#15 TLU Opens Weekend With Sweep of LeTourneau

LONGVIEW, Texas -- The No. 15 Texas Lutheran softball team moved to 4-0 with 11-8 and 8-0 wins over LeTourneau on Friday at LETU Softball Field.

After a two week break, Texas Lutheran jumped out early with seven runs on five hits in the first inning to take a 7-0 lead. Reagan Hillis (Cedar Park/Cedar Park) and Madison Johnson (Round Rock/Round Rock) would have RBI singles while the remaining runs would score on three first inning errors from the YellowJackets. The YellowJackets would score a run in the bottom of the inning and the Bulldogs would respond with another run in the top of the third courtesy of an RBI groundout from Bella Rodriguez (Pearland/Pearland) following a triple from Johnson.

LeTourneau wouldn't give up, scoring four runs on five hits in the third to close within 8-5. A fourth inning Kylee Jack (Richwood/Brazoswood) RBI single extended the Bulldogs lead to 9-5. The YellowJackets added two runs in the fourth and another in the sixth courtesy of home runs to come within one run.

The one run in the sixth inning would be the lone hit and run freshman Kourtney Bellinger (Houston/Grand Oaks) would allow in four innings in relief as she would pick up her first collegiate win in her first appearance in the circle as a Bulldog. Harleigh Russell (Fort Worth/Boswell) would score on another LeTourneau error and a sac fly from Madison Johnson would add two more insurance runs in the seventh before the freshman went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the seventh to seal the win. Bellinger would strike out three batters and walk one over the course of her four innings of work

The TLU lineup supported a terrific start by senior Ashlyn Strother (Seabrook/Clear Falls) Friday night, downing the YellowJackets 8-0 in five innings in game two. Strother struck out nine batters in her first complete game shutout of the 2024 season, tossing 5.0 scoreless innings of one-hit ball. Forty-six of her 61 pitches on Friday were strikes to punctuate her dominant effort, stifling a LeTourneau lineup that scored eight runs in the first game.

Texas Lutheran opened the scoring in the second inning as Abby Touchet (Shreveport/C.E. Byrd) drove in Hillis with an RBI single and Harleigh Russell stole home following a single from Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek). Kylee Jack would lead off the third with a solo home run before Touchet would blast a two-out two-run home run of her own later in the inning to push the lead to 5-0.

Jack continued her stellar day with an RBI single in the fourth. TLU plated its final two runs in the top half of the fifth as an RBI double from Harleigh Russell turned into a league home run following an error from the LeTourneau left fielder, scoring both Reagan Hillis and herself.

Kylee Jack went 3-for-3 at the plate with 2 RBI while Reagan Hillis, Abby Touchet, Harleigh Russell, and Linzee Leal (Corpus Christi/Mary Carroll) enjoyed 2-for-3 evenings. Touchet would drive in three runs while Hillis and Russell each scored twice.

TLU closes its weekend with a Saturday (Feb. 24) doubleheader at UT-Dallas. First pitch is scheduled for 12 and 2 PM. All streaming and live stats links will be available on tlubulldogs.com.

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).