SILVER CITY, NEW MEXICO – The #6 UT Tyler offense carried the Patriots to wins no. 8 and 9 in a row on Saturday afternoon with 7-4 and 24-6 victories over Western New Mexico.
 
The Patriots totaled eight extra-base hits in the game one victory, three of which came off the bat of Nicole Price, and then matched the second highest single game hit total in the history of the program with 24 in game two. Those 24 hits are the most in a single game in the Division II era for UT Tyler and paved the way for a 24-run outburst, 12 of which came in the Patriot's final trip to the plate.
 
Price went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and a triple in game one while Sam Schott and JT Smith both had five hits in game two. Schott went 5-for-6 with three runs scored and Smith a perfect 5-for-5 with five RBI and three runs scored.
 
UT Tyler moved to 36-7 on the year and 27-5 in Lone Star Conference play with the wins.
 
Game One
 
Eight of the 11 hits for UT Tyler went for extra bases to help the Patriots stay in front of Western New Mexico in a 7-4 game one victory.
 
UT Tyler scored five runs in the top of the third inning and then maintained the lead despite a pair of two-run homers for the Mustangs with RBI extra-base hits by Price and Courtney Plocheck. Plocheck notched four RBI on the day, three of which came via a three-run homer that capped off the third inning for UT Tyler.
 
The Patriots put the first three runners aboard in that top of the third and then crossed home for the first time on an RBI single from Schott. Price followed up that base hit with an RBI double that plated Makayla Garcia, and then came around to score alongside Schott on the three-run homer by Plocheck in the ensuing at bat.
 
Starter Christin Haygood moved to 10-0 on the year with the victory in the circle, conceding four runs on the pair of two-run shots by the Mustangs in the third and fourth innings. Graduate student Genesis Armendariz took over in the fifth inning and retired all eight of the batters she faced.
 
Price scored Garcia in the fourth inning as well, driving in the freshman on a triple to leftcenter after Western New Mexico answered the five-run top of the third inning with their first homer to make it 5-2 in the bottom half of the frame. The Price triple ran the score back out to 6-2 in favor of the Patriots.
 
Western New Mexico narrowed the deficit back to 6-4 with another answer in the bottom of the fourth with the second homer before Armendariz took over and shut the Mustangs down in the latter innings. Plocheck plated Price in the top of the seventh with her fourth RBI of the day on a double to left center.
 
Plocheck hit one of six doubles for UT Tyler in route to going 2-for-4 at the plate. Price added two doubles and a triple as part of her 3-for-4 effort.
 
Garcia added the third multi-hit outing, going 2-for-3 with a pair of runs scored.
 
Haygood was otherwise solid despite allowing four earned runs on the Mustang homers, working 4.0 innings while striking out four. Armendariz struckout five of the eight batters she faced in the game.
 
Game Two
 
UT Tyler posted a Division II program record 24 hits in a 24-6 game two victory over Western New Mexico.
 
Seven different Patriots notched multiple hits and eight different Patriots recorded multiple RBI in a historic offensive outing for UT Tyler. The 24 hits matched the second highest game total in the history of the program from back in 2013 and betters the previous single game hit total in the Division II era.
 
The 24 hits on Saturday afternoon has been exceeded only once in the storied history of the UT Tyler softball program back in 2011 in a 29-hit outing on Mar. 4^th against Sul Ross State.
 
12 of those 24 hits came in the last trip to the plate for the Patriots in the top of the seventh inning. That seventh inning capped off a late flurry of runs for UT Tyler in a game that was tied 6-6 entering the top of the fifth inning.
 
Western New Mexico opened the game with a 3-0 advantage in the bottom of the first before UT Tyler quickly marched back with four runs over the course of the second and third innings. Michelle Arias drove in the first run of the game on a fielder's choice in the second before a string of walks with the bases loaded after an RBI single from Audrey Escamilla gave UT Tyler a 4-3 advantage at the end of the top of the third.
 
Smith drove in two more runs to make it 6-3 with a two-RBI single in the top of the fourth. Western New Mexico punched right back in the bottom of the frame with back-to-back homers that tied the game at 6-6.
 
Freshman Crimson Bryant took over from that point in the circle after the tying homers and didn't allow a single Mustang hit for the rest of the ball game. Bryant was credited with the win, moving to 7-2 on the year, after working through the final 3.1 innings of work while allowing just a pair of walks.
 
UT Tyler on the otherhand went for 18 more hits, putting up six runs in the top of the fifth and then 12 runs in the top of the seventh to rattle off a total of 18 unanswered runs to close out the game.
 
Smith finished the game a perfect 5-for-5. Schott went 5-for-6 with three runs scored. Escamilla went 4-for-6 with three RBI and three runs scored and Madison Okano 3-for-6 with five RBI and two runs scored.
 
The Patriots added 12 walks to their 24 hits.
 
Up Next
 
UT Tyler and Western New Mexico will close out the series tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. CST.