Baseball Sweeps Doubleheader to Win Castleton Series

SEGUIN, Texas -- Texas Lutheran baseball swept a doubleheader against Vermont State Castleton with a 12-4 win in seven innings and a 17-13 win on Saturday at Katt-Isbel Field to win the series after dropping Friday night's game to the Spartans.

The Bulldogs (7-6) tagged Spartan pitching for 14 hits in game one, including a double, a program record three triples, and two homers. Aric Vasquez (San Antonio/Brandeis) went 3-for-4 with a double and two RBIs and two runs scored, while Mason Goudeau (Liberty/Liberty) went 2-for-3 with a triple, a home run, three RBIs, and three runs scored.

Brendan Beard (Coldspring/Coldspring-Oakhurst) pitched a complete game and allowed four runs (three earned) on nine hits. He struck out eight batters and picked up his third win of the season.

Already leading 5-2, the Bulldogs put together a seven run bottom of the sixth inning to blow the game open. The hit parade started with a triple from Goudeau before Vasquez drove in the first run of the inning with an RBI single. After a walk to Asher Bonnell (Round Rock/Stony Point), Xavier Arias (La Vernia/Nixon-Smiley) launched a three-run homer to make the score 9-2. Castleton went to the bullpen and the Bulldogs kept hitting. After a triple from Adam Peavy (Houston/Memorial), Chase Bourgeois (League City/Clear Falls) hit an RBI single, R.J. Carrillo (Alice/Alice) hit an RBI single, and Cole Cravens (Round Rock/Round Rock) capped off the scoring by scoring on a wild pitch.

Texas Lutheran scored the first runs of the game in the second courtesy of a three-run homer from Mason Goudeau. An RBI double from Vasquez and an RBI triple from Tyler Post (San Antonio/Johnson) in the fourth put five runs on the board for the Bulldogs before the explosive sixth inning.

In game two, Texas Lutheran blasted three home runs and had 12 total hits. Adam Peavy finished 3-for-4 with a home run, four RBIs, and four runs scored, while Aric Vasquez was 2-for-4 with a home run, two RBis and two runs scored and Hayden Kesselring (New Braunfels/New Braunfels) 1-for-2 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored.

JT Taylor (Conroe/Fort Bend Christian) started and pitched five innings with five strikeouts and two runs allowed. Taylor picked up his third win of the season and is now 3-1 on the season.

Vermont State Castleton took a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first.

In the bottom of the second, the Bulldogs responded with solo home runs from Peavy and Garrett Helpenstill (Pearland/Lutheran South) in the first two of 12 unanswered runs over the four innings to take a 12-2 lead.

Texas Lutheran took advantage of four Spartans errors to cross five runs in the third inning with the only RBIs coming on a bases loaded walk to Peavy and a sacrifice fly by Chase Bourgeois.

A pair of two RBI singles from Peavy and Goudeau in the fourth stretched the Bulldogs lead to 11-2. An RBI single from Tyler Post gave the Bulldogs a commanding 12-2 lead after five innings.

After shrinking the Bulldogs lead to 12-3 in the sixth, the Spartans exploded for an eight run seventh inning to cut the TLU lead to 12-11.

Texas Lutheran responded with five runs in the eighth inning to retake control of Saturday evening's contest. After loading the bases to start the inning, Adam Peavy scored following a Castleton throwing error after attempting to turn a double play. A two-out, two-RBI double from Hayden Kesselring sparked a two-out rally from the Bulldogs before Aric Vasquez would hit a two-run home run that would serve as the dagger Saturday evening.

Texas Lutheran will return to Katt-Isbel Field on Sunday, March 3, as they continue their 13-game home stand by hosting DeSales University in non-conference action. First pitch is scheduled for 1 PM. All games this weekend will be streamed on TLU's YouTube Channel, TLU+. 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).