Bulldogs Clinch Series Against St. Thomas with 4-1 Victory

SEGUIN, Texas -- After splitting the first two games of the series on Friday, No. 3 Texas Lutheran responded with a 4-1 victory on Saturday to clinch the series at Ed Kruse Stadium.

Freshman Kloee Wells (Dayton/Dayton) was instrumental in the TLU win, coming through with yet another clutch hit for the Bulldogs. In her lone at-bat, Wells hit a pinch-hit two RBI single.

After being no-hit for the first three innings, Texas Lutheran got on the scoreboard first in the fourth inning with an RBI single from Serena Gonzalez (Corpus Christi/Foy H. Moody) to bring in Linzee Leal (Corpus Christi/Mary Carroll), who got aboard via a leadoff single. Gonzalez now has 45 RBIs on the season, the most by a freshman in program history. A double from Laura Hernandez (Missouri City/Ridge Point) would put two runners in scorer's position for Kloee Wells, who would hit a pinch-hit two RBI double to give TLU a 3-0 lead.

Texas Lutheran put another one across in the fifth on an RBI single from Madison Johnson (Round Rock/Round Rock), scoring Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek) from second base.

In the top of the seventh, St. Thomas attempted to stage a comeback, leading off the inning with a solo home run, the first Strother has allowed in 2023. Ashlyn Strother (Seabrook/Clear Falls) would retire the next three batters in order to close the game and clinch the series.

Serena Gonzalez paced TLU at the plate, finishing 2-for-2 with an RBI.

In the circle, Strother went the distance to earn the win and move to 15-1 on the season, striking out two and giving up the lone seventh inning run on four hits.

With the win, Texas Lutheran claimed its 57th consecutive SCAC conference series. TLU has not lost a conference series since joining the conference in 2014, and have won 80 of its last 83 SCAC regular season games.

On the year, TLU is outscoring the opposition 258-55. The pitching staff has surrendered just 39 earned runs while striking out 196 batters to go with an opponent batting average of .188. 

The Bulldogs continue their home stand with a SCAC series vs. Dallas, April 28-29, at Ed Kruse Stadium to conclude the regular season. All streaming and stat links can be found on tlubulldogs.com.