TYLER, TEXAS – UT Tyler softball moved to 19-7 on the season and 11-3 in LSC play after a doubleheader sweep of Western New Mexico at Irwin Field on Friday afternoon.
GAME ONE: UT Tyler 7 | Western New Mexico 4
Kearston Gooch started game one of the day for the Patriots and was solid through three innings as she put up three straight zeros. Her first inning featured a pair of walks around a double, but she kept the Mustangs scoreless with a popout, flyout, and a fielder's choice.
She would allow a single in the second, but a pair of strikeouts and a popout put up another zero on the board. In the third it was much of the same, getting a groundout, lineout, and flyout to put up a third straight zero.
The fourth inning would finally see the Mustangs break through as they scored three runs to break up the 0-0 tie. A two run blast and a double would run Gooch from the game, making room for
Addison Martindale. Martindale would quickly shut down the inning, getting a pair of strikeouts to limit the damage.
In the home half, the Patriots bats roared to life, scoring seven runs, including two with two outs. A single and a double put two in scoring position, and
Megan Lau drove in the first run with an infield single.
Trinity Hale stepped in to the box, and she drove a double into the left center gap to plate two more and even the game at 3-3.
Layne Reh would follow with her own RBI double, and a throwing error just two batters later allowed her to score from third to make it 5-3. The final two runs came from
Keona Wells and
Kaelyn Lerma, with Wells drawing an RBI walk and Lerma driving a single through the right side.
Martindale put up a big zero in the fifth, adding another strikeout to her total around a walk. The Mustangs scratched another run in the sixth with a homer to left, but Martindale buckled down to close out that frame and then post a 1-2-3 inning in the seventh to close out the contest.
Kaelyn Lerma went 3-for-3 on the day with an RBI and a run scored.
Layne Reh went 2-for-3, also adding an RBI and a run.
Addison Martindale moved to 2-0 on the season with her win after going 3.2 innings with just one hit, one run, and one walk while striking out three.
GAME TWO: UT Tyler 8 | Western New Mexico 0
Game two of the day saw starter
Alli Kimball have complete control of the game from the jump, as she worked around a leadoff single with three straight outs and the first of her three strikeouts to end the inning.
The Patriots offense jumped ahead in the home half, as
Kaylee Cavazos and
Dezirae Lopez reached on a double and a single before Cavazos scampered home on an infield single from
Laci Berecochea to make it 1-0.
Kimball faced just four batters in the second and third innings, getting a strikeout in each frame while working around one hit in each. In the home half of the third, Lerma kept up her hot day at the plate with an RBI triple in the right center gap to double the lead. Hale added to her tally as the next batter up, driving home a run on an infield single to expand the lead to 3-0.
Kimball posted her first 1-2-3 inning of the day in the fourth inning, getting the bats back in the hands of the Patriots offense for them to do more damage. A walk and a double around a fielder's choice put two on, and Lopez drove home the first run of the inning on an RBI single. Two batters later,
Taryn Barney reached on an error to bring home another, and then Lerma drove home two more runs with another RBI single to expand the lead out to 7-0. Two batters later Reh reached base yet again, this time on another error that allowed Barney to score and push the game to 8-0.
With the run-rule within reach,
Kendall Selitzky would come on to throw the fifth. She sat down her first batter on a groundout before allowing a single. However, she got a rollover ground ball to third on the next batter, which then turned into a 5-4-3 double play to end the contest in just five innings.
Cavazos, Lopez, Lerma and Hale each had two hits on the day, with Hale going a perfect 2-for-2. Lerma went 2-for-3 with three more RBI, and both Barney and Cavazos scored two runs each.
Kimball earned her second win of the season to move to 2-1. She allowed three hits and posted three strikeouts while allowing no runs in 15 batters faced.
UT Tyler now sets their sights on Sul Ross State on Sunday with the doubleheader slated for a 12 p.m. start at Irwin Field.
