| Game Info |
Opponent Info |
Texas A&M International vs. #3 UT Tyler
TAMUI: 19-31, 15-24 LSC | UTT: 48-4, 36-2 LSC
Friday, April 28th | 2 P.M. | 4 P.M.
Tyler, Texas | Irwin Ballpark |
|
ROSTER |
SCHEDULE |
STATS |
Texas A&M International vs. #3 UT Tyler
TAMUI: 19-31, 15-24 LSC | UTT: 48-4, 36-2 LSC
Saturday, April 29th | 12 P.M.
Tyler, Texas | Irwin Ballpark |
|
ROSTER |
SCHEDULE |
STATS |
A PAIR OF WINS TO TAKE ANOTHER STEP CLOSER
#3 UT Tyler secured wins no . 24 and no. 25 in a row on Tuesday afternoon to take another step closer to securing a third straight Lone Star Conference Regular Season Championship. The Patriots homered five times between the two games against Texas A&M-Kingsville and leaned on complete game efforts from
Tatum Goff and
Shea O'Leary to extend their win streak to 25 straight on Tuesday afternoon. Junior
Michelle Arias hit the first of her two homers on the afternoon in game one to jump start the Patriots to a 4-1 victory, and then added one of four long balls in the 10-1 run-rule victory in game two. Junior
Tatum Goff went 7.0 complete innings in game one, allowing just five hits while striking out seven to move to 31-0 on the year, while graduate student
Shea O'Leary added a complete game effort in game two as well. The Patriots moved to 48-4 on the year with their NCAA Division II-best 25
th straight win on Tuesday and are now just one win away from clinching at least a share of a third straight Lone Star Conference Regular Season Championship. UT Tyler is 36-2 in Lone Star Conference play, and can clinch the outright regular season title with two wins in this weekend's regular season finale against Texas A&M International.
SENIOR CEREMONY
The UT Tyler softball program will honor five seniors as part of their annual senior ceremony prior to first pitch on Saturday afternoon.
Grace Davis,
Avery Farr,
Hannah Kinkade,
Amanda Marek and
Shea O'Leary will be recognized for their contributions to the program as part of that ceremony.
THE STAGE IS SET
UT Tyler can clinch at least a share of the 2023 Lone Star Conference Regular Season Championship with one win this weekend, and will outright clinch the regular season title with two wins. The Patriots sit atop the LSC regular season standings with a record of 36-2 in conference play. West Texas A&M sits in second place with a league record of 34-5, and takes on Cameron at home for a three game series this weekend. UT Tyler would host the 2023 LSC Softball Championship Tournament with at least a share of the title, as they defeated West Texas A&M in all three games of the regular season series.
SCOUTING THE DUSTDEVILS
Texas A&M International enters the weekend 19-31 on the year and 15-24 in Lone Star Conference play. The Dustdevils currently sit one game back of 10th place in the LSC standings and on the outside looking in for one of 10 available spots in next weekend's Lone Star Conference Championship Tournament. Texas A&M International went 2-1 in last weekend's home finale for the program against UT Permian Basin. Kristy Alanis is the lone Dustdevil to sport a batting average above .300 on the year (.324) for a team that ranks 13th in the LSC in batting average this season. The Dustdevils pitching staff sits 12th in league with a team ERA of 3.32. UT Tyler has one four straight meetings between the two teams, inlcuding 9-1 and 4-0 wins last season, and hold a 5-1 advantage in the all-time series.
PATRIOTS BY THE NUMBERS
UT Tyler currently sports the second best team fielding percentage (.979) and has drawn the third most walks as a team (210) in all of Division II softball. The Patriots rank 9th in team on-base percentage (.432), and have scored the 12th highest amount of total runs in the country (339). The pitching staff sports the 10th best ERA in the country (1.53), and has produced the sixth most shutouts with 17.
JT Smith ranks second in the nation in on-base percentage (.616) and fifth in runs per game (1.35).
Tatum Goff's 31 wins leads all of Division II softball, and her 180 strikeouts in 2023 ranks 15th in Division II.
THE FIRST RANKED REGIONAL RANKINGS
The University of Texas at Tyler softball program opened up at no. 1 in the first ranked edition of the 2023 NCAA Division II South Central Regional rankings as announced by the regional advisory committee on Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday's rankings are the second of three regional rankings that will be released prior to the selection of the 2023 NCAA Division II South Central Regional Tournament field on Monday, May 7
th. The winners of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) and Lone Star Conference (LSC) Postseason Tournaments will receive the two automatic qualifying bids into the tournament, while the final six teams of the eight-team field will receive at-large bids based on the top six remaining highest teams in the South Central Regional Rankings. The eight-team bracket will be split into two brackets, one at each of the top two ranked teams in the rankings host site on May 11-13, with the winners of each side of the bracket advancing to the NCAA Division II Super Regionals on May 18-19. The winner of that Super Regional Tournament will advance to the NCAA Division II World Series scheduled for May 25-31 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
| NCAA South Central Regional Rankings |
| Rank |
Team |
DII Record |
In-Region Record |
| 1 |
UT Tyler |
46-4 |
40-3 |
| 2 |
West Tex. A&M |
43-5 |
43-5 |
| 3 |
Colo. Christian |
48-4 |
48-4 |
| 4 |
Okla. Christian |
31-14 |
30-14 |
| 5 |
Lubbock Christian |
36-14 |
33-13 |
| 6 |
St. Mary's (TX) |
29-19 |
27-19 |
| 7 |
St. Edward's |
25-23 |
23-23 |
| 8 |
Cameron |
29-18 |
29-18 |
| 9 |
Angelo St. |
29-24 |
28-23 |
| 10 |
MSU Denver |
28-19 |
28-19 |
PATS ARE INCREDIBLE AT HOME
UT Tyler holds a 22-0 record inside the friendly confines of Irwin Ballpark in 2023. The Patriots hold nine shutout victories on their home field this season, and have run-ruled nine of their opponents in those 22 victories.
