Bulldogs Drop DIII WCWS Opener

SALEM, VA -- In the opening game of the Division-III Women's College World Series on Thursday, eleven hits and a quality pitching from the Berry pitching staff carried the Vikings (35-11) to a 5-1 upset over Texas Lutheran at Moyer Sports Complex in Salem, Virginia.

Making their third straight DIII WCWS appearance, the Bulldogs (43-5) will now face Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in an elimination game at 11 AM EST/10 AM CST on Friday. TLU has lost just five times this season as Thursday's loss snaps the Bulldogs 26-game winning streak.

Berry jumped out early, scoring three runs on five hits and a Bulldogs error.

The Vikings managed to limit the Bulldogs offensively with a third inning RBI double from Casey Martin (Pearland/Pearland) that scored Kelly Jurden (Brenham/Brenham) being the only Bulldogs run. Jurden would add three stolen bases to push her season total to 72. Jurden is one stolen base away from tying the Division-III single-season stolen base record set by Jessica Goldyn of Virginia Wesleyan in 2021 (73).

Berry would tack on two more runs in the top of the sixth to bring the game to its final score of 5-1.

TLU right-hander Sydney Ouellette (Corpus Christi/Gregory-Portland) (12-4) suffered her fourth loss of the season. She surrendered four runs on nine hits while striking out five batters in five innings. Amanda White (Lockhart/Lockhart) tossed the final two innings allowing one run on two hits.

Tomorrow's game can be seen on ncaa.com with Lincoln Rose and Sydney Gerbracht on the call and heard on KWED 1580 AM Radio with play-by-play announcer Mike McBride calling the action for fans in the Guadalupe County area. 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), 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, @tlubulldogs on Instagram and Facebook, and @tlu_athletics on TikTok).