joining North Florida, San Diego State, Rice, Arkansas State, Kentucky, Missouri, Southern Miss, Georgia, Army, LSU, New Orleans and Michigan.
Entering the season, UT Arlington had a 2-9 all-time record against Southeastern Conference opponents, with victories coming against Arkansas (2000) and Mississippi (2003). Thomas started his head coaching career with a perfect 2-0 record against Alabama in his first campaign, with a 10-9 victory in Frisco on a neutral field and a 12-8 win at Clay Gould Ballpark.
Thomas led UT Arlington to 12 wins during a 14-game stretch, which included a season-best seven-game win streak. UT Arlington's seven-game streak began with a three-game series against McNeese State in Lake Charles, La. It was the first time the Mavs had swept McNeese on the road in the program's 40-year history.
The Mavericks had several individual successes under Thomas in 2008, including senior David McLeod leading the NCAA in the Toughest to Strikeout statistical category. McLeod, a four-year letterwinner, recorded only five strikeouts in 200 at-bats. McLeod finished his UT Arlington career playing in 147 games while posting just 35 strikeouts in 541 at-bats.
Thomas' first season as head coach will also be remembered as the breakthrough season for Michael Choice. The Mavs starting center fielder was not only named the Southland Conference Freshman of the Year, he was also named to five Freshman All-American teams following the conclusion of his first collegiate season. A Second Team All-SLC selection, Choice led the Mavericks in all three triple-crown categories, batting .376 with seven home runs and 51 RBI.
Choice, a local product from Mansfield, Texas, collected Freshman All-American accolades from Rivals.com, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (first team), Baseball America (second team), Collegiate Baseball/Louisville Slugger and PING! (second team). He is only the second freshmen in UT Arlington history to earn Freshman All-American status.
Junior Nathan Long led the Mavericks to their 1-0 opening-day victory over Arkansas-Little Rock by tossing a three-hit complete-game shutout. Long was honored the following week as the Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week. Later in the season, freshman Mark Picca also garnered pitcher of the week laurels after a six-inning gem against the Texas Longhorns in Austin, where he allowed one run and three hits to earn his first collegiate victory.
Under Thomas' tutelage in 2008, three Mavericks were among the league's top 10 in batting average, the most by any team in the conference. Choice finished third in the conference (.376), while McLeod ranked fourth (.375) and senior Danny Slinkman (.370) was seventh.
The Mavericks were solid defensively fielding .961 (tied for sixth in UTA history), and the pitching staff had a balanced attack with 11 pitchers recording double-figure appearance totals and 10 pitchers logging at least 15 innings on the mound. Thomas' squad went 21-2 in games when leading after seven innings, and dominated in high-scoring contests with a 13-0 ledger when scoring more than 10 runs.
In addition, Thomas coached a total of 18 players in 2008 that were named to the Capital One/Southland Conference 2008 Commissioner's Spring Academic Honor Roll.
Under Thomas' leadership, 25 Mavericks have been signed or have been drafted in the Major League Baseball Draft over the last eight seasons. He has coached 27 All-Conference performers (10 first team selections), 15 SLC All-Tournament team selections, two SLC Tournament Most Valuable Players, two SLC Players of the Year, two SLC Hitters of the Year, two SLC Newcomers of the Year, two SLC Batting Champions, one SLC Freshman of the Year and one SLC ERA Champion.
In 2006, Thomas inherited the unenviable task of working with an offense that returned just four players with Division I experience. Not intimidated by the task, Thomas molded his young offense and tied for the third-best team batting average in the conference. The team led the conference in doubles (123), ranked second in hits (640) and total bases (878) while ranking third in runs (358) and RBIs (319).
Leading the way offensively was SLC Newcomer of the Year Adam Moore, who hit .350 with 10 homers, 22 doubles and 50 RBIs. First baseman Robby Winn also excelled leading the SLC with a .418 average in conference games. Following that season Moore was drafted in the sixth round by the Seattle Mariners and Winn signed a free agent contract to play in the Continental League.
Thomas returned to his role as the team's hitting coach and third base coach in 2005, after spending the two previous seasons as the team's pitching coach. Thomas served as the team's hitting coach and third base coach in his first two seasons. Under Thomas' guidance, the 2004 pitching staff had to replace all three conference starters from the previous year and nearly lowered its ERA by a full point. The 4.03 ERA was the 12th lowest ERA in school-history and the lowest team ERA since 1992.
