SEGUIN â€" The Texas Lutheran softball team opened up some breathing room in the SCAC standings with a Sunday doubleheader sweep of Trinity at Kruse Stadium.
 
The Bulldogs beat the Tigers 4-0 and 4-1 in the two games, opening up a three-game advantage in the loss column in the SCAC standings over the second-place Tigers. The Bulldogs took three out of four in the series against Trinity and improved to 21-7 (13-1 SCAC) on the year with the pair of wins. Trinity dropped to 13-12 (8-4 SCAC).
 
Taylor Grissom (Spring, Texas) continued her pitching dominance in SCAC play in Sunday's first game, tallying her fourth complete game and third shutout of the season, all of which have come in conference action. She shut down the Trinity offense, holding the Tigers to just three hits on the day and striking out one.
 
The sophomore transfer got off to a strong start, sitting down the first six Trinity batters she faced. The fourth inning was the only time she found herself in any real danger after Trinity managed to start the inning off with a single and a double. With two runners in scoring position and nobody out, Grissom got Lauren Mercado to ground into a double play. The groundball was fielded by Grace Estes at short, who threw over to first to get Mercado. Taylor Yancey then threw the ball to home plate as Chrissy Armstrong tried to score. Armstrong was tagged out at home for the second out of the inning. Grissom finished the inning off by fielding another groundball and tossing it over to first.
 
Grissom didn't allow a hit after that fourth inning, holding the Tigers to just one walk the rest of the way. She is now 4-1 in SCAC play with a miniscule 0.44 ERA in 32 innings of work.
 
The Bulldog offense did enough to earn Grissom the win. After being shutout for the first time all season on Saturday by Trinity's Kaci Wellik, the offense finally broke through against her in the third inning on Sunday. After the first two batters of the inning reached base, Jennifer Gallagher (Missouri City, Texas) laced a single through the right side, scoring Jacquelyn Brown and giving the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead.
 
They would give themselves some breathing room in the fifth, scoring three in the frame. Maegan Taylor (Helotes, Texas) came up with a two-run double to left center before Hope Estes (Willis, Texas) drove Taylor in with an RBI single down the right field line.
 
The Bulldogs finished the game with 11 hits. Brown (Vidor, Texas) led the way with a 3-for-4 day, scoring two runs and stealing her eighth base of the year in the process.
 
Texas Lutheran continued to pitch well in the second game. This time it was Kimberly Leschber and Samantha Yenne combining to hold the Tigers to one run on seven hits.
 
Leschber (Thorndale, Texas) earned the win, improving to 6-2 on the year. The junior tossed five innings of shutout softball, scattering six hits across those five innings while striking out one. She has been almost as good as Grissom in conference play, now owning a 3-0 conference record with a 0.78 ERA in 18 innings of work.
 
Yenne came in out of the bullpen for the third time this series and nailed down her first-career save. She tossed the final two innings, allowing one run on one hit and a walk. She finished the four-game series with eight innings of relief work. She gave up just one earned run in those innings on five hits. She struck out four in the series.
 
The Bulldogs' pitching staff finished with a tiny 0.72 ERA in the four games against the Tigers, giving up 22 hits and striking out 10. The seventh-inning run scored by Trinity in the final game of the series broke up a 16-inning shutout streak for the Bulldog pitching staff.
 
The offense took advantage of a couple defensive miscues made by Trinity in the second game. The first two runs were scored in the fourth inning and both were unearned. Grace Estes came around to score the first run after reaching base on an error. She scored all the way from first after Trinity pitcher Katie Castillon threw the ball into the right field corner on a sacrifice bunt attempt.
 
The Bulldogs would notch a pair of insurance runs in the sixth inning. Taylor Yancey (Magnolia, Texas) notched her second RBI of the day with a run-scoring single. Her first RBI came in the fourth inning on an RBI double.
 
Jaime Ohm (Frisco, Texas) drove in the fourth run of the game for TLU on an infield single that scored Brianna Alter.
 
With just two more conference series remaining, the Bulldogs are in good shape to take home the SCAC regular-season title and earn the right to host the SCAC Championship. But before that, they still must take care of business in the next two series, starting with a four-game road set against Schreiner. The two teams will play doubleheaders on Friday, April 4 and Saturday, April 5 starting at 5 p.m. and 1 p.m., respectively.