LUBBOCK, TEXAS – #1 UT Tyler plated five runs in their final two trips to the plate to split the day with #10 Lubbock Christian after a 6-2 victory in game two on Sunday afternoon.
The Patriots fell by a 3-0 final tally in the opening game of the doubleheader on Sunday, making for a 2-2 weekend for UT Tyler after a split on Friday evening as well at #13 Angelo State. Senior
Mak Dominguez had a pair of RBI singles and
Tatum Goff hit her seventh homerun of the season to help revitalize a Patriot offense in game two that went without a hit in the game one loss.
Goff got the start in the circle in game one and went 3.1 innings while allowing three earned runs, all of which came on a pair of homers from Lubbock Christian. Senior
Sarah Gartman came on in relief of Goff in the bottom of the fourth and allowed just a single hit from that point forward.
The Patriots had their best scoring chance in game one in the top of the fourth as senior
Ashley Perez drew one of her three walks of the ballgame as the leadoff batter in the inning. Goff reached on a sac bunt on the ensuing batter, and then advanced over to second and pinch-runner
Grace Davis to third on a second consecutive sacrifice bunt for the Patriots.
UT Tyler was unable to push the runners home from second and third with one out as the next two batters were retired.
Game number two was a different story, as the Patriots posted five hits and managed to put pressure on the Lady Chap defense, forcing a handful of defenses mistakes that generated runs for UT Tyler. Sophomore
Michelle Arias came around to score in the top of the fourth for the first Patriot run of the day on the first of two Dominguez RBI singles in the ballgame.
Lubbock Christian quickly negated the first Patriot lead of the day with a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the fourth that scored a run and made it 1-1. Freshman
Kaylee Davis came on in relief of starter
Payton Foster in that frame, and entered the circle with one out and the bases loaded.
Davis minimized the damage by allowing just the one run on the two-out single, and then worked out of the jam with a strike out to end the inning. Davis would go on to pick up the win to move her record to 5-0 on the year, and allowed just a single hit for the rest of the game after coming on in that fourth inning.
That lone additional hit surrendered by Davis over her final 3.0 innings of work came on a leadoff solo homer by Lubbock Christian in the bottom of the fifth. That 2-1 lead wouldn't last long, as the Patriot offense came alive for the final two trips to the plate for the weekend.
Back-to-back fielding errors by the Lady Chaps quickly loaded the bases with Patriots following a leadoff single by Goff before the second RBI single from Dominguez of the day knotted the game back up at 2-2. Dominguez would then come around to score on a heads up play after a passed ball by the Lady Chaps advanced all three runners and scored sophomore
Amanda Marek from third, and led to a botched exchange from the catcher to the pitcher on the slide that allowed Dominguez to take the extra base home to make it 4-2.
Goff broke that two-run advantage open in the top of the seventh for UT Tyler with a two-run homer to left center to make it 6-2 in favor of the Patriots. Davis worked around the top of the Lady Chap lineup in the bottom of the seventh to solidify the Patriot win and the second doubleheader split of the weekend for the club.
Goff and Dominguez both recorded a pair of hits and a pair of RBI for the Patriots in the game two win, while Arias scored a pair of runs.
The pair of wins over the weekend for UT Tyler over #13 Angelo State and #10 Lubbock Christian could position the Patriots to remain in a tie atop the Lone Star Conference standings barring the results of game number two between #21 Texas A&M-Commerce and #13 Angelo State on Sunday afternoon. UT Tyler stands at 13-3 in LSC play, and could finish the day either tied atop the standings with a Texas A&M-Commerce loss, or one game back of the Lions with a Texas A&M-Commerce victory.
The Patriots will return home next weekend for a pair of doubleheaders on Friday and Sunday, the first of which will come against #15 Texas A&M-Kingsville. That third straight doubleheader against a foe ranked within the top-15 of the national rankings is slated for a 4 p.m. start on Friday afternoon.
Sunday's pair of games will get started at 11 a.m. against Texas A&M International.
