\n
\n Story Links
\n
<\/p>\n
Two Mavericks Earn Preseason All-WAC Honors Ahead of 2026 Season\u00a0<\/p>\n
ARLINGTON, TEXAS \u2013\u00a0The UT Arlington baseball program saw two student-athletes recognized among the league’s top returning talent as the Western Athletic Conference announced its 2026 preseason honors, voted on by the conference’s head coaches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Senior outfielder Xander McAfee<\/a> and junior right-handed pitcher Caylon Dygert<\/a> were both named to the 2026 Preseason All-WAC Team, highlighting the impact and experience returning to the Mavericks’ roster entering the spring.\u00a0<\/p>\n McAfee earned preseason recognition after serving as one of UTA’s most consistent offensive contributors in 2025. The senior appeared in 48 games and posted a .294 batting average with an .855 OPS, tallying 53 hits, 14 doubles, six home runs and 40 RBIs while anchoring the Mavericks’ lineup.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dygert enters the season as a key piece of the pitching staff after going 7-4 with 84.2 innings pitched and 61 strikeouts last year. A true two-way contributor, the junior also made an impact offensively, batting .370 with a .982 OPS and an impressive .482 on-base percentage.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Mavericks open the 2026 season on Friday, Feb. 13 as they begin a new campaign in the Western Athletic Conference<\/p>\n
2026 WAC Preseason Pitcher of the Year\u00a0 2026 Preseason All-WAC Team\u00a0<\/p>\n C \u2013 Sergio Guerra, Sr., Tarleton State\u00a0 #BuckEm\u00a0<\/p>\n FOLLOW THE MAVS\u00a0
\n2026 WAC Preseason Player of the Year\u00a0
\nRyan Kroepel, Jr., 3B\/RHP, Utah Tech\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nCody New, Jr., LHP, California Baptist\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n1B \u2013 Grant Watkins, Sr., Abilene Christian\u00a0
\n2B \u2013 Slade McCloud, Sr., Tarleton State\u00a0
\n3B \u2013 Ryan Kroepel, Jr., Utah Tech\u00a0
\nSS \u2013 Chris Ramirez, So., California Baptist\u00a0
\nOF \u2013 Braden Regala, So., Abilene Christian\u00a0
\nOF \u2013 Rayner Heinrich, So., Tarleton State\u00a0
\nOF \u2013 Xander McAfee<\/a>, Sr., UT Arlington\u00a0
\nDH \u2013 Diego Cardenas, Sr., Abilene Christian\u00a0
\nSP \u2013 Cody New, Jr., LHP, California Baptist\u00a0
\nSP \u2013 Caylon Dygert<\/a>, Jr., RHP, UT Arlington\u00a0
\nRP \u2013 Ryan Kroepel, Jr., Utah Tech\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nFor the latest news on UTA Baseball, visit UTAMavs.com or follow the Mavericks on social media. Follow @UTAMavsBSB on X, Instagram and Facebook.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Story Links
Two Mavericks Earn Preseason All-WAC Honors Ahead of 2026 Season\u00a0 ARLINGTON, TEXAS \u2013\u00a0The UT…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":{"0":"post-160039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arlington","8":"tag-arlington","9":"tag-arlington-headlines","10":"tag-arlington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}