TYLER, TEXAS - #1 UT Tyler will begin their Lone Star Conference schedule this weekend with road doubleheaders at #4 West Texas A&M and Eastern New Mexico.
 
The Patriots are 14-0 on the year, and will meet their third nationally-ranked opponent of the season in Friday's showdown with no. 4 nationally-ranked and defending Division II National Champions West Texas A&M. Sunday's doubleheader will take place in Portales N.M. against Eastern New Mexico.
 
Start times are set for Friday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m.
 
HOME SWEET HOME
 
It took 11 games and nearly two complete weeks of softball, but UT Tyler finally opened up their 2022 home schedule on Feb. 18-19 with a three-game series against Arkansas-Monticello. The Patriots extended their win streak to 14 straight to open the 2022 season with a trio of wins, outscoring the Cottom Blossoms by a final total of 37-to-1.
 
UT Tyler ended all three games via a run-rule, and posted 10 or more runs in the first two games with 19-0 and 10-1 wins to open the series. Sophomore Michelle Arias led the Patriots at the plate for the weekend, hitting .625 in her eight at bats with six runs scored and eight RBI.
 
The 19 runs for the Patriots in the 19-0 win on Friday night to open the series matched the Division II record for the program, set in last year's 19-0 win over Texas A&M International on Apr. 11^th.
 
The Patriot pitching staff was impressive as well, allowing just a single earned run in 16.0 innings of work. Junior Payton Foster extended her season record to 8-0 on the year with wins in each of her two starts, while senior Sarah Gartman continued her dominate start to the season with a complete game in her start.
 
The three home victories have now given UT Tyler run-rule victories in exactly half of their 14 wins to start out 2022, and have established the run differential between the Patriots and their non-conference opposition at 148-to-28.
 
UT Tyler was scheduled to visit #12 Rogers State last Sunday in a scheduled doubleheader, but was forced to postpone the contest to a later date due to inclement weather in the Claremore, Okla. area.
 
.500 CLUB
 
Arias and senior Bayli Simon have been the cornerstones thus far of a Patriot offense that ranks third in Division II softball with a season batting average of .432 for the year. Both Patriots have appeared and started in all 14 games in 2022, and have produced batting averages north of .500 for the year.
 
Arias leads the club with a .526 mark, and ranks fifth in the country with 27 RBI on the year. She also paces the Patriots in runs (22), homeruns (6) and triples.
 
Simon has batted .512 in 2022, and is tied for second on the team with Ashley Perez with 21 hits on the year. She has homered twice this season, and ranks second on the club with 17 RBI.
 
Perez and sophomore Courtney Plocheck have joined the tandem of Arias and Simon as reliable options in the heart of the UT Tyler order, as Perez has posted a .488 average for the year and Plocheck leads the team with 22 hits. Perez has been one of, if not the toughest, players in all of Division II softball to strikeout, as she has not recorded a single strikeout in her 43 at bats this season.
 
THE GREAT GARTMAN
 
Sarah Gartman has developed into a go-to option for the UT Tyler pitching staff in the no. 2 starter role behind Foster throughout the early stages of the season, and will look to continue that success into the final doubleheader prior to LSC play on Sunday afternoon. Gartman is 4-0 on the year, and has posted a 0.64 ERA in her 22.0 innings pitched.
 
She has made four starts thus far for the Patriots, and has struckout 24 batters while conceding just two earned runs this season. Opposing batters are batting just .152 against the Kinder, La. native, and have managed just 12 hits.
 
Gartman pieced together back-to-back complete game outings in each of her last two starts, going 7.0 full innings against Our Lady of the Lake and then 5.0 complete innings against Arkansas-Monticello. She allowed just a single earned run in each of those outings, and struckout 11 total batters while conceding just five hits in her 12.0 total innings in the circle.
 
PATRIOTS AT NO. 1 ONCE AGAIN
 
The Patriots received all 16 first-place votes and 400 points for the third regular season edition in a row to appear as the unanimous no. 1 team in the country in this week's edition of the 2022 NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll. UT Tyler earned their first ever no. 1 ranking at the Division II level in the preseason edition of the national poll, and have now unanimously held that position in each of the first three weeks of the regular season.
 
The Patriots led the way for three teams from the LSC ranked within the top 10 of this week's poll alongside West Texas A&M (no. 4) and Angelo State (no. 6), while Texas A&M-Kingsville (no. 15), Oklahoma Christian (no. 18) and Texas A&M-Commerce (no. 23) all received a top 25 ranking. St. Mary's and Lubbock Christian each entered the receiving votes category to round out the LSC representation in the poll.
 
