TYLER, TEXAS - #2 UT Tyler will look to remain unbeaten at home and in the mix at the top of the Lone Star Conference standings with doubleheaders on Friday against #12 Texas A&M-Kingsville and on Sunday against Texas A&M International.
 
The Patriots slipped out of the no. 1 slot in the 2022 NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll this week for the first time in 2022 after remaining atop the rankings for each of the first six regular season editions of the poll. UT Tyler is 27-3 on the year and 13-3 in Lone Star Conference play, and enters the weekend one game back of #9 Texas A&M-Commerce for first place in the regular season LSC standings.

First pitch for Friday's doubleheader against Texas A&M-Kingsville is scheduled for a 4 p.m. start and Sunday's first pitch an 11 a.m. start against Texas A&M International.
 
RUNNING THE GAUNTLET
 
UT Tyler embarked on a stretch of three consecutive doubleheaders against foes ranked within the top-15 of the national rankings last weekend with trips to #13 Angelo State and #10 Lubbock Christian. The Patriots rebounded after game one losses in both series to split the weekend 2-2 and return home with two more victories against nationally-ranked competition.
 
Pinch hitter Avery Farr forced extra innings in the game one loss to Angelo State on Friday with a two-out RBI single that knotted the contest up at 2-2 in the top of the seventh. Angelo State plated the winning run in the bottom of the eighth to win 3-2, but had no answer for a Patriots offense that hit three homers in the 7-2 game two victory.
 
Tatum Goff, Courtney Plocheck and Mak Dominguez hit the three homers and starter Payton Foster struckout five while allowing just two earned runs in her 6.2 innings of work to help UT Tyler to the dominate victory in the finale. Plocheck and Dominguez both went 3-for-6 on the day to lead the Patriot offense.
 
A similar flow of events occurred on Sunday in Lubbock against Lubbock Christian as the Patriot offense started out slow in game one, but then caught fire in game two to split the day with the Lady Chaps. UT Tyler went hitless in the game one pitching duel as Goff and Sarah Gartman combined to allow just three earned runs in the circle despite the lack of run support for their offense.
 
Game two was a different story as the Patriots scored five runs in their final two trips to the plate to finish off the weekend with a 6-2 victory. Dominguez hit a pair of RBI singles and scored on a heads up play off of a fielding mistake for the Lady Chaps, while Goff hit a three-run homer in the top of the seventh to effectively put the Patriots out of reach.
 
The two wins moved the Patriot's record to 5-3 on the year against nationally-ranked foes.
 
PATRIOTS IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
The pair of losses over the weekend final dropped the Patriots out of their no. 1 positioning in the 2022 NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll for the first time all season as undefeated Concordia Irvine became the first non-UT Tyler representative to hold the no. 1 spot. The Patriots received 383 points this week after holding the no. 1 ranking for six consecutive regular season polls.
 
Seven Lone Star Conference teams received a national ranking for the second consecutive week as #2 UT Tyler and #9 Texas A&M-Commerce both remained in the top 10. Texas A&M-Kingsville (no. 12), Angelo State (no. 14), Lubbock Christian (no. 17), West Texas A&M (no. 20) and Oklahoma Christian (no. 22) served as the five additional teams to receive a ranking, while St. Mary's remained in the receiving votes category.
 
A BATTLE AT THE TOP
 
With more than half of the Lone Star Conference softball schedule already in the books, the race for poll positioning at the top of the league standings has officially begun to see some clarity. Texas A&M-Commerce navigated the same road trip UT Tyler underwent last weekend at Angelo State and Lubbock Christian, and broke free of the Patriots in the league standings with a 3-1 record in the four games.
 
The Lions hold a one-game advantage with a 14-2 record over the Patriots, while four teams sit in a tie for third place in the standings, one game back of UT Tyler with records of 12-4. UT Tyler has yet to play three of those teams (Texas A&M-Kingsville, St. Mary's, Oklahoma Christian) and aren't scheduled to meet Texas A&M-Commerce until the final weekend of the regular season on Apr. 30.
 
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.
 
HOME SWEET HOME
 
It is truly eye-opening to think that through 30 games on the 2022 schedule UT Tyler has competed in just seven games on their home field inside the Irwin Ballpark. The Patriots have played three of their conference weekends on the road, and just one at home back on Mar. 12-13 against UT Permian Basin and Western New Mexico.
 
The positive news with that unbalanced start to the league schedule is that the Patriots will compete at home for three out of the four remaining weekends in conference play, and have already proven to be a different level of dominate on their home field in 2022. UT Tyler is a perfect 7-0 in their home games this season thus far, and has outscored their opponents by a 72-to-8 margin over the course of those contests.
 
The Patriots are batting .418 as a unit at home, and have limited their opposition to a .197 batting average. The UT Tyler pitching staff has posted a 1.71 ERA through 42.0 inning pitched at home.
 
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 204 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 .776.
 
Perez ranks third in UT Tyler softball history with 231 hits, and second in total bases with 419.
 
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 (.827), posting a 777-162 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 40-6 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.