Strother Tosses Shutout, Bulldogs Run-Rule Trinity for 16th Straight Win

SEGUIN, Texas -- Senior right-handed pitcher Ashlyn Strother (Seabrook/Clear Falls) tossed a one-hit, complete game shutout as No. 11 ranked Texas Lutheran Softball run-ruled Trinity in six innings on Friday evening at Ed Kruse Stadium to extend their win streak to 16 games.

The Bulldogs (24-2, 15-1 SCAC) recorded their ninth shutout and 11th run-rule win with the shutout of Trinity (25-10, 13-3 SCAC). TLU remains two games ahead of the Tigers and 2.5 games ahead of St. Thomas in the conference standings entering Saturday.

Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek) led the Bulldogs with two hits, going 2-for-2 with an RBI, two runs scored, two walks, and four stolen bases. Clark increased her season stolen base total to 70, becoming just the second Bulldog and fifth player in Division-III history to steal 70 bases in a season. Clark now trails former Bulldog Kelly Jurden by seven stolen bases of the single-season Division-III stolen base record. Tavery Ortiz (Texas City/Texas City) led the Bulldogs with two RBIs via two sacrifice flies.

Ashlyn Strother struck out four across six scoreless innings of work, improving to 15-0 on the year. She limited the Tigers to one walk and one hit, a single. The senior's third strikeout marked her 120th of the season, giving her three straight campaigns with at least 120 punchouts.

Ortiz opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the third before Mia Landry (Cypress/Bridgeland) added the Bulldogs second run of the inning with an RBI single. Texas Lutheran added one more run in the fourth courtesy of an RBI single from Clark.

The Bulldogs pushed their lead to 8-0 in the sixth, scoring five runs on no hits to secure the run-rule victory. Jayna Reid (Dripping Springs/Dripping Springs) led off the inning with a hit by pitch that would be followed by two walks to load the bases. Reagan Jones (Pearland/Friendswood) walked in a run to get the scoring started before Ortiz would follow with her second sac fly of the game to extend their lead to 5-0. Annie Kay (Sinton/Sinton) would score on a Trinity error as the Bulldogs continued to pour it on the Tigers. The Bulldogs would reload the bases for Madison Johnson (Round Rock/Round Rock) who would drive in a run with an RBI fielder's choice before Jayna Reid would drive in the game-winning run with an RBI hit by pitch.

TLU out-hit Trinity 8-1 on the night and coaxed six walks and three hit by pitch off the Tigers staff while stealing nine bases on the base paths led by Clark's four.

TLU continues its series with the Tigers on Sunday, April 21 at Ed Kruse Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 2 & 4 PM. All games will be streamed on TLU's YouTube Channel, TLU+. 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).