A LOOK AT THE STANDINGS
The final regular season weekend of the 2023 schedule across the Lone Star Conference will hold heavy implications for seeding the 2023 Lone Star Conference Softball Championship Tournament scheduled for May 4-6. The top seed will host the 10-team single-elimination bracket based on the final LSC standings.
PATS ENTRENCHED AT NO. 3
The University of Texas at Tyler softball program is no. 3 in the latest NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll for a fifth straight week as announced by the organization on Tuesday afternoon. The Patriots received 375 votes to sit behind Tampa (no. 1) and North Georgia (no. 2). Tampa is the unanimous no. 1 team in this week's poll with all 16 first-place votes to lead an unchanged top five. The 2023 NFCA Division II Top 25 Poll is voted on by 16 NCAA Division II head coaches with two representing each of the eight NCAA regions.
|
Rank
|
School
|
Points
|
2023 Record
|
Previous
Ranking
|
|
1
|
Tampa (16)
|
400
|
35-2
|
2
|
|
2
|
North Georgia
|
377
|
48-5
|
2
|
|
3
|
UT Tyler
|
375
|
46-4
|
3
|
|
4
|
UAH
|
347
|
39-7
|
4
|
|
5
|
Central Oklahoma
|
338
|
39-6
|
5
|
|
6
|
Indianapolis
|
323
|
45-4
|
6
|
|
7
|
Grand Valley State
|
304
|
35-3
|
7
|
|
8
|
Rogers State
|
277
|
38-9
|
8
|
|
9
|
Colorado Christian
|
271
|
48-4
|
9
|
|
10
|
Sonoma State
|
252
|
33-8
|
10
|
|
11
|
Saint Leo
|
245
|
39-7
|
11
|
|
12
|
West Texas A&M
|
231
|
43-5
|
12
|
|
13
|
Concordia
|
200
|
41-9
|
14
|
|
14
|
Adelphi
|
191
|
35-6
|
15
|
|
15
|
Mississippi College
|
164
|
37-8
|
18
|
|
16
|
Wingate
|
160
|
40-11
|
17
|
|
17
|
Harding
|
146
|
40-11
|
19
|
|
18
|
Lenoir-Rhyne
|
112
|
34-10
|
20
|
|
19
|
Oklahoma Baptist
|
97
|
40-9
|
21
|
|
20
|
West Alabama
|
81
|
33-11
|
22
|
|
21
|
Columbus State
|
63
|
41-12
|
24
|
|
22
|
Valdosta State
|
59
|
32-12
|
13
|
|
23
|
Charleston
|
42
|
29-8
|
23
|
|
23
|
Lubbock Christian
|
42
|
36-14
|
16
|
|
25
|
Oklahoma Christian
|
40
|
31-14
|
NR
|
New to Poll: No. 25 Oklahoma Christian
Dropped Out: t-No. 25 Missouri Southern, t-No. 25 Wilmington
Receiving Votes: Missouri Southern (33), Wilmington (11), Nova Southeastern (7), West Chester (7), Southern Arkansas (5).
THREE ON THE PLAYER OF THE YEAR WATCH LIST
#3 UT Tyler placed three representatives on the 2023 Tucci/NFCA DII Player and Pitcher of the Year Watch List.
Tatum Goff,
Courtney Plocheck and
JT Smith have all been included in this year's watch list. The Patriots are the only team from the South Central Region to have placed three players on the list. The list is compiled and the award is voted on by the elected members of the NFCA Division II All-American Committee with one head coach representing each of the eight NCAA regions. To be eligible, a student-athlete's head coach must be a member. New in 2023, the list is broken down into the eight NCAA Regions (Atlantic, Central, East, Midwest, South, South Central, Southeast and West) with up to 15 student-athletes represented in each region. Voted on by the NFCA's Division II All-American Committee, the 2023 Tucci/NFCA Player and Pitcher of the Year will be announced on June 1. All student-athletes are eligible for the end-of-the-season award and do not have to be on this list to be considered.
DOMINANCE IN DIVISION II
UT Tyler has produced a record of 147-23 (85.1 percent) since beginning Division II play in 2020 and have now claimed back-to-back Lone Star Conference Regular Season Championships in 2021 and 2022. The Patriots are 94-12 in Lone Star Conference play since beginning play in the league in 2020.
HEAD COACH MIKE REED
Coach Reed will enter his 19
th season as head coach of the Patriots, and 22nd season as a head softball coach at the collegiate level in 2022.
Reed ranks fifth among all NCAA divisions in career winning percentage (.837), posting an 847-172 career mark through 22 career seasons. He owns the third-highest all-time win percentage among Division III coaches, coaching 18 of his 22 seasons at the Division III level, and is a nine-time American Southwest Conference Coach of the Year and eight-time NFCA Regional Coach of the Year. He has helped develop 33 All-Americans, 91 all-region and 149 all-conference selections and has led the UT Tyler program to the NCAA World Series in eight of the 12 years since the Patriots became postseason eligible in Division III.. He is 742-141 (.837) in his 19 seasons as head coach the Patriots and has seen his staff named the Regional Coaching Staff of the Year by the NFCA on eight different occasions (2009, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022).
