TYLER - The UT Tyler baseball team opened the 2012 American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament with a 10-0, run-rule shutout of Hardin-Simmons on Friday night at Irwin Field.

The Patriots (32-9) will look to finish off the best two-of-three first round series on Saturday at 2 p.m. The winner advances to the ASC Championship Round next weekend at the site of the West Division's highest remaining seed. 

UT Tyler dominated the game from the beginning, scoring six runs in the bottom of the first inning. Three of those came courtesy of a William Allen double to right-center that scored T.J. Martin, Issac Tijerina and Hayden Chick. Tijerina, Garrett Machacek and Jake Ashley also batted in runs.

Jack Barkley, who threw the complete game for the Patriots, effectively shut down the HSU offense despite striking out only two batters.  

The Patriots added to their lead in the bottom of the sixth on a Jake Ashley triple that plated David Ring. McCain then singled to score Ashley, giving the Patriots an 8-0 margin.

UT Tyler ended the game in the seventh on Machacek single that scored Allen, who had made the score 9-0 on an RBI triple just before. 

Allen finished the night 2-for-3 with four RBIs.  Martin was 3-for-4.

Hardin-Simmons falls to 19-19 with the loss.