SEGUIN, Texas -- No. 8 Texas Lutheran (7-1, 5-1 SCAC) won their Top 25 conference series over No. 19 St. Thomas (6-2, 4-2 SCAC) after splitting Saturday's doubleheader at Ed Kruse Stadium. Texas Lutheran would take both ends of the three game series with 5-2 and 9-0 victories, but would drop game two in a 14-13 slugfest that saw the two teams combine for 35 hits on a windy Saturday afternoon in Seguin.
Despite a barrage of runs in the first three innings, No. 19 St. Thomas rallied back with seven runs over the final four innings as the Bulldogs dropped game two of the series 14-13.
The loss snapped TLU's 23-game winning streak in the month of February.
After being limited to just two runs on Friday night, St. Thomas jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first. TLU answered in the bottom of the inning with six runs of their own. A trio of one-out singles loaded the bases for
Cady Bowyer (Fulshear/Jordan) who kept the line moving with an RBI single to get the Bulldogs on the board. A Celts error led to the Bulldogs second run before
Mia Landry (Cypress/Bridgeland) hit a bases clearing double to give TLU a 5-4 lead. Landry would score on an RBI single from
Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek) to cap the high scoring inning.
The Celts scratched across two runs in the second inning before
Jordyn Joy (Kerrville/Tivy) began to settle in after entering in relief.
Joy helped herself in the third with a leadoff home run, the first of her career.
Riley Davila (Angleton/Angleton) kept the Bulldogs attack going with an RBI triple to score Clark before scoring on an RBI single from
Taylor Vannett (Kingwood/Kingwood). With the run scored, Clark passed TLU Hall of Famer Ashley Jacobsen to move into second all-time in program history in career runs scored (183).
Serena Gonzalez (Corpus Christi/Foy H. Moody), who leads all active Division-III players in home runs, put an exclamation point on the inning with a two-run homer - her first of the season and 26th of her career.
With the Bulldogs leading 11-6, St. Thomas would score eight unanswered runs over the course of the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings as the Celts tallied ten hits and took advantage of defensive lapses from the Bulldogs.
Mia Landry scored on a Celts error to make it 14-12 in the sixth but the Bulldogs stranded two runners in scoring position to end the inning. The Bulldogs got runners in scoring position with a chance to force extras after a one-out single from Bowyer and a pinch-hit double from
Grace Bracken (Danbury/Danbury). A sacrifice fly from
Mia Landry cut the lead to 14-13 but the tying run ended the game stranded at second.
No. 8 Texas Lutheran won the series sweep over St. Thomas, beating the Celtss 9-0 in five innings for its fourth victory by run-rule on the season through eight games.
After tossing a scoreless seventh in Saturday's first game,
Katelyn Howard (Waller/Hempstead) - the back-to-back SCAC Pitcher of the Week - shined in the series finale, striking out three while sprinkling six hits over five shutout innings for her sixth win of the season. The shutout is her third of the season.
Texas Lutheran got the scoring started early as
Caelee Clark stole home and a sac fly from
Taylor Vannett gave the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead in the first.
TLU broke the game open with five runs in the second inning, chasing the Celts starter in the process. An RBI single from
Brey Jones (San Antonio/Brennan) started the scoring before an RBI groundout from
Caelee Clark and a Celts error led to the next two runs. An RBI single from
Taylor Vannett and an RBI double from
Serena Gonzalez brought the score to 7-0 TLU. With her RBI double, Gonzalez tied Taylor Yancey for the program record for RBI with 141 in her career.
In the fourth, an RBI triple from Davila officially put the game in run-rule territory before Vannett brought her in for the final run of the game.
Davila and Gonzalez each went 2-for-3 with an RBI with Davila scoring three times.
With the wins, Texas Lutheran won their 77th straight SCAC conference series, dating back to joining the conference in 2014.
The team continues its homestand with a three-game series against LeTourneau at Ed Kruse Stadium, Feb. 27-28. First pitch of Friday's doubleheader 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).