WHAT A WAY TO OPEN THE LSC SLATE
 
UT Tyler will have an immediate test to the defense of their 2021 Lone Star Conference Regular Season Championship this weekend. The LSC opener for both teams on Friday will be a top-five national match-up against #4 West Texas A&M and a showdown between the no. 1 and no. 2 selected teams in the 2022 LSC Preseason Softball Poll.
 
West Texas A&M entered this season as the defending Division II National Champions, and will be looking to avenge 8-1 and 10-3 defeats at the hands of UT Tyler in last season's LSC openers. The Lady Buffs are 11-2 on the year thus far in 2022, and have ended seven of their 13 wins by way of run-rules.
 
The Patriots dominated their first two tests against nationally-ranked opponents back at the 2022 Arkansas Tech Winter Invitational with 17-4 and 8-1 wins against then-ranked no. 20 Central Oklahoma and then-ranked no. 25 Central Missouri. UT Tyler finished the 2021 season 4-1 against opponents ranked within the top 10 of the final NFCA Top 25 Coaches Poll last season, and will be well-prepared and well-rested for the stern test that lies ahead.
 
PEREZ ON THE RECORD WATCH
 
Ashley Perez has continued to creep up on a host of UT Tyler softball career record marks in the early stages of the 2022 season. She is just three doubles shy of matching the career doubles record (65), five homeruns away from matching the career homeruns record (40) and now nine RBI short of matching the career record for RBI (193).
 
She ranks third in the Patriot record books with a career batting average of .433, and sits atop the list for career slugging percentage with a .780 mark for her career.
 
HEAD COACH MIKE REED
 
Coach Reed began his 18^th season as head coach of the Patriots, and 21^st season as a head softball coach at the collegiate level in 2022.
 
Reed ranks fourth among all NCAA divisions in career winning percentage (.825), posting a 764-159 career mark through 21 career seasons. He owns the second-highest all-time win percentage among Division III coaches, coaching 18 of his 20 seasons at the Division III level, and is a nine-time American Southwest Conference Coach of the Year, and seven-time NFCA Regional Coach of the Year.
 
He has helped develop 29 All-Americans, 83 all-region and 142 all-conference selections and led the UT Tyler program to the NCAA national tournament in seven of 11 years since the Patriots became postseason eligible in Division III.
 
Reed and his staff have been named the Regional Coaching Staff of the Year by the NFCA on seven different occasions (2009, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021).
 
Reed is 32-6 over the last two seasons in Lone Star Conference games, and guided the Patriots to a 50-10 record in their two transition seasons against Division II competition in 2020 and 2021.
 
Prior to those two seasons, Reed and company flexed their muscles in the final few seasons of the Division III era, claiming three straight American Southwest Regular Season Championships, three straight NCAA Division III Regional Championships and a National Championship and National Championship Runner-Up finish; all of which came over the course of the 2015-2018 seasons.
 
LSC FAVORITES
 
The University of Texas at Tyler softball program was tabbed as preseason favorites in the 2022 Lone Star Conference Softball Preseason Poll, while Foster was selected as the league's Preseason Pitcher of the Year. The Patriots came in at no. 1 in the poll as voted upon by the league's head coaches, sports information directors and media representatives and earned 654 total votes after garnering 22 of the 43 available first-place votes.
 
West Texas A&M came in right behind UT Tyler in the no. 2 slot with 629 total votes, and earned 16 first-place votes after claiming last year's national crown with a record of 43-12 on the year. Angelo State came in at no. 3 in this season's preseason poll with 571 votes, followed by Oklahoma Christian (no. 4) and Texas A&M-Commerce (no. 5) to round out the top five.
 
THE 2022 SCHEDULE
 
The 2022 schedule for the Patriots will feature 51 total games comprising of 21 games of non-conference competition and 30 games against Lone Star Conference foes.
 
The LSC schedule will see each conference foe compete in a single doubleheader against each conference opponent. The regular season LSC champion will be decided at the end of the slate of games and will go to the team with the highest winning percentage in conference play at season's end.
 
10 teams will qualify for the 2022 LSC Softball Championships based on their finish in the league standings. Those 10 teams will meet at the no. 1 seed, and LSC regular season champion's host site, on May 5-7^th.