KERRVILLE, Texas -- The Texas Lutheran Bulldogs are back in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Softball Championship final after a furious late-inning rally, capped by Lainey Hebert's walk-off single, produced a thrilling 9-8 win over the Trinity Tigers.

Saturday afternoon at Schreiner University's Mountaineer Field, Hebert (Rogers/Rogers) dropped a one-out single in front of a diving Mackenzie Hill in center field. Pinch-runner Jordan Hensley (George West/George West) scored easily from third.
 
TLU (35-4) will play for a second consecutive SCAC Softball Championship. The championship round game one is set for noon Sunday at Mountaineer Field.
 
TLU will face the winner of the Trinity/Schreiner elimination game, which was slated to start around 8:30 p.m. Saturday.
 
TLU needs just one win Sunday to clinch the SCAC Championship and the automatic berth to the NCAA Division III playoffs.

In the semifinal win over Trinity, the Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead but fell behind 6-1 after a six-run fifth inning for the Tigers.
 
TLU bounced back with three runs in the bottom of the fifth, a run in the sixth, and three runs in the seventh to tie the game at 8-8.
 
Hope Estes (Willis/Willis) and Megan Armistead (Montgomery/Montgomery) collected RBI in the fifth, and Heather Hummel (Houston/Stratford) homered in the sixth.
 
The Bulldogs needed three runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie after Trinity (17-17) added a pair of runs in the top of the seventh.
 
In the Bulldogs' rally in the seventh, Estes and Armistead started the frame with back-to-back singles. Hebert walked to load the bases. Hummel then lifted a deep fly ball to left-center that dropped between two Trinity defenders.
 
Pinch-runner Alex Yarbrough (San Antonio/Johnson) scored on the Hummel single, and Armistead came home on a relay throwing error by the Trinity shortstop. The two runs brought TLU within 8-7 with one out and two on base.
 
Jacquelyn Brown (Vidor/Vidor) then singled to load the bases again, and Grace Estes (Willis/Willis) tied the game with a deep sacrifice fly to left field. Hebert scored.
 
TLU ace Taylor Grissom (Spring/Klein Collins) entered the game in relief and worked around a two-out walk to notch a scoreless eighth.
 
In the bottom of the eighth, SCAC Player of the Year Jennifer Gallagher (Missouri City/Elkins) led-off the frame with a two-strike, opposite-field single. Hensley pinch ran for Gallagher and advanced to second on a walk to Hope Estes from new Trinity pitcher Katie Glomb.
 
A Megan Armistead ground-out to short moved the base runners to second and third with one down. Hebert stepped to the plate and connected off Glomb to set off a wild celebration at first base.
 
The victory was TLU's 32^nd consecutive victory and increased the Bulldogs' two-year record against SCAC teams to 49-1 (counting regular season and SCAC tournament victories).
 
TLU's last lost to a SCAC team came on March 29, 2014, when pitcher Kaci Wellik and Trinity defeated TLU 2-0.
 
Wellik started Saturday's game and struck out nine in seven innings. She tossed seven innings and allowed nine runs (eight earned).
 
Grissom picked up the win for TLU in relief and moved her 2015 record to 18-0. Grissom established the new TLU single-season record for wins in a season. The junior right-hander is 27-3 in her two seasons with the Bulldogs.
 
Grace Estes ended Saturday's game 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI, and Ashley Jacobsen (Marion/Marion) added three hits in five at-bats.
 
Gallagher and Hope Estes each collected two hits and an RBI, and Armistead went 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI. Hummel and Brown each went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.
 
Hummel drove in a pair of runs and hit her team-leading fifth homer of the season.