SEGUIN, Texas -- No. 5 Texas Lutheran rolled to its 85th consecutive SCAC series win, sweeping their Friday doubleheader with Dallas, beating the Crusaders 6-1 in game one and 8-0 in five innings in game two on Senior Day at Ed Kruse Stadium.
With the wins, head coach
Wade Wilson picked up his 300th career conference win in his collegiate coaching career. Wilson is now 301-23 (.929) across American Southwest Conference (ASC) and Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) play dating back to 2012.
In game one, both teams turned in a pair of zeroes before TLU got the scoring started with an RBI groundout from
Harleigh Russell (Fort Worth/Boswell) in the second.
The Bulldogs doubled their lead in the third via an RBI double from
Taylor Vannett (Kingwood/Kingwood).
The Bulldogs tacked on two more runs in the fifth on an RBI groundout from
Riley Davila (Angleton/Angleton) and an RBI double from
Serena Gonzalez (Corpus Christi/Foy H. Moody).
Senior
Katelyn Howard (Waller/Hempstead) took the circle in game one, allowing one run on three hits. The senior struck out six and walked one to improve to 19-1. The Crusaders lone run came in the sixth on a two-out RBI single.
Jordyn Stuessy (Garden Ridge/Davenport) took the ball in the sixth inning with the Bulldogs leading 4-1, setting down the first batter she faced on a line out to third.
A dropped fly ball and an RBI single from
Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek) led to two more runs from the Bulldogs in the bottom of the inning to bring the game to its final score of 6-1.
Stuessy retired the final four batters she faced to earn her third save of the season, tossing the final 1.1 innings, scattering two hits with a punchout. Stuessy's third save ties
Ainsley Davis (2025) and Howard (2025) for the third most in a single-season.
At the plate, seniors
Caelee Clark,
Serena Gonzalez, and
Taylor Vannett paced the Bulldogs with two hits and an RBI each. Six Bulldogs registered a hit in the series opener.
Texas Lutheran turned around approximately 30 minutes after the game-one victory for a shutout, run-rule win in game two. It marked TLU's seventh shutout in its last ten games.Â
Jordyn Joy (Kerrville/Tivy) was exceptional in her 5.0 innings pitched. Joy retired 15 of the 18 Dallas batters and recorded her tenth win of the year, allowing no runs to just two hits, one walk and a strikeout.Â
Senior
Taylor Vannett opened the scoring on a two-RBI double in the bottom of the first before another run crossed in the second on a bases loaded, RBI hit by pitch drawn by Vannett.
Cady Bowyer (Fulshear/Jordan) led off the third inning with her team-high fifth home run of the season. Her five home runs tie for second in the SCAC.
A sacrifice fly from
Riley Davila pushed the lead to 6-0 in the fourth.
Ashley McMahon (Las Vegas, NV/Durango) walked it off in the fifth as a single down the left field line turned into two runs following an error from the Dallas left fielder allowed the ball to roll to the wall and senior
Kayla Ramirez (Kingsville/Santa Gertrudis Academy) and McMahon to come around and score to end the game.
Clark, Davila, and Bowyer all turned in multi-hit efforts while
Taylor Vannett drove in a team-high three runs.
Caelee Clark and
Ashley McMahon both scored twice. Clark's two runs brought her season total to 62, tying Kelly Jurden (2021) for the TLU and SCAC single-season records for runs scored.
Following Friday's games, the Bulldogs honored its seven-member senior class:
Carlee Feris (Houston/Cy-Ranch), Russell, Clark, Vannett, Ramirez, Howard, and Gonzalez in post-game senior day festivities.
The two teams meet for the series finale at 11 AM on Saturday at Ed Kruse Stadium. The series finale will be streamed on FloCollege. All streaming and live stats links can be found on tlubulldogs.com. Depending on the results of Saturday's doubleheader between No. 14 St. Thomas and Concordia (TX), Saturday's game against the Crusaders could act as the regular season finale or the Bulldogs could travel to Sherman for one final matchup against Austin College on Sunday to make up their previously canceled game from earlier this season. All schedule information will be available on tlubulldogs.com as well as official TLU Softball social media channels.
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).
