TYLER -- The UT Tyler Patriots softball team opened their season on the right note, defeating Mary Hardin- Baylor in a double header, winning by the scores of 7-1 and 11-3. The Patriots begin their season with a 2-0 record and UMHB falls to 1-2. 

In the first game of the doubleheader, UT Tyler busted out with 10 hits. The Patriots got the scoring going early, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning.

Lauren Robenalt singled, stole second base, and scored on a Taylor Petrick ground ball to first base. 

Petrick then got herself in an intentional run-down to score Katelyn Thomason, who had walked and reached third on the error by the UMHB first baseman.

UT Tyler scored again in the third when Robenalt scored on a Thomason single to left center field.

Mary Hardin- Baylor scored their only run of the ballgame in the fourth inning after a wild pitch allowed Victoria Gomez to reach third base.  Two pitches later, Hannah White grounded to second giving UMHB one run.

The Patriots added two more runs in the fifth and sixth inning respectively.  In the fifth, Thomas knocked in her second RBI of the game while Ashley Endsley knocked in her first run of the season with a single to left.  

In the sixth, Joey Cronin blasted her first homerun of the season, a two-run job to left field giving the Patriots the final 7-1 lead. 

In game two, UT Tyler wasted no time getting the scoring going again.  Thomason got things started with a single  to centerfield, scoring Carli Wheeler.  Endsley then added two more with the big hit of the inning, a two run double down the right-field line, scoring Petrick and Thomason.

The Patriots added six more runs in the second, highlighted by a two-run triple by Petrick that scored Thomason and Cronin.  

Two more insurance runs were added in the fourth inning on a single by Rachel Howell and a fielders choice by Ashlee Johnson.

In the double-header, the Patriots blasted 19 hits and scored 18 runs.  

Thomason finished with four hits, four RBI's and four runs scored to lead the Patriots.  

Heather Abshire picked up her first win of the season in game one, pitching seven innings, giving up one run.

In game two, Victoria Combs picked up her first win in just two innings of work.

UT Tyler will hit the field again on Sunday, February 26 at 1 pm, against Southwestern  at the UT Tyler Ballpark.