SEGUIN â€" The Texas Lutheran softball squad is one win away from its first NCAA Division III Tournament after defeating Trinity 6-0 on Saturday afternoon in the SCAC Championship at Theos Mork Field at Ed Kruse Stadium.
 
The two teams will match back up and battle for the right to go to the NCAA Tournament tomorrow at noon. Trinity made it to the finals after defeating Southwestern in an elimination game. TLU will have the advantage on Sunday with the Tigers needing two wins to claim the title, while the Bulldogs need just one.
 
The win improved the Bulldogs' record to 31-7 on the year and gave them 13 straight victories.
 
On Saturday, Taylor Grissom, fresh off being named the SCAC Pitcher of the Year, dominated the Tigers with a complete-game shutout. The sophomore from Spring, Texas limited the Tigers to just six hits over those seven innings. It was her sixth complete game and fifth shutout on the year.
 
While Grissom didn't need much help from the offense, she got plenty of it on Saturday, especially from newly-minted SCAC Player of the Year Ashley Jacobsen. The junior finished a perfect 4-for-4 on the day, driving in a run and scoring one herself. In fact, Jacobsen (Marion, Texas) drove in what turned out to be the winning run, opening up the scoring in the third inning with an RBI single to center field that scored Megan Armistead. She later scored in the fifth inning.
 
Aside from Jacobsen's big day, the offense was pretty well distributed, with six different Bulldogs notching RBI and five different players scoring runs. The only player who scored twice was Molly Gorrie (Houston, Texas), who smashed her second home run of the season in the sixth inning. It was a solo shot that put the Bulldogs up 6-0. The senior finished 2-for-2 with two runs and an RBI.
 
Grissom was on top of her game from the start, retiring the first eight batters she faced and allowing the Bulldog offense to find its footing after the TLU bats mustered just one hit in the first two innings.
 
After the hot start, Grissom managed to spread out six hits across the final five innings. Most importantly for her though, she never allowed a Trinity leadoff hitter to reach base.
 
Jacobsen broke the scoring open in the third inning with her RBI single. The Bulldogs added another run in the fourth behind a Hope Estes RBI single.
 
The fifth inning was where TLU opened up the game, scoring three runs to gain a 5-0 advantage. Grace Estes was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score the first run of the inning. Taylor Yancey scored Jacobsen with a fielder's choice groundball, and Maegan Taylor finished the scoring off with an RBI single up the middle.
 
Gorrie capped off the scoring with her sixth-inning solo shot.
 
Live video and live stats of tomorrow's SCAC Championship finals contest will be available via tlubulldogs.com.