TLU Baseball Beats McMurry, 8-2

SEGUIN, Texas -- Texas Lutheran Baseball cruised to an 8-2 win over McMurry on Wednesday night at Katt-Isbel Field. The Bulldogs won their ninth straight game to begin their regular season ending homestand.

Johnny Garza Jr. (San Antonio/McCollum) was outstanding in his first career start as a Bulldog, pitching a season-high 3.2 innings and allowing just one run on two hits and a walk. Garza Jr. would strike out a season-high six of the 15 batters he faced on the night. Blake Cappadona (Mont Belvieu/Barbers Hill), who started as the game's designated hitter, would earn the win with 1.1 innings of no-hit relief out of the bullpen.

Hayden Kesselring (New Braunfels/New Braunfels) went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI to lead the Bulldogs offensively, while Asher Bonnell (Round Rock/Stony Point) went 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Tyler Post (San Antonio/Johnson) and R.J. Carrillo (Alice/Alice) would drive in two runs each with two-RBI doubles.

The Bulldogs scored the first run of the game to take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second. Kai Hendershot (San Antonio/Johnson) gave the Bulldogs an early run with an RBI groundout. McMurry would immediately respond in the top of the third to tie the game 1-1.

Texas Lutheran added seven more runs in the fourth on seven hits and two walks. Asher Bonnell would score on an RBI double from Kesselring to give TLU a 2-1 lead. Kesselring would steal third and Kai Hendershot would draw a walk before immediately stealing second to put two runners in scoring position for R.J. Carrillo who would drive both runners in with a two-RBI double. Blake Cappadona would drive in Carrillo with an RBI single as the Bulldog lead stretched to 5-1. A few at-bats later, Tyler Post would drive in two more runs with a two-RBI double as TLU continued to pour it on. Texas Lutheran would bat around in the inning as Kesselring would drive in the final run of the inning with an RBI single up the middle to score Post to give TLU an 8-1 lead.

The War Hawks were able to scratch one more run across in the eighth to bring the game to its final score of 8-2.

The Bulldogs continue their homestand with a three-day, three-game series against Southwestern. First pitch for Friday's first game is scheduled for 6 PM. All streaming and live stats links can be found on tlubulldogs.com.