SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS - #1 UT Tyler moved to 11-0 on Wednesday afternoon following 18-5 and 5-1 wins over Our Lady of the Lake in San Antonio, Texas.
The Patriots offense notched double-digit hit totals in both games and hit four homers in the game one victory, while senior
Sarah Gartman tossed a complete game in game number two, allowing just a pair of hits in her 7.0 complete innings of work.
Courtney Plocheck,
Hanna Fradkin and
Ashley Perez all had five hits between the two games, and led a UT Tyler offense that generated a season-high 18 runs in the game one victory.
UT Tyler led 7-0 after the first inning and 16-0 at the completion of the third inning in that first game victory, using homers from Plocheck,
Michelle Arias and
Audrey Escamilla to cruise to the team's 10
th straight victory to open up 2022. Arias had a pair of homers, a two-run shot in the first and a solo homer in the second, to lead the squad with four RBI in the first game.
The Patriot offense posted 18 hits in that victory, and put up seven runs in the top of the first and eight runs in the top of the third to build a sizeable early advantage over the Saints. Plocheck and Fradkin both went 3-for-4 while five different Patriots drove in two or more runs in the effort.
Junior
Payton Foster got the start in game one and picked up her sixth-straight win to open up 2022, tossing 4.0 innings while allowing just a pair of earned runs and six hits. 10 different Patriots drove in at least one run in the opening win of the day for UT Tyler, while 11 different runners crossed home plate for the unanimous no. 1 ranked team in Division II softball.
Gartman got the start in the ensuing game of the doubleheader, and allowed just two hits in her complete 7.0 innings of work. The Patriots opened up a 4-0 lead after a Perez two-RBI single to left field scored Fradkin and senior
Mak Dominguez.
Perez went 2-for-3 in game two with that pair of RBI, and was joined by Plocheck, Fradkin and
Bayli Simon with multi hits in the game.
The Patriots helped build that eventual 4-0 lead with runs in both the top of the first and second, the first of which came on a sacrifice fly by
Amanda Marek, who scored Plocheck on the play. A Dominguez double added the second run of the game for the Patriots, before Perez quickly doubled that advantage with the two-RBI double in the top of the fourth.
Our Lady of the Lake got one of their two hits off of Gartman in the ensuing bottom half of the fourth, a solo homer to right field that made it 4-1. Fradkin answered that homer from the Saints with an inside the park homer in the top of the sixth off of a shot down the line that got passed the Saints left fielder and allowed Fradkin to come all the way home to score.
Gartman struck out seven in her winning effort to move to 3-0 on the year, and now has a 0.41 ERA in her 17.0 innings pitch thus far in 2022. The Kinder, La. native has walked just two batters over those innings, and has struckout a total of 20 batters.
UT Tyler will see their first home action of the 2022 season this weekend, and are set to welcome Arkansas-Monticello to Suddenlink Field for a three-game series. That series will kick off on Friday at 6 p.m. with a single game, and conclude on Saturday with a doubleheader set for 1 p.m.
