No. 9 Softball Sweeps Saturday Doubleheader at Austin College

SHERMAN, Texas -- The Bulldog offense scored in 11 of 12 innings played in No. 9 Texas Lutheran Softball's (21-1, 13-1 SCAC) doubleheader sweep at Austin College (2-23, 2-13 SCAC) on Saturday.

The Bulldogs won game one 9-4 before Amanda White (Lockhart/Lockhart) tossed a complete game shutout to complete the sweep in an 8-0 five inning run-rule victory.

In game one, junior Ainsley Davis (Rockwall/Jesuit (OR)) collected her third win of the season in the circle, allowing four runs on seven hits and two walks over 4.2 innings of work. Davis matched her season-high with three strikeouts on Saturday. Katelyn Howard (Waller/Hempstead) closed the game with 2.1 shutout innings in relief.

Texas Lutheran struck first in the top of the first, scoring two runs off an RBI groundout from Harleigh Russell (Fort Worth/Boswell) and an RBI single from Taylor Vannett (Kingwood/Kingwood). The Bulldogs doubled their lead in the second inning with an RBI double from Linzee Leal (Corpus Christi/Mary Carroll) followed by Leal scoring on a throwing error from Austin College. The 'Roos responded with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning.

Riley Futrell (Florence/Florence) scored on an Austin College error in the third to push the TLU lead to 5-1.

TLU plated two runs in the fourth courtesy of an RBI singles from Serena Gonzalez (Corpus Christi/Foy H. Moody) and Tavery Ortiz (Texas City/Texas City). An RBI single from Annie Kay (Sinton/Sinton) in the fifth extended the TLU lead to 8-1.

Austin College attempted a rally and avoided a potential run-rule by scoring three runs in the fifth before Howard came in to close the frame.

Faith Hernandez (Dinuba, CA/Dinuba) tacked on another TLU run in the sixth on an RBI single to plate Bella Rodriguez (Pearland/Pearland).

Annie Kay finished 1-for-2 with two walks, an RBI, a run scored and stole four bases for the second time in her career. Serena Gonzalez went 2-for-3 with an RBI while Tavery Ortiz and Faith Hernandez both finished 2-for-4 with an RBI.

With the win, Texas Lutheran won its 70th consecutive conference series victory dating back to joining the conference in 2014.

Texas Lutheran completed the sweep with its seventh run-rule victory of the season.

Amanda White was exceptional in the circle, finishing with a line of no runs, two hits, one walk, and five strikeouts to move to 10-0 on the season.

The Bulldog offense put up eight runs on eight hits, scoring in every inning but the third. The scoring started with a sacrifice fly from Taylor Vannett in the first. In the second inning, Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek) and Annie Kay drove in runs via bases loaded hit by pitches before Harleigh Russell truly broke the game open with a two-RBI double.

An RBI single from Taylor Vannett plated Russell in the top of the fourth. Hanna Homra (Troy, TN/Obion County) scored following a Linzee Leal single before a single from Caelee Clark to score Leal closed the scoring for the Bulldogs.

Harleigh Russell led TLU at the plate with a 2-for-2, two RBI performance with a run scored while seven Bulldogs registered a hit and four brought in a run. Vannett also brought in a pair while going 1-for-2 at the plate.

Texas Lutheran returns to the road next week with a Tuesday contest at Trinity on March 25 at 7 PM before a three-game conference series at University of the Ozarks, March 28-29. The Trinity game is a makeup game to conclude the series from earlier this season that was altered by weather in the San Antonio 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), 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).