No. 3 TLU Tops St. Thomas, 3-2

HOUSTON, Texas -- No. 3 Texas Lutheran (27-4, 13-0 SCAC) opened its three-game weekend series against University of St. Thomas with a 3-2 win over the Celts Friday night.

The win moves the Bulldogs win streak to 10 games.

It was a grind-it-out win for the Bulldogs, plating just three runs on the game in the battle between the top two teams in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.

Texas Lutheran struck first with Chassety Raines (Spring/Klein Collins) scoring on a throwing error from the St. Thomas catcher after stealing third in the top of the third inning.

St. Thomas answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game one-all.

The Bulldogs responded in the top of the sixth. After an infield single by Raines and a walk by Kelly Jurden (Brenham/Brenham), Madison Johnson (Round Rock/Round Rock) would move Jurden via a sacrifice bunt to get both runners into scoring position. The next at-bat Casey Martin would hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Raines from third before Kelly Jurden stole home taking advantage of an inattentive Celts defense.

The Celts would score another run in the bottom of the sixth but would never take the lead from the Bulldogs.

Sophomore Ashlyn Strother (Seabrook/Clear Falls) collected her 15th win of the season in the circle, tossing her tenth complete game of the season and striking out seven batters, giving up two runs (one unearned) on four hits.

TLU was led at the plate by a 2-for-2 showing from Raines - stealing three bases and scoring two of the Bulldogs three runs on the night. Martin went 1-for-2 with an RBI. Three Bulldogs recorded a hit in the contest.

The Bulldogs close their weekend with a Saturday doubleheader against the Celts at Husky Field on the campus of Houston Baptist University. First pitch is scheduled for 12 PM and 2 PM. All streaming and live stats links can be found on tlubulldogs.com.

For more information on Texas Lutheran softball, follow the Bulldogs on Twitter and Instagram (@TLUsoftball) 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, @tlubulldogs on Instagram and Facebook, and @tlu_athletics on TikTok).