TYLER, Texas— Cailynn Parsons and Myah Arrieta both hit solo home runs in the third inning but were not enough for the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks who saw their 2024 softball season come to an end with an 8-2 defeat to No. 3 and second seeded UT Tyler in the championship game of the NCAA South Central Regional Tournament on Saturday afternoon here at the Patriots' Irwin Field.

The Patriots, playing as the visiting team on the scoreboard, scored runs in the first three and five of the seven innings building a 4-0 lead before Parsons and Arrieta's home runs sliced the gap to 4-2.

Neither team scored in the fourth before the Patriots added a sacrifice fly in the fifth and three more runs in the top of the seventh to complete the scoring.

The Patriots improved to 51-8 overall with the win and advanced to the South Central Super Regional.

The Mavericks, seeded sixth and ranked 25^th in the national poll, finished the season with a 46-11 record and a new NCAA Division II record for team home runs in a season (123).

The Patriots converted an error on the opening play of the game into the first run in the top of the first and then produced another in the second thanks to a single, fielder's choice, a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly.
They then banged out three hits and took advantage of another error to score two third inning runs as the hosts increased their lead to 4-0.

However, the Mavericks wasted little time in the bottom of the third as Parsons homered to left, two plays before Arrieta hit her Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference record-extending 28^th home run to center as the Mavs pulled within 4-2.

When she touched home plate, Arrieta also set a new RMAC record for runs scored with 84, surpassing the 2018 mark of 83, set by former Maverick great Maggie Manwarren.

UT Tyler starter Genesis Armendariz then retired sixth straight Maverick hitters as she got through the fifth inning.

Miranda Pruitt then led off the bottom of the sixth with a single to force Armendariz out of the game.

The move worked as reliever Christin Haygood retired the final six Mavericks to earn the save, her fifth of the season, as Armendariz improved to 17-5 with the win.

The Mavs were held to just three hits in the game, which proved to the be the last for four Maverick seniors and graduate students Ava Fugate, Iliana Mendoza, Pruitt and Hannah Sattler.

Arrieta, a junior, finished the year with a new RMAC record 190 total bases and a CMU record for slugging percentage (1.027).