The pitching staff was anchored by closer Mike Snapp and by starting pitcher Michael Gardner. The duo combined for numerous honors as both were named ABCA/Rawlings First Team All-South Central Region and Honorable Mention All-American by CollegiateBaseballInsider.com. Snapp was also selected to the Third Team All-America team by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
In 2003 Thomas helped mentor Hunter Pence, who played three seasons for the Mavericks before being selected in the second round of the 2004 MLB Draft by the Houston Astros with the 64th overall selection. Pence, the 2004 SLC Player/Hitter of the Year, became the highest player drafted in UT Arlington history.
Pence ranks third on the Mavericks all-time career batting average list (.371), while also recording 187 base hits, 23 doubles, 11 triples, 16 home runs, 77 RBIs and 100 runs scored.
Thomas was instrumental in 2002 as the Mavericks hitters had their best season collectively to date, breaking then-team records with 612 hits, 125 doubles and 340 RBIs. As a team, the Mavericks hit .305, just .007 off the pace of the Southland Conference leader that season. It also marked the first time that UT Arlington had hit better than .300 since the 1985 season.
The offense was led by First Team All-Conference selections K.J. Hendricks and Daniel Ortmeier, as well as SLC Newcomer of the Year Ryan Roberts. The trio combined to hit .351 with 26 home runs and 153 RBIs, and Hendricks led the way on the base paths with the seventh most stolen bases in single-season history (33).
Thomas helped the offense improve in each of his first two seasons at UT Arlington. The Mavs jumped from a .261 team batting average in the year before Thomas arrived, to a .283 average in 2001 and to a .305 team batting average in 2002.
As a recruiting coordinator, Thomas brought in the nation's 56th best recruiting class in 2003, according to Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, just after bringing in the 35th best in 2002.
Success was only imminent for Thomas in his first year as pitching coach since first years seem to always be successful whenever Thomas and UT Arlington are involved. In his first year in a Mavericks uniform, Thomas helped lead the Mavs to a SLC Tournament title, and to claim its first-ever NCAA Tournament victory.
It was no coincidence that UT Arlington's rise back to the national tournament came at the same time Thomas arrived in Arlington. It seems that wherever he goes, Thomas' teams are winners.
He came to UT Arlington following nine years as an assistant coach at Seward County Community College, where he assisted National Junior College Athletic Association Hall of Fame Coach Galen McSpadden.
While at SCCC, Thomas helped lead the Saints to a 346-144 (.706) overall record while being ranked in the Top 20 nationally during seven seasons. Seward County captured four Jayhawk West Conference crowns, four runner-up finishes and one Sub-Region VI Tournament championship.
Individual success was nothing new for players under Thomas' coaching as 10 players went on to earn NJCAA All-American honors that either played for or were recruited by Thomas. Among those recruited to SCCC by Thomas includes 2002 NJCAA Player of the Year Cory Patton, NJCAA National Batting Champions Jesus Morillo and Tim Forkner, Central District Big Stick Award winners Patton and Chaz Eiguren and Central District Defensive Player of the Year Dan Dody. Morillo and Dody were reunited with Thomas at UT Arlington following their time in Liberal, Kan.
During his coaching tenure at Seward County, 58 players who either played for or were recruited by Thomas went on to be drafted or sign free agent contracts with a major league organization. In addition, Thomas mentored 63 All-Conference selections at SCCC.
Before coming to Arlington, Thomas spent his previous four summers as the head coach with the semi-pro Liberal Bee Jays of the Jayhawk League, where he worked with late UT Arlington coach Clay Gould for three summers. During the 2000 season, Thomas and the Bee Jays marched through the National Baseball Congress National Tournament to the NBC World Series National Championship. Among the players on that team were several players who Thomas has coached with the Mavericks, including Daniel Ortmeier, Dave Engelson, Aaron Pullin, Robby Deevers and Dustin Bozarth. Following his team's 7-0 run in the World Series, Thomas was named the NBC National Coach of the Year.
Thomas began his collegiate playing career at Seward County where he earned All-Conference and All-Region VI honors as a right-handed pitcher in 1986. He helped lead his team to a Jayhawk West Conference title and to the program's first-ever Sub-Region VI Tournament championship by going 11-1 on the mound.
Thomas' 1986 season still ranks in several all-time SCCC single-season record books, including third in complete games (10), fourth in winning percentage (.917), tied for fourth in wins (11) and 10th in innings pitched (79). He remains the program's all-time leader in career winning percentage (13-2, .867).
Thomas went on to Oklahoma Christian University and earned All-District IX honors both seasons for the Eagles.
Thomas earned a bachelor's degree in marketing and physical education from Oklahoma Christian University in 1989 and a master's degree in sports administration from Fort Hays State University in 1996. He began his coaching career in 1990 at Oklahoma Christian High school before moving to Seward County Community College in 1991.
Thomas and his wife, Jean, have three children, Megan, 14, Ryan 9, and Reed, 6.
