SEGUIN, Texas -- No. 3/8 Texas Lutheran opened the NCAA Tournament with a dominant 10-0 display over Penn State Behrend in five innings.
The No. 8 national seed Bulldogs were powered by two-RBI performances from
Chesley Swisher (Cypress/Bridgeland),
Cady Bowyer (Fulshear/Jordan), and
Riley Davila (Angleton/Angleton), three hits and three runs scored from
Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek) and a two-hit performance from
Jordyn Joy (Kerrville/Tivy),
Jordyn Stuessy (Garden Ridge/Davenport), and
Kezia Alvear (Kyle/Hays).
Thursday's win was Texas Lutheran's 20th shutout of the season and 19th run-rule victory of 2026.
TLU moved to 9-3 in NCAA Regional openers. In TLU's last five regional openers, the Bulldogs are outscoring the opposition 27-4.
The Bulldogs struck early as a leadoff bunt single from senior
Caelee Clark and a one-out walk to
Taylor Vannett (Kingwood/Kingwood) put two early runners on for the Bulldogs. Both runners were able to score via an RBI single from
Serena Gonzalez (Corpus Christi/Foy H. Moody) and a sacrifice fly from
Cady Bowyer.
Penn State Behrend got their second and final hit of the game in the top of the third to put two runners on before Joy worked out of the jam.
Clark was a catalyst for the Bulldogs offense yet again in the bottom of the third, leading off the inning with a double down the left field line and stealing third to set up a sacrifice fly for
Riley Davila to add to the TLU lead.
The top of the fourth saw Joy retire the side in order before the TLU offense poured in seven runs on five hits and a Lions error.
After a Lions error to start the inning, the Bulldogs loaded the bases to set the table for their high-scoring inning. A pinch-hit RBI single from
Natalie Pacheco (Lytle/Lytle) was responsible for the first run of the inning, scoring
Michelle Torralba (Eagle Pass/Eagle Pass).
Chesley Swisher nearly cleared the bases with a two-RBI single which was followed by a trio of RBI singles from Clark, Davila, and Vannett. TLU's last run of the game came via a sacrifice fly from
Cady Bowyer.
Sophomore right handed-pitcher
Kezia Alvear closed for the Bulldogs, forcing the Lions to line into a double play and a groundout to short to cap a shutout inning of relief.
Joy moved to 13-1 on the year in an exceptional four-inning, two hit, one walk, shutout showing to go with five strikeouts.
At the plate, six Bulldogs recorded a hit, paced by Clark's 3-for-3, one RBI, three stolen base day. With the three RBI, Clark tied former teammate
Annie Kay's single-season hits record (71) that was set just a season ago. Bowyer, Davila, and Swisher each brought in a pair on the day as seven Bulldogs batted in at least one run.
The Bulldogs advance in their regional to face former SCAC foe, the Trinity Tigers. First pitch between the Bulldogs and Tigers is at 11 AMÂ on Friday onÂ
ncaa.com. All streaming and live stats links will be available on tlubulldogs.com. A victory Friday would send the Bulldogs into an 11 AM contest on Saturday.
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).
