TYLER, TEXAS - #1 UT Tyler softball will be looking to extend their seven-game winning streak in this weekend's Lone Star Conference road doubleheaders at Texas Woman's and Midwestern State on Friday and Sunday.
 
The Patriots are 21-1 on the year and currently sit in a four-way tie atop the Lone Star Conference standings with a league record of 7-1. UT Tyler swept through their first home LSC games last weekend, with 2-0 and 13-0 wins over UT Permian Basin and 11-4 and 9-3 victories over Western New Mexico.
 
Both days are set for 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. starts this weekend, with Friday's games in Denton against Texas Woman's and Sunday's games in Wichita Falls against Midwestern State.
 
A LOOK BACK
 
UT Tyler enjoyed four wins and a pair of UT Tyler softball school records in their LSC home openers last weekend against UT Permian Basin and Western New Mexico. Senior Ashley Perez broke the UT Tyler softball school record with her 194^th career RBI on Saturday, and then turned around and etched her name atop the record books once again on Sunday, breaking the long-standing career doubles mark with the 66^th of her career.
 
Starters Payton Foster and Tatum Goff shutout UT Permian Basin on Saturday and allowed just four hits on the afternoon while Perez totaled six RBI on the day in 2-0 and 13-0 victories. The 13-0 win was ended after just five innings, the ninth run-rule of the season for the Patriots.
 
The Patriots used timely doubles from Perez and sophomore Courtney Plocheck and an outstanding effort from Foster in the circle in game one, and then exploded offensively for 10 hits in five innings in the 13-0 game two victory.
 
Perez broke the UT Tyler softball career record for RBI with the 194^th of her career on a grand slam in the bottom of the third inning of game number two. That mark eclipsed the previous record of 193 previously held by current Associate Head Coach Whitney Wyly, who competed for the Patriots from 2009-11.
 
STAYING AT NO. 1
 
The UT Tyler softball team remained in the no. 1 position of the 2022 NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll for the fifth straight regular season poll as announced by the organization on Tuesday morning.
 
UT Tyler earned their first ever no. 1 ranking at the Division II level in the preseason edition of the national poll, and have held that no. 1 position in each of the first five weeks of the regular season. Seven different Lone Star Conference teams received a top-25 national ranking for the second week in a row, including no. 6 West Texas A&M and no. 9 Texas A&M-Kingsville, who remained within the top 10 alongside UT Tyler for the second consecutive poll.
 
Lubbock Christian (no. 14), Angelo State (no. 17), Texas A&M-Commerce (no. 20) and St. Mary's (no. 23) rounded out the LSC representation in this week's poll.
 
A TOP OFFENSE IN THE COUNTRY
 
UT Tyler has outscored their opposition by a 211-to-50 margin so far in 2022, and have produced what can be simply stated as the most explosive and consistent offenses in Division II softball up to this point in the season. The Patriots lead all of Division II softball with a team slugging percentage of .654, and rank second in the country with a team batting average of .405.
 
Five Patriots in Perez, Plocheck, Bayli Simon, Amanda Marek and Shannon Klaus have appeared and started in all 22 games and have posted averages north of .392 for the year over that timespan. Those offensive numbers have allowed UT Tyler to average 9.59 runs per game, second best in Division II softball.
 
The success at the plate hasn't slowed during LSC play, as the Patriots rank second in the LSC with an average of .359 against LSC foes, and have outscored their conference opponents by a 63-to-22 margin.
 
FOUR OPTIONS IN THE CIRCLE
 
Not many Division II programs can say with authority that they have the services of four high-level arms on the pitching staff like UT Tyler has employed in 2022. Senior Sarah Gartman, sophomore Tatum Goff and freshman Kaylee Davis have all seen action in 20-plus innings of work now this season, and have all posted ERA's below 2.00.
 
Combine those four arms with returning Honorable Mention All-American and LSC Preseason Pitcher of the Year Payton Foster, who is 11-1 on the year in her 12 starts, and the pitching staff for the Patriots has once again proven to be one of the best and deepest in the LSC. UT Tyler ranks third on the year with a team ERA of 2.13 and has conceded the second fewest earned runs (42) in the league.
 
Gartman leads the Patriots with a 1.06 ERA in 33.0 innings pitched, while Goff (1.22 ERA) and Davis (1.88 ERA) have both been equally effective as the no. 2 starter behind Foster.
 
PEREZ STILL ON THE RECORD WATCH
 
Ashley Perez has already eclipsed the UT Tyler softball career records in both doubles with 67 and counting and RBI with 196 and counting, and will now set her sights on a few additional career achievements in the coming weeks. Perez is just two homeruns shy of matching Whitney Wyly's career home runs mark (40), and sits atop the records list with a career slugging percentage of .739.
 
Perez ranks fifth in UT Tyler softball history with 224 hits, and second in total bases with 407.
 
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 771-160 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 34-4 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.