SEGUIN, Texas -- No. 25 Texas Lutheran Baseball held on for an 11-8 win to clinch the series over Austin College on Saturday at Katt-Isbel Field.
The Bulldogs (13-3, 9-3) jumped out to a 4-0 lead before the 'Roos fought back into the game. TLU then scored seven runs over the fourth through seventh innings to secure the win. The 13-3 start is the best under head coach
Kyle Palmer '09 and the best overall through 16 games since 2018.
Aiden Spires (Fort Worth/Arlington Heights) had a career-high three RBI including an RBI double.
Caleb Small (Round Rock/Gateway College Preparatory) scored four times and finished 3-for-3 and just a home run short of the cycle.
Adam Peavy (Houston/Memorial) tied the program record for hit by pitch as he was hit three times on Saturday. It is the third instance in which a Bulldog has been hit three times in a single-game with all three instances coincidentally coming five years apart (Riley Schaefer (2016); Tyler Post (2021)).
Cody Andrade (Calallen/Calallen) closed out his third game of the weekend, allowing one run on two hits over the final 1.2 innings on Saturday.
Triston McGowan (Vidor/Vidor) earned his fourth win of the season, allowing six runs (four earned) on seven hits while striking out four.
The Bulldogs grabbed an early lead with a two-RBI single from
Kadyn Hall (LaGrange/LaGrange) in the first.
Texas Lutheran added to the lead in the second after an RBI single from
Aiden Spires and an RBI single from
Michael Barrera (San Antonio/East Central).
Austin College put together a three-run inning in the third to bring the game to a 4-3 score. TLU responded immediately with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning. Spires stepped to the plate with runners at first and third and attempted a sacrifice bunt that turned into two runs following a throwing error from the 'Roos. Spires would score on a sacrifice fly from
Chase Bourgeois (League City/Clear Falls) to close the scoring in the inning.
TLU tacked on another two runs in the fifth inning on an RBI triple from Small and an RBI groundout from Spires that scored Small. With the triple on Saturday, Small leads all of college baseball with five on the season.
The 'Roos scored three more runs on two hits to chase McGowan in the sixth to cut the TLU lead to 9-6.
Texas Lutheran answered in the seventh with a pair of runs to extend the lead to 11-6.
Kadyn Hall hit a lead-off double before Small hit a double of his own and Bourgeois brought in Small on a sac bunt.
Austin College trimmed the lead to 11-8 in the eighth and attempted to tack on more before
Caleb Small threw out a runner at home from right to end the inning. Andrade closed the door in the ninth to secure the series for the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs will continue their seven-game homestand next weekend as they welcome University of the Ozarks (AR) to Katt-Isbel Field for a three-game series. The series opening doubleheader is scheduled to start at 3 PM on Friday, March 13. The entire three-game series will be streamed on FloCollege. 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).
