MARSHALL, Texas -- This year's Texas Lutheran softball team continues to impress and refuses to bow down to challenges placed in front of them. Now the Bulldogs have earned their biggest challenge yet: the 2025 Division-III Women's College World Series.
TLU (44-3) advances to the 2025 Division-III Women's College World Series next week in Bloomington, Illinois, where it will have an opportunity to put the finishing touches on one of the best seasons in program history.
TLU clinched its fourth WCWS appearance with a 2-0 elimination victory over defending national champion, No. 1 East Texas Baptist (43-5) on a hot Friday afternoon in the NCAA Marshall Super Regional. The Bulldogs delivered the top-ranked Tigers first shutout out since May 19, 2023 and handed them just their second and third losses on their home field over the course of the last two seasons. The Bulldogs have now reached the World Series in four out of the last six seasons - tying Trine, who also will travel to Bloomington, for the most appearances since 2019.
Seeking their second national championship, the Bulldogs will open against No. 2 seed Rowan University on Thursday at a time to be determined.
The Bulldogs, who are still on the best pace to start a season in program history at 44-3, have outscored their three postseason opponents 21-6.
TLU took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third on an RBI single from Serena Gonzalez (Corpus Christi/Foy H. Moody) to score Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek) from second base.
A one-out single from freshman Chesley Swisher (Cypress/Bridgeland) started a sixth inning rally for the Bulldogs. A sac bunt from Tavery Ortiz (Texas City/Texas City) moved Swisher into scoring position and a single from Bella Rodriguez (Pearland/Pearland) placed runners at first and third. For the second straight day, Kylee Jack (Richwood/Brazoswood) lived up to her "Postseason KJ" moniker with another clutch pinch-hit at-bat for the Bulldogs as an infield RBI single to third base scored Swisher to provide a late insurance run.
On Friday, the Bulldogs tied their NCAA record from a season ago by stealing their 233rd base of the season. TLU is 233-of-244 (.955) on the base paths so far this season.
TLU senior right-hander Amanda White (Lockhart/Lockhart) went the distance, scattering six hits, striking out one and walking two to push her record to 23-1 with a 0.87 earned run average. White shutout the highly-touted Tigers in 12 out of 13 innings she appeared in this weekend.
Following Friday's game, White was named the NCAA Marshall Super Regional's Most Outstanding Pitcher while Caelee Clark was named Most Outstanding Player.
Texas Lutheran, who after reseeding is now the tournament's number seven seed, will play their first game of the 2025 D-III Women's College World Series on Thursday, May 29 at a time to be determined against two-seed Rowan. All streaming and live stats links will be available on tlubulldogs.com.
For more information on Texas Lutheran softball, follow the Bulldogs on Facebook (@txlutheransoftball), X (Twitter) (@TLUsoftball), and Instagram (@tlu_softball) and as always you can find updates on all Texas Lutheran athletics on tlubulldogs.com and all official TLU social media channels (@tluathletics on Twitter, @tlu_athletics on Instagram and TikTok, and @tlubulldogs on Facebook).
