CANYON, TEXAS – The University of Texas at Tyler baseball team took a 2-to-1 series lead over #2 West Texas A&M following a 15-13 loss and a 9-6 win to split the doubleheader day of the series on Saturday evening.
 
UT Tyler totaled 31 hits between the two games and jumped ahead early in each contest to eventually pull off the second upset in as many days of a West Texas A&M club that entered the weekend undefeated on the year. 13 different batters had multi-hit games between the 14.0 innings of play for the Patriots, while Riley Lambert, Tommy van de Sanden and Ethan Bedgood each had games in which they each posted three-hit efforts.
 
The first game of the doubleheader set the tone for the offensive slugfest that would break out between the two teams, as the sides combined for 28 runs off of 29 hits, including 13 extra-base hits.
 
Carson Cox broke the game open in the top of the second after both teams put one across in the first, with a grand slam to dead center that pushed UT Tyler ahead 5-1. Kyle McShaffry tacked on one more in the frame following the grand slam with an RBI double that scored Riley Lambert.
 
Jordan Gochenour hit the second ball out of the park for the Patriots in the ensuing inning with a homer to right center that made it 8-2. That lead wouldn't last much longer however as West Texas A&M put up seven runs in the bottom half of the third to regain the advantage 9-8.
 
The back-and-forth continued as the Patriots plated three runs in the top of the fourth to make it 11-9, and then brought one more around to make it five straight innings with a run scored. The Buffs capitalized on the one frame in which UT Tyler didn't score a run after a four-run bottom of the sixth to keep the Patriots off the board in the top of the seventh and even the series up with the 15-13 victory.
 
Lambert went 3-for-5 and scored a pair of runs while Van de Sanden went 3-for-4 with three runs scored. Cox finish with the four RBI off of the gram slam and Gochenour had three RBI as well.
 
The Patriots struck for their second early lead in game number two, jumping ahead by a 7-0 margin after a six-run top half of the second. UT Tyler had four of their five doubles for the day in that frame, including RBI doubles from Cade Watson, Cox and McShaffry.
 
West Texas A&M scored their lone three runs off of starter Harrison Lee of the Patriots in the bottom of the second after the string of extra-base hits for UT Tyler. Lee went 6.0 full innings to pick up his second win of the season and struckout seven Buffs along the way.
 
The 7-3 score held through the next two innings as the two offenses finally settled down after the incredible pace to start off the evening. Cox drove in his second run of the game on his second double in the fifth to make it 8-3 and then Van de Sanden added the ninth UT Tyler run of the evening in the sixth with an RBI single up the middle. West Texas A&M put up three runs in the seventh and final inning of the day, but couldn't overcome UT Tyler's fast start to drop their second game of the weekend to the Patriots.
 
Seven of the nine Patriot starters had at least two hits in the game, while Bedgood paced the club with three RBI for the day. Cox went 3-for-4 with two RBI and the aforementioned two doubles.
 
UT Tyler will look to solidify a win in the series tomorrow afternoon in the series finale at 1 p.m.