CONROE, TEXAS – #8 UT Tyler put the last five runs on the board and capped off the 2024 DII First Pitch Invitational with a 6-3 win over Regis on Sunday afternoon.
 
The trio of Courtney Plocheck, JT Smith and Michelle Arias headlined a Patriot offense that totaled 12 hits in the ball game and scored five runs in their final two trips to the plate after falling behind 3-1 in the top of the fifth inning. Starter Genesis Armendariz notched her third complete game of the weekend, picking up her second win of the young season after striking out five and allowing just a single earned run.
 
UT Tyler wrapped up play over opening weekend across the Division II softball landscape with a 4-1 record.
 
Plocheck, Smith and Arias all recorded multi-hit efforts at the plate for the UT Tyler offensive effort that got hits from eight of the nine batters in the line-up. Smith scored three times, went 3-for-4 at the plate, and joined Arias with a pair of RBI.
 
The Decatur, Texas native stole second and then scored on a fielding error by the Regis centerfielder in the top of the first inning after leading off the ballgame with a single. Armendariz retired the first six batters she faced in order, but found trouble in the top of the third with a leadoff walk and an ensuing triple that tied the game at 1-1.
 
The Hobbs, N.M. native limited the damage with three consecutive groundouts to strand the runner at third and then went back to work in the fourth with a pair of strikeouts and a ground out. Regis took a 3-1 lead in the fifth with a pair of unearned runs after a fielding error with two outs by the Patriots.
 
It didn't take long for UT Tyler to respond as Smith doubled to left center and junior Sam Schott followed suit with a single to start the comeback rally in the bottom half of the frame. Arias scored Smith with an RBI groundout to make it 3-2 before Plocheck provided the second extra-base hit of the inning and the tying run with a deep shot to left center that drove in Schott.
 
Armendariz retired the Rangers in order in the top half of the sixth inning and then watched as Smith's third hit of the afternoon provided the two go-ahead runs. That third double of the game for the Patriots scored Cassidi Mullen and Audrey Escamilla, who got on base by way of a walk and a hit by pitch to leadoff the inning.
 
Arias provided a little insurance with an RBI single to send Smith across for the third time in the ballgame on the Patriot's fifth unanswered run in their final two trips to the plate.
 
Armendariz worked around a two-out single in the top of the seventh to close the books on UT Tyler's fourth win of the weekend. She finished off her weekend in the circle with just a single conceded earned run in 20.0 innings of work.
 
The Patriots will take a four-game winning streak into the second weekend of 2024 beginning Friday afternoon in Bentonville, Ark. UT Tyler will take on five opponents over the course of the three days of play.