IRVING, Texas -- The Texas Lutheran baseball team emerged victorious in their series opener with an 8-7 win at Dallas Saturday evening.
The Bulldogs (12-6, 6-4 SCAC) used a three-run eighth and tacked on a run in the ninth with a sacrifice fly by Chance Greene (Round Rock/Stony Point) to win the series opener.
Brayden Sprencel (Robstown/Calallen) worked out of two jams in two innings to pick up the win in relief, his first as a Bulldog.
The Bulldogs found themselves in a 5-0 hole through three innings.
Junior first baseman Tyler Helpenstill (Pearland/Lutheran South) put the Bulldogs on the board with a leadoff home run in the fourth inning, his second home run of the season. Adam Peavy (Houston/Memorial) drove in two more runs in the inning with a two-RBI single. Dallas answered with another run in the fifth to bring the score to 6-3.
In the sixth, junior shortstop Chase Bourgeois (League City/Clear Falls) roped a two-out RBI triple to score Cooper Jen (Kyle/Hays). In the eighth, Adam Peavy would give Texas Lutheran its first lead of the afternoon with a three-run home run before the Crusaders tied the game in the bottom of the inning.
Greene would provide the decisive run with a sac fly in the ninth.
In the victory, three Bulldogs finished with multi-hit efforts, with Peavy leading the charge with five RBI on three hits.
The two teams started game two but the high scoring, back and forth contest was suspended as the two teams entered the eighth inning with Texas Lutheran leading 18-12 due to darkness/lack of lights at the Crusaders Baseball Field. Freshman Cooper Jen has hit for the cycle and has driven in seven runs in the contest and Kash Durkin has hit his eighth home run of the season while driving in four runs.
The game will resume at 12 PM on Sunday with game three following immediately after. All the action will be streamed on FloSports tomorrow. All streaming and live stats links can be found on tlubulldogs.com.
For more information on Texas Lutheran baseball and all TLU athletics, you can find updates on tlubulldogs.com and all official TLU social media channels (@tluathletics and @TLU_Baseball on X (Twitter), @tlubulldogs on Facebook, and @tlu_athletics on Instagram and TikTok).
