MARSHALL—UT Tyler bounced back from its first loss of the season by dealing previously unbeaten East Texas Baptist two setbacks.

The No. 4 Patriots (22-1) swept a doubleheader at ETBU, taking down the Tigers by scores of 5-1 and 3-1 Tuesday at Taylor Field.

The two losses dropped No. 3 ETBU to 14-2 for the season.

UT Tyler returns home Thursday for a matchup against UT Dallas. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Suddenlink Communications Field.

 

GAME 1

Shelby Shelton went 2 for 4 with a two-run single in the seventh to help cement a 5-1 victory in the opener.

ETBU’s Jayme Perez led off the bottom of the first with a triple and eventually scored the Lady Tigers’ lone run.

Kelsie Batten did not give up any more after that. The UT Tyler hurler went seven innings, allowing four hits with one walk and four strikeouts.

ETBU’s Kelly Jo McLendon took the loss, giving up five earned runs on 10 hits with three strikeouts.

ETBU held the 1-0 lead until the top of the fourth.

UT Tyler third baseman Vanessa Carrizales led off with a single. Kursten Jaime pinch ran and went to second on a sacrifice bunt from Jackie Mendez. Jaime went to third on a groundout.

With two outs, Lexi Ackroyd delivered an RBI single to score Jaime and tie the game, 1-1.

The Patriots took the lead in the fifth, again taking advantage of a lead-off single. This time it came from Whitney Burt. She was pinch run for by Emilee Burkhardt. A sacrifice bunt moved Burkhardt to second for Raven Rodriguez, who singled up the middle, scoring Burkhardt.

That ended up being the game-winning run, but the Patriots were not finished.

Shelton’s two-run single in the seventh brought home Christa Hartnett and Burt. Mendez tacked on another run with an RBI single to score Rose Sullivan.

Batten did the rest, allowing a one-out single in the seventh, but that was all to secure the victory for the Patriots.

 

GAME 2

Mendez snapped a 1-1 tie with an RBI double in the seventh inning followed by an RBI single from KK Stevens to give UT Tyler a 3-1 lead that remained for a DH sweep against their rival.

Alaina Kissinger and Abby Walker combined in the circle to give up five hits and one earned run with five strikeouts.

Walker relieved Kissinger in the fifth of a tie game and pitched two scoreless frames to get the win.

UT Tyler led 1-0 through four innings on an RBI groundout from Christa Hartnett that scored Jaime.

ETBU tied the game in the bottom of the fourth off a leadoff triple from Maranda Westbrook followed by a single from Perez.

With still no outs, Walker was brought in for Kissinger. She gave up a one-out walk, but with Perez at third base, induced a pop up to shortstop Raven Rodriguez and a groundout to Carrizales at third to end the inning.

Kissinger blanked ETBU after that with UT Tyler scoring the game-winning runs in the seventh.

—Chris Parry