SEGUIN, Texas -- Texas Lutheran softball earned three of the four Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference yearly awards and placed eight across the All-SCAC First and Second Teams, including a league-best five on the first team. The conference announced the honors on Friday.

Senior Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek) was named SCAC Player of the Year for the third time in her career, while senior Katelyn Howard (Hempstead/Waller) was named Pitcher of the Year. TLU head coach Wade Wilson was named Coach of the Year. It marks Wilson's third straight SCAC Coach of the Year honor.

Clark collects TLU's 12th SCAC Player of the Year award, winning the award every year since joining the conference in 2014. Clark becomes the first athlete in SCAC history to win Player of the Year honors three times.

The highlight-reel second baseman has started every game for No. 3 TLU and led the team throughout the season in batting average, on-base percentage, hits, runs, walks, and stolen bases. She has consistently ranked in the top ten nationally in hits, runs, and stolen bases. The NCAA's all-time career stolen base leader has stolen 74 bases on 77 attempts to lead all of college softball and been exceptional at second base for TLU, turning five double plays with a .981 fielding percentage. The Montgomery, Texas, native stole the NCAA record-breaking career base No. 258 in front of her home crowd in March and has run her career total to 291 entering the postseason. Clark led the conference in batting average (.489), runs (65), hits (64), on-base percentage (.553) and stolen bases. In SCAC play, Clark has four extra base hits, 48 runs scored, 50 hits, 18 RBI and 54 stolen bases. She is on pace to become the first athlete in SCAC softball history to lead the league in hits in three different seasons and historically currently ranks second all-time with 246 hits.

The senior phenom and member of the NFCA Pitcher of the Year Watch List, Howard, collects her first career conference awards in SCAC Pitcher of the Year. Her pitcher of the year honor is TLU's 11th in school annals and is TLU's sixth consecutive. Her current ERA would rank the second lowest in SCAC history for a full season. 

Howard has had a dominant senior campaign, holding a 0.75 ERA that ranks fourth nationally with ten individual shutouts and one no-hitter. The Hempstead, Texas, product is 19-1 in the circle and has allowed just 12 extra base hits in 2026. Howard has 77 strikeouts to just 19 walks and 13 earned runs, while opponents are batting just .224 against the senior. In conference play, Howard led the league in wins (16-1) while holding a 0.65 ERA and allowing just 12 runs.

A four-time SCAC pitcher of the week honoree during the year, Howard has set career bests across the board this season including, wins, ERA, shutouts, strikeouts, appearances, games started, complete games and tossed over 100 innings in a season for the first time in her career.

Wilson wins his third consecutive SCAC Coach of the Year award and 11th overall in his 15 seasons at the helm in Seguin. Since the Bulldogs joined the SCAC prior to the 2014 season, Wilson has guided the program to a 527-97 overall record, including an impressive 267-10 (.964) mark in conference play. His 267 SCAC victories are the most by any coach in conference history. This recognition marks the 10th SCAC Staff of the Year honor for Wilson and his coaching staff and his 11th overall conference coaching honor after also earning ASC Coach of the Year recognition in 2013.

Wilson has guided the third-ranked Bulldogs to a 35-4 record in 2026 and 12th consecutive SCAC regular season title. The team has outscored opponents 335-70 on the year and 263-45 in conference play. The Bulldogs allowed just 38 earned runs and stole 158 bases in conference.

Of the 12 student-athletes that made up the All-SCAC First Team, five were Bulldogs. 

TLU's league best five selections outpaces the next-highest school by two. Claiming First Team honors was Clark, Howard, Riley Davila (Angleton/Angleton), Serena Gonzalez (Corpus Christi/Foy H. Moody), and Taylor Vannett (Kingwood/Kingwood).

Clark collects her fourth career First Team honor, while Gonzalez earns her third and Davila, Howard, and Vannett were named First Team honorees for the first time of their SCAC careers.

Juniors Cady Bowyer (Fulshear/Jordan) and Ashley McMahon (Las Vegas, NV/Durango) and sophomore Jordyn Joy (Kerrville/Tivy) brought TLU's All-SCAC total to eight with their selections to the All-SCAC Second Team. The All-SCAC honors are firsts for the trio.

Sophomores Brey Jones (San Antonio/Brennan), Jordyn Stuessy (Garden Ridge/Davenport), and Chesley Swisher (Cypress/Bridgeland) and senior Harleigh Russell (Fort Worth/Boswell) were named All-SCAC honorable mention to bring the Bulldogs All-SCAC total to 11 honorees.

The top-seeded Bulldogs open the SCAC Championship Tournament on Saturday in Abilene at 4 PM on FloCollege versus the winner of Friday's Ozarks (AR) vs. McMurry game. The conference title game is slated for 1 PM on Monday.

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).