TYLER, TEXAS – UT Tyler scored 27 runs between the two games on Monday afternoon to win the weekend series over St. Edward's 3-to-1 following 19-6 and 8-4 victories.
 
The Patriots drew 12 walks as a club in the game one victory, scoring 19 runs off of just 11 hits, and then broke a 2-2 game wide open in the bottom of the fifth inning of game two in order to win 8-4.  Senior Nathan Carriere notched five hits on the day and junior Lane Hutchinson went 3-for-4 in game two for a red-hot pairing at the top of the UT Tyler lineup.
 
The Patriots moved to 17-11 on the year and in Lone Star Conference play with the series victory over the Hilltoppers.
 
Game One
 
UT Tyler never wavered after falling behind 6-0 in the second inning of game one, scoring 11 runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to win 19-6.
 
The Patriots flipped the script with those 11 runs in the fourth inning, and then tacked on four runs in the fifth and an additional pair in the sixth to run the total to 19. Senior Jordan Ardoin delivered the big blow in that 11-run fourth inning on a grand slam that made it 13-6 in favor of the Patriots.
 
That grand slam was one of just four hits in the frame as UT Tyler drew six free bases, five by way of walks and a hit by pitch, to send 14 batters to the plate. St. Edward's needed five pitchers to get out of the inning, and never found a way to recover from that point forward.
 
The Hilltoppers took a 6-2 advantage into the bottom of the fourth, scoring all six of their runs in the ball game in the top half of the second. UT Tyler got their march back started in the bottom of the second on an RBI from senior Austin Ochoa that scored Ethan Bedgood, who led off the inning with a triple.
 
Ardoin put the first of his six RBI in the game on the board a few batters later, cashing in Ochoa from third on a sac fly to right.
 
Junior Kolby Parker shutdown the Hilltopper offense after taking over for starter Nash Villegas in the top of the second. Parker didn't allow a single earned run, scattered just a pair of hits over the next 5.1 innings of work, and moved to 1-0 on the year with the victory.
 
The Shelbyville, Texas retired all three batters he faced in the fifth and sixth innings and then worked around a one-out single in the top of the seventh with a double play to end the game.
 
Junior Blake LaBuda and Carriere drove in the first runs of the Patriot rally in the fourth, and then watched as the next three runs came across via walks with the bases loaded. The latter of which gave UT Tyler their first lead of the game at 7-6, before a costly throwing error by the Hilltoppers put across two more runs, and then the final blow being the grand slam from Ardoin.
 
UT Tyler kept putting runs on the board in the bottom of the fifth with RBI singles from senior Ethan Bedgood and Ochoa with the bases loaded. That 15-6 lead was expanded to 17-6 with a hit by pitch of Kyle Atkinson that scored a run, and finally a sac fly from Ardoin for his sixth RBI of the game.
 
Two more RBI walks in the bottom of the sixth brought the score to it's eventual 19-6 final tally.
 
Carriere and Ochoa each posted three hits in the game. Ochoa want 3-for-3 with three RBI and three runs scored and Carriere 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored.
 
Seven different Patriots scored two or more runs in the game.
 
Game Two
 
A tied game two through five and a half innings turned UT Tyler's way with six runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, leading to an 8-4 victory for the Patriots.
 
UT Tyler closed out the series win with four extra base hits and productive outings on the mound from Josh Pelfrey and Bryson Adair. Pelfrey earned the win after going 5.1 innings, surrendering four earned runs, before turning the ball over to Adair.
 
Adair was spot on, limiting the damage in the top of the sixth to just a run when he took over for Pelfrey, and then retired the Hilltoppers in order in the top of the seventh. Hutchinson went 3-for-4 and Carriere posted a 2-for-3 effort with a pair of RBI to provide a dynamic one-two punch at the top of the UT Tyler order in game two.
 
Freshman Connor Clark got a back-and-forth first few innings started with a sac fly in the bottom of the second to score Ochoa. The teams would then alternate runs in the third and fourth innings to keep UT Tyler ahead 2-1 after four innings of play.
 
Hutchinson started the big fifth inning for UT Tyler off with a solo homer. UT Tyler then loaded the bases, scored the second run of the frame on a hit by pitch of Clark, and extended the lead to 5-2 with a single through the left side from centerfielder Hayden Clearman.
 
Carriere kept the rally going with an ensuing RBI single that was thrown away by the Hilltopper third baseman to allow Clearman to score for the sixth run of the inning. That blunder made it 8-2 in favor of the Patriots and made a two-run top of the sixth for St. Edward's irrelevant to the final outcome.
 
Pelfrey struckout six over 5.1 innings of work.
 
Bedgood joined Carriere and Hutchinson with multi-hit efforts, going 2-for-4 with a run scored.
 
Up Next
 
UT Tyler will head to Canyon, Texas next weekend for a meeting with Lone Star Conference frontrunner and nationally-ranked no. 5 West Texas A&M.