CANYON, TEXAS - #3 UT Tyler advanced to Friday's semifinals of the 2024 Lone Star Conference Softball Championship Tournament with a 4-3 quarterfinal win over no. 10 seeded Eastern New Mexico.

The no. 2 seeded Patriots plated three first inning runs and then outlasted a late push from Eastern New Mexico to extend their winning streak to 20 straight. Junior Christin Haygood collected the win in the circle to stay unbeaten on the year at 15-0.
 
JT Smith and Michelle Arias led UT Tyler at the plate with 2-for-3 outings on an afternoon in which UT Tyler totaled 10 hits as a club.
 
UT Tyler will meet the winner of the no. 3 Angelo State and no. 6 seed Lubbock Christian quarterfinal match-up in tomorrow's first semifinal game scheduled for a 4 p.m. first pitch.
 
Graduate student Courtney Plocheck plated Sam Schott for the game's first run to start off what would be a critical fast start for the Patriots in the bottom of the first. Schott scored from first after a leadoff single on Plocheck's double off the leftfield fence.
 
A double steal two batters later scored the second run of the frame before an error by Eastern New Mexico allowed Smith to score to make it 3-0.
 
A pair of doubles from the Greyhounds in the top of the second answered the fast start for UT Tyler to make it a 3-1 ballgame.
 
Senior Cassidi Mullen put across what would end up being an important insurance run in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single to left center. Eastern New Mexico hit a two-run homer to cut the UT Tyler lead to just 4-3 in the top of the sixth.
 
Graduate student Genesis Armendariz came on for the final out in the top of the seventh after a two-out walk from Haygood to collect the save.
 
Plocheck and Mullen each finished with an RBI while the four runs all came from different Patriots. Plocheck, Smith and Zapata put forth three three Patriot doubles in the game.