Bulldogs Sweep Dallas on Senior Day to Clinch 9th Straight Regular Season Title

SEGUIN, Texas -- No. 5 Texas Lutheran rolled to its 58th consecutive SCAC series win and their 15th and 16th run-rules of the season on Saturday, sweeping their Saturday doubleheader with Dallas, beating the Crusaders 9-1 in six innings in game one and 10-0 in five innings in game two on Senior Day at Ed Kruse Stadium.

With the victories, TLU won its ninth consecutive Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) regular season title. The program has won a conference-best nine SCAC regular season championships and 17 in total including tournament crowns, all under head coach Wade Wilson.

�� The (Bulldog) Party Never Ends ��

Make in NINE STRAIGHT @SCAC_Sports Regular Season Championships#TooLiveU | #PupsUp pic.twitter.com/djradjyeoZ

— TLU Softball �� (@TLUsoftball) April 30, 2023

With the wins, head coach Wade Wilson picked up his 800th career win spanning his high school and college coaching career. Wilson posted a high school record of 383-71-6 in his 13 seasons as a head coach at Sinton and Brenham High Schools from 1999-2011 and is 417-83 as head coach at TLU.

Texas Lutheran finishes the regular season 35-4 and 19-2 in conference play.

Game one was highlighted by a record-breaking three-run homer from freshman Serena Gonzalez (Corpus Christi/Foy H. Moody) and a complete-game, one hit performance from senior Amanda White (Lockhart/Lockhart) in the circle.

TLU took a 1-0 lead in the first inning as Madison Johnson (Round Rock/Round Rock) grounded out to second base to drive in Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek).

Amanda White would allow her only hit of the game in the third inning, an RBI double following a lead off hit by pitch, to tie the game at one-all.

Texas Lutheran would respond in the bottom half of the inning. Following singles by Clark and Linzee Leal (Corpus Christi/Mary Carroll), Clark would be picked off prior to a walk to Madison Johnson. The next at-bat, Serena Gonzalez hit a three-run home run for her SCAC-leading tenth homer of the season. With the home run, Gonzalez takes sole possession of the TLU freshman home run record and is now two shy of matching Haley Padilla's single-season record of 12 home runs set in 2021.

With one out in the fourth inning, Caelee Clark would hit the rare inside the park home run for her first career home run to extend the TLU lead to 5-1.

With a 5-1 lead headed to the bottom of the fifth, the Bulldogs plated three runs to push the game closer to run-rule territory. Gonzalez led off the inning with a lead off double followed by walks to seniors Kirsten Williams (Pearland/Glenda Dawson) and Laura Hernandez (Missouri City/Ridge Point). Reagan Hillis (Cedar Park/Cedar Park) scored the first run of the inning with a sacrifice fly, scoring Taylor Vannett (Kingwood/Kingwood) who pinch ran for Gonzalez. A walk to a pinch-hitting Kylee Jack (Richwood/Brazoswood) would load the bases and a wild pitch would score Kirsten Williams from third to make the score 7-1. Pitcher Sydney Ouellette (Corpus Christi/Gregory-Portland) would make just her second career collegiate at-bat as a pinch hitter and would drive in Riley Futrell (Florence/Florence) with an RBI groundout for the final run of the inning.

Pitcher Amanda White, who recorded her first career at-bats on Saturday, would walk it off in the sixth with her first career hit, an RBI single down the left field line, for a final score of 9-1.

Senior Day was a PO Party @08Amandawhite

A-Dub got her first career hit in walk off fashion ��#TooLiveU | #PupsUp pic.twitter.com/3yCkBEUPgO

— TLU Softball �� (@TLUsoftball) April 30, 2023

White (12-3) would earn the win in an impressive five inning, nine strikeout performance, allowing one run on one hit and two walks.

At the plate, Clark, Gonzalez, and Reagan Hillis all had multi-hit games with Gonzalez bringing in a team-high three runs.

In game two, the regular season finale, TLU opened up a 3-0 lead in the first before pouring on six runs in the second and adding a single run in the third for a 10-0 final.

TLU scored three runs on two hits to open the regular season finale. Caelee Clark led off the inning with a walk and a stolen base before being driven in by Serena Gonzalez. With four stolen bases on the day, Clark moved into second all-time in program history with 61 stolen bases in a single-season, only trailing Kelly Jurden's NCAA record mark of 77 stolen bases set last season. Madison Johnson and Bailey Hudgeons (Dripping Springs/Dripping Springs) would move Gonzalez over with a sacrifice bunt and a fly out to right field to set the stage for starting pitcher Sydney Ouellette, who would hit for herself in the five-hole in the lineup. Ouellette would obtain her first career hit, a two-out, two-run home run to deep left center to give TLU a 3-0 lead.

GOOSEBUMPS.

First career hit �� First Career #SydneySlam from PITCHER @OuelletteSydney on her Senior Day �� #TooLiveU | #PupsUp pic.twitter.com/ifj12QbQl2

— TLU Softball �� (@TLUsoftball) April 30, 2023

Texas Lutheran sent nine batters to the plate in the second inning, resulting in six runs on four hits and two errors. After a leadoff double from Laura Hernandez and a sacrifice bunt from Reagan Hillis, Kirsten Williams drove in pinch runner Kylee Jack with an RBI single. Williams would come around to score on an error by the Dallas shortstop. After loading the bases, senior Bailey Hudgeons would clear the bases with a three-RBI double to bring the score to 8-0 and put the game in run-rule territory. Annie Kay (Sinton/Sinton) would pinch run for Hudgeons and would steal third base and score on an error by the Dallas left fielder.

An RBI single by Serena Gonzalez closed the scoring in the third, crossing TLU's 10th run of the game. With the RBI, Gonzalez moved within three RBI of Taylor Yancey's single-season record of 54 RBI in 2016.

Ouellette allowed just two hits and collected her third shutout and TLU's NCAA Division-III leading 20th of 2023, striking out five and walking one in the complete-game effort to stay undefeated at 7-0.

Seven Bulldogs had a hit in game two, led by multi-hit performances from Clark, Gonzalez, and Williams.

Following Saturday's games, TLU honored its four seniors: Hudgeons, Hernandez, Ouellette, and Williams, as well as alumni Sidney Cox and Lexi Coward, in a postgame ceremony celebrating their contributions to the program that have seen the seniors be NCAA national runner-ups in 2021, NCAA Tournament third place finishers in 2022.

The Bulldogs clinched the No. 1 seed for the 2023 SCAC Softball Championship next weekend, May 5-7, in San Antonio at Trinity Softball Field on the campus of Trinity University. The Bulldogs will get the winner of the No. 4 vs. No. 5 seed game. Game time are still to be announced.

The SCAC Tournament will be shown on Trinity's Tiger Network on YouTube. All streaming and stat links can be found on tlubulldogs.com.