No. 15 TLU Uses Long Ball, Jack's Career Day to Take Two at UT-Dallas

RICHARDSON, Texas -- No. 15 Texas Lutheran collected its sixth straight win to open the 2024 season after sweeping their Saturday doubleheader at UT-Dallas. The Bulldogs would rely heavily on the long ball Saturday, hitting three home runs in their 4-2 win in game one and two in their 9-3 win in game two over the Comets. The 6-0 start is the best start since 2020's COVID shortened season for TLU that also saw the Bulldogs win their first six games.

After falling behind by two runs early, TLU rallied with a combined four runs on seven hits in the final four innings.

Sophomore Serena Gonzalez (Corpus Christi/Foy H. Moody) and redshirt junior Abby Touchet (Shreveport, LA/C.E. Byrd) opened the fourth inning with back-to-back home runs to tie the game at two. Madison Johnson (Round Rock/Round Rock) continued her impressive start to the season with her eighth hit of the year and fifth of the weekend, her first career home run, in the sixth inning to give the Bulldogs the lead before Kylee Jack (Richwood/Brazoswood) would add an insurance run courtesy of an RBI single in the seventh.

With her home run, Gonzalez increased her career home run total to 11, tying Cassie Roche for sixth all-time in TLU Softball history. Madison Johnson would finish 3-for-3 in game one with a double and the home run, finishing a triple short of the cycle.

Senior Ashlyn Strother (Seabrook/Clear Falls) picked up her fourth win of the season, tossing a complete game allowing two runs on five hits and a walk. Strother struck out eight batters on Saturday as she inches closer to becoming TLU softball's all-time strikeouts leader. After a 17 strikeout weekend this weekend, Strother only trails current record holder Cathy McBride (502, 1994-97) by 12 strikeouts for the all-time record.

A two-homer, six-RBI performance from Kylee Jack and a terrific relief outing from Sydney Ouellette (Corpus Christi/Gregory-Portland) led the Bulldogs to a 9-3 win over the Comets in game two.

Ouellette starred in the circle while earning her first win of the 2024 season. The right-hander tossed 4.2 scoreless innings and struck out one batter. The victory marked the 39th of her career.

Jack homered twice and went 3-for-3 with two runs scored and six runs driven in what made for a historic day for the junior utility player. She hit a two-run blast in the first inning and added a three-run shot in the sixth inning. The two home run performance is the 15th in program history with Serena Gonzalez being responsible for the last occurrence in 2023 while the six RBI performance is the 10th in program history in which one player was responsible for at least six RBI with the last occurrence happening in 2021 with Jack's former TLU teammate Bailey Hudgeons driving in six against Austin College in 2021. Jack also set a program record for total bases in a game with ten.

The Bulldogs lineup jumped on the UT-Dallas (1-3) starting pitcher early as Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek) hit a leadoff single to start the game and stole second before scoring on a throwing error from the UTD catcher. Jack's two-run homer would give the Bulldogs an early 3-0 lead.

UTD responded with a two-run homer of their own to shrink the lead to 3-2.

An RBI double from Jack in the third would score Jayna Reid (Dripping Springs/Dripping Springs), who made her first start as a Bulldog at first, to double the Bulldog lead to 4-2.

UTD would add another run on three hits in the third to make it a one-run ball game chasing TLU starter Ainsley Davis (Rockwall/Jesuit (OR)). Annie Kay (Sinton/Sinton) would get the run right back in the top of the fourth with an RBI bunt single.

After entering in the third and allowing two hits, Ouellette would only allow two hits over the final four innings.

Caelee Clark put TLU ahead 6-3 with an RBI groundout before Kylee Jack would plate three more in the four run sixth inning, capping off the Bulldogs evening with a three-run home run.

For the weekend, Jack hit .750 with three home runs and 10 RBIs.

TLU looks ahead to the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Columbus, GA, beginning Friday, Mar. 1. The Bulldogs will face Belhaven, Babson, Illinois Wesleyan, Chapman, Case Western Reserve, and DePauw over the course of the three-day event. Texas Lutheran has faced all six teams at least once in the last three seasons. 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).