May 28, 2012

NCAA WACO REGIONAL
No. 3 UT Arlington vs. No. 2 Dallas Baptist
Friday, 1 p.m.
Baylor Ballpark - Waco, Texas

ARLINGTON, Texas - UT Arlington is back in the NCAA playoffs and headed to the Waco Regional after Monday's announcement of the 64-team tournament bracket. The Mavericks are the No. 3 seed and open the double-elimination regional against No. 2 seed Dallas Baptist on Friday at 1 p.m. at Baylor Ballpark.

No. 1 Baylor faces No. 4 Oral Roberts in the other game at 6 p.m. The regional runs through Monday at the latest with berths in a Super Regional on the line for the winner.

This the fifth trip to the NCAAs for UTA, which earned an automatic bid by winning the championship of the Southland Conference Tournament. The Mavericks also reached the national playoffs in 2006, 2001, 1992 and 1990.

"I'm happy we got a No. 3 seed, I thought we deserved it," UT Arlington coach Darin Thomas said during a Selection Show watching party Monday at Mavericks Bar and Grill.

"We're playing some teams that we're familiar with. We're playing our best baseball, we've won seven in row, and couldn't have played any better in the conference tournament. I'm happy for our guys and won't have any trouble getting them ready to play."

The Mavericks (36-23) have faced Dallas Baptist twice this season, losing both games on back-to-back days May 1-2. UTA split two games against Baylor, with each team winning on its home field.

Ticket information will be available Tuesday.

Friday, June 1st
1 p.m. - Game 1 (Dallas Baptist vs. UT Arlington)
6 p.m. - Game 2 (Baylor vs. Oral Roberts)
Saturday, June 2nd
2 p.m. - Game 3 (Loser G1 vs. Loser G2)
7 p.m. - Game 4 (Winner G1 vs. Winner G2)
Sunday, June 3rd
2 p.m. - Game 5 (Winner G3 vs. Loser G4)
7 p.m. - Game 6 (Winner G4 vs. Winner G5)
Monday, June 4th
6:30 p.m. - Game 7 (second game, if necessary)

Team Quotes
Head Coach Darin Thomas
Reaching a regional: "It's a reward for winning some big games. We've got 36 wins, so we've had a really good year, but if we don't win the Southland Tournament, we probably don't get in. You want to be playing your best baseball at the end of the year and now we're going down there. The good thing is it's close to home, so hopefully we can get some fans down there."

Junior OF Preston Beck
"It's very exciting. It's a very familiar opponent with DBU and Baylor. I like the way we match up with those teams. I just hope we play in to the best of our abilities.

State of the program: "We definitely like to show we can contend in a tournament like this and show that we weren't a fluke this year and the wins early on we deserved. This is just the first step in getting automatic bids from here on out. I think this shows that we're not pretenders, but contenders.

Senior P Lance Day
"No question we know DBU. They beat us pretty bad back-to-back days. What they showed us last year when we swept them, then they're in a Super Regional. It shows that if you get hot, anyone can make this run. We're just now heating up."

State of the program: "It's huge, no question about it. We're establishing this program as a competitive program. We're going to come in, we're going to compete and we're going to play the game the way it's supposed to be played. We play the game hard and we're going to put up a fight no matter what."