DENVER, COLORADO – No. 4 seed UT Tyler softball dropped a 10-0 decision to No. 5 seed Oklahoma Christian on Thursday afternoon at the NCAA South Central Regional Tournament in the opening round of play.
Oklahoma Christian put up five runs in both the fourth and fifth innings to ultimately lead to a run-rule win as the Patriots offense was shut out for the first time this season.
UT Tyler starter
Kendall Selitzky danced around early traffic, putting up three hard earned zeros on the scoreboard. She gave up two singles in the first, but got a fielder's choice and two groundouts to calm the threat.
In the second, the leadoff batter reached on a double and moved to third on a bunt. She would walk two, but got a big strikeout and then a popout to end the inning and escape the bases loaded jam.
In the third she allowed a one out single, but got a ground out and strikeout to again shut down any threat.
The Patriots got one hit themselves in that opening stretch with a single from
Kaylee Cavazos, but a double play wiped the runner out and ended any rally chance.
The Eagles would finally see that offense pay off in the fourth to the tune of five runs. Two doubles and four singles would cause all the damage as they raced out to a lead.
After the Patriots went down in order in the home half of the fourth, the Eagles came back out with five more runs in the fifth behind six singles and a double to push the game into run-rule territory.
Kaelyn Lerma would single up the middle in the bottom half, but the Patriots couldn't cross the plate to stave off the run-rule.
UT Tyler will now face off with No. 8 seed St. Mary's on Friday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. Mountain time in an elimination game. The winner of that game will turn around and play the loser between Colorado Christian and Oklahoma Christian at 4 p.m. Mountain time.
