Bulldogs Win Tenth Straight SCAC Title, Sweep St. Thomas

HOUSTON, Texas -- No. 12 Texas Lutheran secured its tenth consecutive Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) regular season title with a doubleheader sweep win over St. Thomas on Saturday. The Bulldogs won the first game 7-3 in eight innings and followed that with a 5-0 shutout in the series and regular season finale. The championship brings the program's total to ten regular season conference crowns overall, all under head coach Wade Wilson.

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Make it 10 straight regular season titles! �� �� #TooLiveU | #PupsUp pic.twitter.com/jFAs7GDQB7

— TLU Softball (@TLUsoftball) April 28, 2024

With the wins, the Bulldogs closed the regular season 28-3 and 19-2 in SCAC play.

A gritty game awaited the Bulldogs in their first game on Saturday. Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek) (5-for-5, 2 R, RBI, 4 SB) led the game off with a single and a stolen base followed by an Annie Kay (Sinton/Sinton) (1-for-3, 2 R, 2 SB) walk giving the Bulldogs two baserunners to start the game. A one-out double steal with Kay and Serena Gonzalez (Corpus Christi/Foy H. Moody) (1-for-4, 2 RBI, SB) led to Kay putting the first run of the game on the board for the Bulldogs.

The Celts would respond with two runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 2-1 lead before a bases loaded hit by pitch to Tatum Seith (Hewitt/Midway) tied the game at two in the top of the second. The Celts would chase starter Sydney Ouellette (Corpus Christi/Gregory-Portland) after an inning, allowing three runs on four hits. Katelyn Howard (Waller/Hempstead) would enter with a runner on in the second inning and limit the Celts to the lone run credited to Ouellette as the Celts regained the lead, 3-2. Howard provided 4.1 shutout innings out of the bullpen, limiting the Celts to two hits and two walks.

The Bulldogs would tie the game 3-3 on an RBI single by Serena Gonzalez in the fourth.

Ashlyn Strother (Seabrook/Clear Falls) entered in the sixth and retired all eight batters she faced. The Texas Lutheran right-hander would earn the win in relief to improve to 17-0 on the season.

Four runs would come across for Texas Lutheran in the eighth as a pinch-hit triple from Taylor Vannett (Kingwood/Kingwood) and a pinch-hit walk from Reagan Jones (Pearland/Friendswood) jump started the extra inning Bulldogs rally. Caelee Clark would record her fifth hit of the game, an RBI single, to score Vannett. Clark is just the third Bulldog in program history to record five hits in a game with the last occurence coming from Jennifer Gallagher in 2016 against Southwestern. Linzee Leal (Corpus Christi/Mary Carroll) - who re-entered for Jones after the walk - would steal home to extend the Bulldogs lead to 5-3. A Serena Gonzalez sacrifice fly and a Tavery Ortiz (Texas City/Texas City) RBI groundout would stretch the Bulldogs cushion to four runs and bring the game to its final score of 7-3.

Caelee Clark would make history in Saturday's first game, breaking the NCAA Division-III single-season stolen base record previously set by TLU's own Kelly Jurden in 2022. Clark passed Jurden's 77 stolen bases with her fourth stolen base on Saturday. Clark enters the SCAC Tournament with an NCAA-leading 78 stolen bases on the season. The next benchmark for Clark will be 80 stolen bases - the NCAA Division-I record held by East Carolina's Michelle Ward (1994). Clark's 78 stolen bases are the seventh most in NCAA history, regardless of division with Shaw University's LaTosha Stevens holding the NCAA all-level record with 96 in 1992 on the Division-II level.

The Bulldogs wrapped the regular season with a 5-0 shutout of the Celts, their 11th shutout of the season. Sophomore Ainsley Davis (Rockwall/Jesuit (OR)) led the Bulldogs to the series sweep, tossing her first career complete game shutout.

Davis starred in the circle, scattering five hits over her seven innings of work. She improves to 3-0 on the season. Davis has allowed just two runs across her last four appearances.

After a 1-2-3 inning in the first, TLU would scratch a run across in the second as Reagan Hillis (Cedar Park/Cedar Park) (2-for-4, 2 R, SB) scored on a St. Thomas throwing error.

Davis continued to carve through the Celts lineup until TLU added four insurance runs in the sixth, all coming with two outs. A two-out RBI single from Taylor Vannett doubled the Bulldogs lead before Kylee Jack (Richwood/Brazoswood) would hit her SCAC-leading fifth home run of the season, a pinch-hit three-run homer.

Texas Lutheran's five runs were more than enough for Davis. The sophomore right-hander threw 47 of her 73 pitches for strikes (64%).

At the plate Hillis, Vannett, and Linzee Leal paced the Bulldogs with two hits each.

On the season, the Bulldogs are outscoring opponents 235-56, including a 170-34 mark in SCAC play. Texas Lutheran leads the NCAA across all levels with 215 stolen bases, trailing their own NCAA Division-III record set in 2022 by 16 stolen bases.

Postseason begins with the SCAC Softball Championship Tournament which the Bulldogs will host at Ed Kruse Stadium in Seguin next weekend, May 3-5. The top-seed Bulldogs will meet the winner of the No. 4 Southwestern and No. 5 Centenary game. First pitch for the second round contest will be at 4 PM at Ed Kruse Stadium. All games will be streamed on TLU's YouTube Channel, TLU+ with Easton Allen and Sidney Cox on the call. All streaming and live stats links can be found 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).