sBENTONVILLE, ARK. - #8 UT Tyler won 8-4 over Missouri Western State and then closed out the Alvy Early Memorial Classic with an 8-0 run-rule of #13 Southern Arkansas on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Patriot offense was solid all day, totaling 19 hits between the two games, and proved especially potent in the six inning run-rule of the nationally-ranked Muleriders. Seven of the eight runs for the Patriots in that ball game came on a pair of triples and a grand slam.
 
The Patriots complete the opening two weekends of play across the Division II softball landscape with an 8-1 record and will enter Lone Star Conference play on the heels of eight straight victories. UT Tyler will travel to #4 West Texas A&M for their opening set of conference games in a rematch of last year's NCAA Division II South Central Super Regional Tournament.
 
Game 1
 
UT Tyler posted 11 hits and struck for two runs in four different innings to win 8-4 over Missouri Western State in game one on Saturday.
 
The Patriots opened a 4-0 advantage after their first two trips to the plate and then tacked on an additional four runs in the sixth and seventh to negate three Missouri Western State homers in the ball game. A trio of Patriots recorded multi-hit efforts in Taryn Barney, Tara Stewart and Nicole Price, while Stewart joined graduate student Michelle Arias with a pair of RBI in the game.
 
Arias plated the first run of the day for the Patriots with an RBI single that scored JT Smith and then sent Smith home again in the top of the second for her second RBI in as many innings to make it 4-0. Arias scored the second run of the first inning on a wild pitch and Sam Schott put run no. 3 on the board for UT Tyler in the second inning with a single to right field.
 
The Patriots recorded six hits in their first two trips to the plate to give starting pitcher Genesis Armendariz a quick advantage in the circle.
 
Armendariz moved to 4-1 on the year with the fifth straight complete game effort to start her UT Tyler career. The Hobbs, N.M. native struckout five and allowed her only blemishes in the game by way of Griffin homeruns.
 
Solo homers in the second and fourth cut the UT Tyler lead to just 4-2, but a pair of manufactured unearned runs for the Patriots in the top of the sixth drug the advantage back out to four runs. Smith scored senior Cassidi Mullen on an error by the Griffon shortstop, and then stole home a few batters later to make it 6-2.
 
A two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth cut the lead to just two for a second time in the game, but a two-out, two RBI single in the top of the seventh off the bat of Stewart effectively put the Griffon comeback to an end. Armendariz retired the final three batters she faced in order in the bottom of the seventh to preserve the 8-4 win.
 
Stewart went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI on the seventh-inning single, Price scored a run and went 2-for-3 at the dish and Barney capped off the highlighted offensive efforts for the Patriots with a 2-for-3 outing and a run scored.
 
Game 2
 
An 8-0 run-rule of #13 Southern Arkansas in game two capped off an undefeated weekend and provided arguably the most impressive result for the Patriots in the first two weeks of the 2024 season.
 
Freshman Crimson Bryant passed the biggest test of her young career with flying colors in the circle, striking out seven while scattering just four hits in the ball game. Arias broke the game open with a grand slam in the top of the fifth inning on the second of three big swings for the Patriot offense in the ball game.
 
The first of those swings came on a Courtney Plocheck triple to left center with one out in the top of the second that scored Audrey Escamilla from first. Bryant retired the first four batters she faced in the circle and then worked around a one-out double in the bottom of the second to keep the 1-0 score through two.
 
Neither club generated much offense in the third and fourth innings before the momentum shifted solely into the hands of UT Tyler in the fifth. Two hit by pitches sandwiched around an infield single by Mullen set Arias up with bases loaded and one out in the top of the fifth.

Arias delivered with a grand slam to left field that broke the game open at 5-0.
 
Smith piled on the runs with the third big swing of the game for UT Tyler in the top of the sixth, scoring Price and pinch runner Hailey Fannin on the second Patriot triple of the ball game. Schott drove in Smith on the ensuing at bat with an RBI single to make it 8-0.
 
A leadoff double in the bottom of the sixth didn't faze Bryant as the freshman struckout two of the final three in the game to preserve the run rule and send UT Tyler into Lone Star Conference play on a high note.
 
Schott went 2-for-3 with a run and RBI, while Arias totaled her sixth RBI of the day on the grand slam as part of her 1-for-4 effort at the plate. UT Tyler scored eight runs on eight hits and drew six free bases by way of two walks and four hit by pitches.
 
Up Next
 
The aforementioned showdown of an opening Lone Star Conference series for the Patriots will get started with a doubleheader on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. in Canyon. UT Tyler and West Texas A&M will conclude the series with a single game on Saturday afternoon at noon.