PORTALES, N.M. - #1 UT Tyler swept Eastern New Mexico with 6-3 and 11-0 wins on Sunday to complete their opening weekend of Lone Star Conference play.
 
Senior Ashley Perez went 5-for-7 on the day and scored four runs while sophomore Tatum Goff tossed a complete game shutout in the game two run-rule of the Greyhounds to finish up a dominant weekend in the circle for the Rusk, Texas native. UT Tyler posted 11 hits in both games on Sunday, and put the finishing touches on a 3-1 weekend in LSC play to move to 17-1 on the season.
 
The Patriots scored four runs between the third and fourth innings of game number one to get their day at the plate started, and then added two more in the top of the seventh as insurance to negate the lone three runs for Eastern New Mexico for the day. Perez got a two-out rally for UT Tyler going in the top of the third with the first extra-base hit of the day for the Patriots, a ground-rule double down the left field line.
 
Sophomore Amada Marek followed up that double with a single that scored classmate Hanna Fradkin, and then came around to score alongside Perez on an ensuing Courtney Plocheck single to left field. That 3-0 lead extended in the next trip to the play for UT Tyler on a Maddie Melton double that scored Shannon Klaus all the way from first after she led off the inning with a hit-by-pitch.
 
Eastern New Mexico cut the deficit in half at 4-2 with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth before Perez got another rally started for the Patriots in their last trip to the plate in the seventh with a double to right center. Perez's second double of the day was backed up once again by a hit for Marek, who drove in Perez with a double of her own.
 
Senior Jacey Henry got her solid day started a couple batters later with a pinch-hit single that eventually scored Marek. That 6-2 lead was enough to negate a late Greyhound rally that saw Eastern New Mexico load the bases with just one out in the bottom of the seventh.
 
Senior Sarah Gartman, who came on in relief of starter Payton Foster in the fifth, worked through that jam by allowing just a single run to earn her first save of the 2022 season after her 2.1 innings of work. Foster picked up the win to move her record to 9-1 on the year by allowing just four hits in 4.2 innings in the circle.
 
Perez finished game one 3-for-4 with the two doubles and two runs scored, while Marek and Plocheck each recorded a pair of hits.
 
Goff took the ball for a start in game number two, and struckout six batters in her 5.0 complete innings as UT Tyler plated five runs in the third and six in the fifth to enact the run-rule after five innings of play. Goff struck out 15 batters in her 9.2 innings of work for the weekend after previously shutting down #4 West Texas A&M in her first appearance on Friday night.
 
Perez broke the scoreless ball game in the third with a three-run homer that scored Fradkin and senior Bayli Simon before UT Tyler loaded the bases and plated the extra two runs to make it a five-run inning. Klaus was credited with an RBI for drawing a walk with the bases juiced full of Patriot runners and sophomore Audrey Escamilla singled to right field to tack on the fifth and final run of the inning.
 
Goff then led off the sixth inning at the plate and generated her own offense with a leadoff homer to right center, and then gave way to yet another two-out rally for the Patriots. Marek drove in Perez and Fradkin for the second time on the day, and then came around to score on a Henry homer to leftfield that made it 11-0 to enact the run-rule for UT Tyler.
 
Henry was 2-for-2 on the day with that two-run homer in the second game to join Goff as the two Patriots that finished the day with hits in both of their at bats. Goff allowed just four hits to pick up her first win of the 2022 season and struckout six Greyhounds along the way.
 
Perez led UT Tyler with three RBI in game two, while four different Patriots recorded multi-hit efforts.
 
The Patriots scored 17 runs off of 22 hits for the day, and totaled three homers and 17 RBI while posting a batting average of .386 for the afternoon.
 
The wins get the LSC schedule started off on the right foot for the Patriots, who completed opening weekend of conference play with a 3-1 record and a signature win over #4 West Texas A&M on their home field on Friday night. UT Tyler will return home for their home LSC openers next week at Suddenlink Field with a Friday doubleheader against UT Permian Basin and a Sunday doubleheader against Western New Mexico.