SEGUIN, Texas -- Senior
Brayden Sprencel (Robstown/Calallen) hit a go-ahead, two-run single in the eighth as No. 20 Texas Lutheran Baseball salvaged the series against Centenary with a 7-5 win on Friday at Katt-Isbel Field.
Prior to Friday's game, Texas Lutheran honored its 13 seniors:
Chase Bourgeois (League City/Clear Falls),
Tyler Helpenstill (Houston/Lutheran South),
Garrett Helpenstill (Houston/Lutheran South),
Aiden Spires (Fort Worth/Arlington Heights),
Mathew Elizondo (Eagle Pass/Eagle Pass),
Triston McGowan (Vidor/Vidor),
Parker Schutte (Arlington/Lamar),
Kadyn Hall (La Grange/La Grange),
Carter Conroy (Spring/Klein Cain),
Adam Peavy (Houston/Memorial),
Drew Burnett (Seguin/Seguin),
Brayden Sprencel, and
Nolan Salinas. Also before the game, Peavy was named as TLU's 5th annual Mark Love Award winner.
Sprencel went 2-for-4 at the plate with the a pair of RBI, including the game-winner in the eighth.
Caleb Alfaro (San Antonio/St. Anthony Catholic) and
Aiden Spires paced the team with three hits each.
Parker Schutte pitched two scoreless innings of relief to close out the game and picked up his fourth win of the season.
Isaiah Ramirez (San Antonio/Marshall) started and pitched seven innings with three runs allowed.
The Gents scored the first run of the game in the second inning on an RBI single but the Bulldogs had a quick answer.
Texas Lutheran grabbed a 2-1 lead in the third as an RBI sacrifice bunt from Sprencel tied the game at one before an RBI double from Peavy scored
Caleb Alfaro to give TLU a 2-1 lead.
Centenary came back to take 3-2 lead in the next half inning, but the Bulldogs would tie the game in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single from
Aiden Spires.
Texas Lutheran regained the lead in the sixth on an RBI double from Alfaro.
The Gents were able to get to the Bulldogs as they attempted to sweep TLU on their home field, scoring two runs in the eighth to take a 5-4 lead.
After a lead off single from Spires, a pair of wild pitches to advance him to third, and a walk to
Chase Bourgeois, TLU found themselves with two runners on with nobody out. Bourgeois stole second before Sprencel hit an RBI single to right field to score Spires and Bourgeois scored on a throwing error from the Gents right fielder in what would turn out to be the game-winning run.
Mathew Elizondo tacked on an insurance run with a sacrifice fly to bring the game to its final score of 7-5.
The Bulldogs (20-9) will continue their four-game homestand this week by hosting former SCAC rival, Southwestern, on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Katt-Isbel Field. The game 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).
