ABILENE, Texas -- No. 8 Texas Lutheran (4-0, 2-0 SCAC) secured its first conference series of the season on Friday at Edwards Field with two exciting wins over McMurry.
TLU picked up its second straight run-rule victory to open SCAC play, beating McMurry 9-0 in five innings. With the run-rule victory the Bulldogs streak of run-rule victories in SCAC openers to seven dating back to 2020. The Bulldogs have yet to drop a SCAC opener (13-0) since joining the SCAC in 2014.
The Bulldogs got a home run and three RBI from
Taylor Vannett (Kingwood/Kingwood). Senior
Katelyn Howard (Waller/Hempstead) went the distance in the circle, collecting her second win of the season - surrendering just four hits to go with two strikeouts across five shutout innings.
A first inning solo home run from
Taylor Vannett put the Bulldogs ahead early. An RBI ground out from
Chesley Swisher (Cypress/Bridgeland) scored
Mia Landry (Cypress/Bridgeland) to double the Bulldogs lead in the second.
TLU plated at least one run in every inning but the third.
Ashley McMahon (Las Vegas, NV/Durango) scored on a War Hawks error before an RBI single from
Riley Davila (Angleton/Angleton) increased the TLU lead to 4-0. A two-RBI double from Vannett truly broke the game open as TLU increased their lead to 6-0 after four innings.
An RBI double from
Brey Jones (San Antonio/Brennan) preceded the Bulldogs scoring their final two runs on McMurry errors to put the game in run-rule territory.
Howard quickly retired the side in order in the fifth to give the Bulldogs their first conference win of the season.
Six Bulldogs registered a hit in the game with four bringing in at least one run. Vannett paced the team in RBIs with three to accompany a 3-for-3 performance.
In game two, the two teams combined for 30 hits as the Bulldogs were pushed into extras for a 14-8 victory in Abilene.
Vannett continued her production in game two, lacing an RBI double to left field to score Davila to get TLU on the board in the first inning. An RBI single from
Harleigh Russell (Fort Worth/Boswell) would start the scoring for TLU in the third inning before
Cady Bowyer (Fulshear/Jordan) landed a massive blow with a grand slam, her first home run as a Bulldog, to make it 6-0 Bulldogs.
Kayla Ramirez (Kingsville/Santa Gertrudis Academy) scored in the fifth to push the lead to 7-0 as it seemed like the Bulldogs were headed toward another run-rule victory.
Jordyn Stuessy (Garden Ridge/Davenport) limited the War Hawks to four hits through the first five innings before the McMurry offense came alive to score six runs in the sixth to shrink the TLU lead to 7-6.
TLU added a run in the seventh but McMurry responded with two of their own before
Katelyn Howard was able to work the Bulldogs out of the seventh inning jam and avoid being walked off.
TLU blew it open in the eighth with six runs. Swisher led off the inning with a double before
Brey Jones drove her in with an RBI single that would see her end the play at third following one of the War Hawks four errors in game two.
Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek) stepped to the plate and hit an RBI triple, her second triple of the game. WIth the second triple, Clark becomes the first player in TLU history with multiple triples in a single-game. A sacrifice fly from Davila, a pinch-hit two-RBI double from
Grace Bracken (Danbury/Danbury) and an RBI single from Bowyer provided the final runs for the Bulldogs in the eighth.
Howard shut the door with scoreless eighth.
Five Bulldogs turned in multi-hit performances in game two led by a three-hit performance from Clark. Bowyer finished with a team-high five RBI.
Jordyn Stuessy struck out eight over 5.2 innings while Howard earned the win in relief to improve to 3-0.
With the wins, Texas Lutheran won their 76th straight SCAC conference series, dating back to joining the conference in 2014.
The 8th-ranked Bulldogs close the series vs. McMurry on Saturday at 1 PM at Edwards Field. The series finale will be streamed on FloCollege. All streaming and live stats links can be found 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).
