CHATTANOOGA, TENN. - #3 UT Tyler rattled off five unanswered runs in the third and fifth innings to win game one of the 2023 NCAA Division II World Series 5-1 over no. 8 seeded Cal-State Marcos.
The no. 1 overall seeded Patriots totaled five extra-base hits and used a complete game from pitcher
Tatum Goff to advance to the winner's bracket of the championship where they will meet the winner of the no. 4 Wilmington (DE) and no. 5 Grand Valley State game at 11 a.m. CST tomorrow morning. Goff moved to 40-0 on the year with the complete game effort, her 22
nd complete game of the 2023 season.
A solo homer by sophomore
Sam Schott in the bottom of the third kick-started what would be an electric offensive performance from the Patriots from that point forward. The solo shot to leftfield answered a first-inning run from Cal State-San Marcos, and effectively energized the Patriot bats with two outs on the board.
Junior
Courtney Plocheck followed up the Schott homer with the first of her two doubles on the afternoon, and then scored on an RBI single up the middle from junior
Michelle Arias to flip the lead into the hands of the Patriots at 2-1.
The Patriot offense struck for three consecutive extra-base hits to start the fifth inning, a leadoff triple from sophomore
JT Smith and then back-to-back doubles from the Schott-Plocheck duo. The second double of the afternoon for Plocheck scored both Schott and Smith to make it 4-1, and notched RBI number two and three on the day for the Deer Park, Texas native.
Senior
Avery Farr capped off the fifth unanswered run of the game for UT Tyler with an RBI single up the middle that scored Plocheck a few batters later.
Goff worked around a pair of singles in the sixth and then retired the Cougars in order to close out the seventh inning with the 5-1 victory in-tact for UT Tyler. The Rusk, Texas product scattered seven hits and struckout five to post win no. 40 on the year in the circle.
Smith, Schott and Plocheck all totaled two hits and at least one extra-base hit at the top of the order for UT Tyler. The trio scored all five runs in the ballgame for the Patriots as well.
Win no. 60 on the year sets up a winner's bracket meeting between no. 1 seeded UT Tyler and the winner of the no. 4 Wilmington and no. 5 Grand Valley State match-up tomorrow at 11 a.m. inside Frost Stadium.