Texas Lutheran Upsets No. 9 Trinity to Open SCAC Tournament

CLEBURNE, Texas -- Texas Lutheran Baseball opened the 2024 SCAC Championship Tournament with a 6-3 win over rival, No. 9 Trinity on Friday at La Moderna Field. The Bulldogs (24-15) advance to face No. 2 seed Centenary on Saturday at noon.

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The Bulldogs got another great complete game performance from senior Brendan Beard (Coldspring/Coldspring-Oakhurst), allowing three runs - all courtesy of home runs - on seven hits and six walks as he picked up his seventh win of the season. The win is his third career win in SCAC tournament play, which is tied with five other players for the second-most in tournament history. His eight strikeouts give him 30 career strikeouts in tournament play, the fourth-most in SCAC history.

A four-run second inning opened the scoring for the Bulldogs. A bases loaded error from the Trinity catcher led to the Bulldogs scoring their first run of the game and of the tournament before a two-RBI single from Aric Vasquez (San Antonio/Brandeis) made the score 3-0. Chance Greene (Round Rock/Stony Point) scored on a passed ball for the Bulldogs final run of the inning.

TLU would nurse the four run lead until back-to-back home runs from the Tigers cut the lead to 4-3 in the fifth inning.

Tyler Post (San Antonio/Johnson) and Chase Bourgeois (League City/Clear Falls) provided two insurance runs in the top of the ninth with a pair of RBI singles to bring the game to its final score.

Beard slammed the door in the ninth and ended the ballgame with a strikeout.

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