Thomas Wins WAC at UTA

Tyrone native and former Bee Jay and Saint coach and player Darin Thomas led his Texas-Arlington Mavericks to the Western Athletic Conference regular season championship. UTA is 30-25 and finished 18-9 in the WAC. He is in his sixth year as head coach at UTA. He led the 2000 Liberal Bee Jays to the NBC World Series championship and played for the BJ’s in 1987. Thomas was 11-1 at Seward in 1986 and coached nine years for Galen McSpadden. UTA assistant Jay Sirianni played for the 1998 BJ’s.

Several current and former BJ’s helped UTA reach this title. Chad Nack pitched for the BJ’s last year and will join them again this year. He was 5-4 for the Mavs. Zach Thompson pitched for the BJ’s last year and was 6-4. Kennedy Winn and Keegan Hucul pitched 14 and 48 innings respectively for UTA. Ryan Walker played for the 2011 BJ’s and hit .304 with a homer and 27 RBI’s. Travis Sibley played for last year’s BJ’s and is hitting .293 with six doubles. Derek Miller played for last year’s BJ’s and is hitting .285 with 17 RBI’s and nine doubles. Greg McCall was a catcher for the 2011 BJ’s and this season is hitting .285 with five homeruns which is second on the team. Darien McLemore will play for this year’s BJ’s. As a freshman he is batting .253 with 25 driven home along with eight doubles and two triples. Alec Isaac is a redshirt at UTA and will play for the BJ’s this summer.

Kansas State won the Big 12 for the first time since 1933 with the help of former BJ’s. The Wildcats are 39-16 and 2011 BJ Ross Kivett has helped fire up that KSU offense. He is batting a team leading .359 with a homerun, 30 RBI’s, 12 doubles, and four triples. Jared Moore played for the 2011 BJ’s and is 3-0 with a 2.86 ERA for K-State.