TLU Baseball Falls to Trinity in SCAC Championship Game

CLEBURNE, Texas -- After staving off elimination with a 12-6 win over Centenary Sunday afternoon, Texas Lutheran Baseball was unable to overcome five multi-run innings in a 13-6 loss to the Trinity Tigers in the 2023 SCAC Championship game on Sunday at The Depot at Cleburne Station in Cleburne, Texas.

Texas Lutheran awaits their potential postseason plans to be announced during the NCAA Division-III Baseball Selection Show on May 16 as the Bulldogs seek an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

In the first game of Sunday's de facto doubleheader, Texas Lutheran started the day against the Centenary Gents with a 4-0 lead, scoring two runs on a throwing error by the Centenary third baseman, another run on a Gents wild pitch and an RBI double by Aric Vasquez (San Antonio/Brandeis) prior to Saturday night's lightning delay that pushed the remainder of the game to Sunday morning.

The Bulldogs picked up where they left off with Tyler Post (San Antonio/Johnson) stepping to the plate with the bases loaded to lead off the restart of the game and grounding out to second base to drive in another run. Niko Garcia (Houston/Langham Creek) would conclude the seven-run second inning with a two RBI single to give TLU a 7-0 lead. Centenary would score two runs in the bottom of the inning to shrink the Bulldog lead to 7-2.

Centenary would tack on two more runs to cut the TLU lead to 7-4 in the third. Aric Vasquez would lead off the fourth with a single before Tyler Post would hit a one out, two-run home run to extend the Bulldogs lead to 9-4.

Tyler Post went 2-for-5 with two home runs and five RBI in Sunday's opening game. Post now leads NCAA Division-III with 75 RBI on the season and ranks sixth in home runs with 16 on the season.

Brendan Beard (Coldspring/Coldspring-Oakhurst) pitched 6.1 innings in relief and allowed two runs on six hits, while striking out nine batters. He picked up his fourth win of the season, a new career-high. Diego Vinton (Richmond/George Ranch) got the start on Saturday, throwing 2.2 innings, allowing four runs on seven hits.

The Gents added another run in the bottom of the seventh as they trailed 9-5 entering the eighth inning. In the eighth, the Bulldogs blew the game open using an RBI double from Holden Philippus (San Antonio/San Antonio Christian) and a two-run homer from Post to take a 12-5 lead. Centenary would rally to score a run in the bottom of the ninth via an RBI double before Beard would shut the door.

In the championship game, Aric Vasquez scoring on a two-out Trinity error and an RBI single from Alec Sanchez (Waxahachie/Waxahachie) gave TLU a 2-0 lead in the top of the first.

After Trinity would respond with two runs in the bottom of the inning, TLU would scratch across a run in the third courtesy of a RBI bunt single from Aric Vasquez, scoring Asher Bonnell (Round Rock/Stony Point). Trinity would score two runs on three hits in the bottom of the second to take a 4-3 lead. A sacrifice fly from Randy Huerta (New Braunfels/New Braunfels) would tie the game 4-4 in the third inning.

Blake Cappadona (Mont Belvieu/Barbers Hill) got the start on the mound and gave Texas Lutheran three innings, allowing four runs on six hits and striking out three batters.

Trinity jumped out in front in the fourth, scoring three runs on four hits and broke the game open with a four-run sixth inning. The Tigers would add two runs in the seventh on a two-run home run to take a 13-4 lead.

Keene Kreusler (New Braunfels/New Braunfels) pitched two innings in relief allowing two runs on two hits while striking out five.

Senior Holden Philippus would hit a two-run homer in the top of the ninth to bring the game to its final score of 13-6.

Brendan Beard, Holden Philippus, Tyler Post, and Aric Vasquez were all named to the SCAC Championship All-Tournament Team.

For more information on Texas Lutheran baseball and all TLU athletics, you can find updates on tlubulldogs.com and all official TLU social media channels (@tluathletics and @TLU_Baseball on Twitter, @tlubulldogs on Instagram and Facebook, and @tlu_athletics on TikTok).