TYLER, TEXAS – #1 UT Tyler will embark on arguably their toughest road trip to date this weekend in doubleheaders at #13 Angelo State and #10 Lubbock Christian.
 
The Patriots will travel to San Angelo, Texas for Friday's doubleheader at Angelo State scheduled for a 4 p.m. start, and will then make their way across West Texas from Sunday's meeting at Lubbock Christian in Lubbock, Texas at 12 p.m. UT Tyler currently sits in a three-way tie for first place in the Lone Star Conference regular season standings with a league record of 11-1, and sport a 3-1 record on the year against competition ranked within the top-25 of the national rankings.
 
11 STRAIGHT WINS
 
The Patriots have not lost a game since a Mar. 4 meeting in Canyon, Texas at West Texas A&M, and have rattled off 11 straight Lone Star Conference victories since that tightly contested 7-5 defeat. UT Tyler responded with a 6-5 win in extra innings against the Lady Buffs following that lone loss of the 2022 season, and have gone on to outscore their competition by a 101-to-20 margin in their five double headers since that West Texas A&M series.
 
Last weekend was an exclamation point to that outstanding stretch of play as the Patriots run-ruled Texas Woman's and Midwestern State in three out of their four wins, and scored 10 or more runs in all four contests. UT Tyler defeated Texas Woman's on Friday afternoon by 10-4 and 14-0 margins, and 15-5 and 10-1 wins over Midwestern State on Sunday afternoon.
 
THREE STRAIGHT AGAINST SOME OF THE NATION'S BEST
 
Each of the next three LSC doubleheaders on the slate for UT Tyler will come against opponents currently ranked with the top 15 of the latest 2022 NFCA Top 25 Coaches Poll in Angelo State (no. 13), Lubbock Christian (no. 10) and Texas A&M-Kingsville (no. 15). Those squads are a combined 72-11 on the year, and all sit within the top five of the current LSC regular season standings.
 
UT Tyler will add four more games this weekend to their already 19 games away from the friendly confines of Suddenlink Field, and can further cement themselves as the undisputed no. 1 team in the country with favorable results over the next two weeks.
 
NO. 1 ONCE AGAIN
 
The UT Tyler softball program stayed in the no. 1 spot of the 2022 NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll for the sixth straight regular season poll as announced by the organization on Tuesday morning. The Patriots received 13 first-place votes and 397 points in this week's poll to remain clear of second-ranked Concordia Irvine
 
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 six weeks of the regular season. Seven different Lone Star Conference teams received a top-25 national ranking this week, including a trio of teams within in the top 10 in UT Tyler (no. 1), West Texas A&M (no. 6) and Lubbock Christian (no. 10).
 
A TOP OFFENSIVE UNIT
 
UT Tyler remained atop the Division II softball statistical rankings in a host of offensive categories including batting average (.406), scoring (10.00), on-base percentage (.494) and slugging percentage (no. 1). Six different qualified batters have posted averages north of .400 on the season for the Patriots, while three different individuals have already eclipsed the 30-RBI mark for the year.
 
Sophomore Courtney Plocheck leads the Patriots with a .475 average in her 26 games this season, while senior Ashley Perez and sophomore Michelle Arias each lead the team with 35 RBI so far in 2022.
 
DOMINANCE IN THE CIRCLE AND AT THE PLATE
 
Sophomore Tatum Goff has emerged as a reliable presence in both offensive and defensive capacities for UT Tyler over the last few weeks, and now leads the team with a 1.17 ERA and is batting .387 at the plate. Goff ranks second on the club with five homers, three of which have come over the last two weekends of play, and has allowed just two earned runs over her last 26.2 innings of work in the circle.
 
The Rusk, Texas native is 3-0 on the year in the circle, and hasn't allowed more than five hits in a single start in her last five outings.
 
RANKINGS IN LSC PLAY
 
UT Tyler has posted the best batting average against LSC play in the conference with a .376 mark and the third best ERA in the league against conference opposition with a 2.52 team ERA. The Patriots have scored the most runs in LSC play this season (112), and have hit the fourth most homeruns against LSC foes with 16 on the year.
 
The UT Tyler pitching staff has struckout 76 batters in LSC games, second best in the league, and have allowed just 27 earned runs against LSC foes, second fewest in the LSC.
 
PEREZ STILL ON THE RECORD WATCH
 
Ashley Perez has already eclipsed the UT Tyler softball career records in both doubles with 69 and counting and RBI with 203 and counting, and will now set her sights on a few additional career achievements in the coming weeks. Perez is just one homerun shy of matching Whitney Wyly's career home runs mark (40), and sits atop the records list with a career slugging percentage of .789.
 
Perez ranks third in UT Tyler softball history with 230 hits, and second in total bases with 418.
 
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 (.829), posting a 775-160 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 38-4 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.