CONROE, TEXAS - #1 UT Tyler won both games on Sunday evening at the Arkansas Tech Invitational in five innings, the first by way of a 12-2 victory over Southern Nazarene and the second a 17-4 win over #20 Central Oklahoma.
 
The Patriots hit .559 on Sunday between the two games, recording hits in 33 of their 59 at bats as a team, and outscored their opponents by a 29-6 margin in just 10 innings of play. UT Tyler posted 17 hits in the first game against Southern Nazarene, and 16 hits in the win over #20 Central Oklahoma.
 
Redshirt-senior Ashley Perez drove in six runs on the day, all three of which came on a three-run homerun in each contest, and finished the day 4-for-6 from the plate. Perez served as one of four Patriots alongside redshirt-sophomore Amanda Marek, freshman Cassidi Mullen and redshirt-senior Bayli Simon to post four hits between the two games.
 
The Patriots scored eight runs in the bottom half of the second inning and three more in the third to jump out to an 11-0 lead against Southern Nazarene in the first win of the day, and then put at least one run across in all five trips to the plate in the night cap against Central Oklahoma.
 
Senior Sarah Gartman got the start in game one against Southern Nazarene, picking up the win with four complete innings without allowing an earned run, striking out four batters along the way. Payton Foster moved to 2-0 on the year after her start in the second game, going 3.2 innings while allowing three earned runs before giving way to redshirt-sophomore Tatum Goff, who went 1.1 innings without allowing a single hit to Central Oklahoma.
 
Perez and Mullen both went 3-for-3 in the win over Southern Nazarene in an effort in which eight of the nine starting batters for the Patriots recorded at least one hit. Perez broke the game open with her first three-run homer in the eight-run second inning for UT Tyler and made it 6-0 over the Crimson Storm following a two-RBI single from Mullen.
 
Sophomore Michelle Arias and freshman Maddie Melton capped off the scoring in that frame with a pair of RBI singles before three more runs in the third came via RBI from Melton, sophomore Courtney Plocheck and Marek. Marek capped off the UT Tyler scoring in the fourth with an RBI double down the rightfield line that scored redshirt-sophomore Hanna Fradkin.
 
Marek picked up right where she left off in the top half of the first inning of the ensuing game against Central Oklahoma, singling to left field to score a pair of runners in Perez and Mullen. The Patriots added one more in the second to make it 3-0 before a six-run top half of the third inning broke UT Tyler's first match-up with a nationally-ranked opponent wide open with a 9-0 advantage.
 
That frame was highlighted by a double down the leftfield line from Melton that cleared the loaded bases for the Patriots, sending Arias, Simon and Marek home. Central Oklahoma plated a pair of runs in the bottom half of the third and fourth innings to make it 10-4, but UT Tyler once again put up a big number in the top of the fifth with seven runs in their final trip to the plate of the afternoon.
 
Plocheck went 3-for-4 and scored a trio of runs to pace the Patriots in that victory, while Melton finished with four RBI and Perez and Marek each had three RBI. All nine starting batters for UT Tyler recorded at least one hit against the Bronchos, while five Patriots had multi-hit efforts.
 
The Patriots had 15 extra base hits on the day, including three doubles from Marek and the pair of homers from Perez. Mak Dominguez also launched her first homerun of the year in the win against Central Oklahoma, a solo shot to left field to lead off that seven-run fifth and final offensive outburst for the Patriots.
 
The pair of five-inning victories for the Patriots moves them to 3-0 on the season, and sets the stage for UT Tyler to potentially finish undefeated in the Arkansas Tech Invitational with a pair of games set for tomorrow. Those games are slated for 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. starts against #25 Central Missouri and Arkansas Tech.