ABILENE, Texas -- The No. 8 Texas Lutheran softball team complete the series sweep over McMurry with an 10-1 run-rule win on Saturday to improve to 5-0 (3-0 SCAC).
The TLU offense fired on all cylinders in the series finale, registering ten runs on 13 hits including five extra base hits.Â
Senior
Taylor Vannett (Kingwood/Kingwood), who entered the weekend with one career home run, launched her second home run of the weekend in the first inning. In her final at-bat of the weekend, she laced an RBI double to left center for her seventh RBI of the weekend. Vannett finished the weekend with at least one RBI and multiple hits in all three games against McMurry. Vannett has totaled nine RBI across her last four contests against the War Hawks dating back to last season.
Fellow senior
Katelyn Howard (Waller/Hempstead) was exceptional in the circle, tossing all six innings and allowing just one unearned run on five hits and no walks to go with five strikeouts.
TLU struck first in the first inning, putting three runs on the board courtesy of an RBI single from
Riley Davila (Angleton/Angleton) and a two-run homer from Vannett.
McMurry put their first run on the board in the bottom of the third off of an RBI groundout to make it 3-1 TLU through three innings.
Riley Davila added TLU's fifth and sixth runs with a two-RBI single before an RBI single from
Serena Gonzalez (Corpus Christi/Foy H. Moody) to bring TLU's run total to seven.
The Bulldogs scored four runs on five hits in the sixth to put the game in run-rule territory. Vannett got the scoring started with an RBI double before Gonzalez laced an RBI single to center field. After a double from
Harleigh Russell (Fort Worth/Boswell),
Grace Bracken (Danbury/Danbury) stepped up for the second straight game to hit a pinch-hit two-RBI double to make it ten runs through six innings.
The six-inning win is TLU's third in five games to start the 2026 season.
Eight Bulldogs recorded a hit in the contest, with four registering two or more.
Serena Gonzalez went 3-for-4 to pace TLU. Davila and Vannett drove in three runs each while Bracken and Gonzalez plated a pair.
The team returns to action in Seguin for a three-game series with No. 19 St. Thomas at Ed Kruse Stadium, Feb. 20-21. First pitch of Friday's single-game is scheduled for 5 PM. All three games will stream 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).
