No. 12 Bulldogs Advance to SCAC Championship Game

SEGUIN, Texas — The No. 12 ranked and conference No. 1 seed Texas Lutheran softball team advanced to Sunday's SCAC Championship Game with a 4-0 win over two-seed Trinity in Saturday's semifinals. 

The win was highlighted by a complete-game shutout performance from senior Ashlyn Strother (Seabrook/Clear Falls), a number of big defensive plays, and a 2-for-4, three stolen base game from Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek).

"DaDaDa, DaDaDa" ������

Someone get @SportsCenter on the phone! @hhharlsss with the play of the year with an absolutely INSANE catch down the line! @ESPNAssignDesk #SCTop10 #TooLiveU | #PupsUp pic.twitter.com/M8MlGCOoRS

— TLU Softball (@TLUsoftball) May 4, 2024

The Bulldogs (30-3) took no time in getting the bats going, scoring in the first inning on two hits. A lead-off single from Clark set the table for the Bulldogs to load the bases for Reagan Hillis (Cedar Park/Cedar Park) who would get the Bulldogs on the board with a two-out, RBI bunt single. TLU improves to 17-2 this season when they score in the first inning.

Texas Lutheran tacked on two more runs in the third via bases loaded walks to Madison Johnson (Round Rock/Round Rock) and Taylor Vannett (Kingwood/Kingwood).

Through three innings, Strother retired eight of 10 batters faced with an a single and a fielder's choice after being the Tigers (30-11) only base runners. The Bulldogs scored their final run in the sixth as Caelee Clark came across on a passed ball.

The freshly-minted four-time SCAC Pitcher of the Year and All-SCAC First Team selection finished with a complete-game shutout, her eighth of the season and ninth shutout overall, and a strikeout to one walk and three hits. The shutout was TLU's 12th of the year.

Clark paced TLU at the plate with her 2-for-4 showing while five other Bulldogs collected a hit in the game. With three stolen bases, Clark tied the SCAC Tournament record for stolen bases in a game and brought her NCAA Division-III record setting total to 83. The 83 stolen bases surpasses East Carolina's Michelle Ward (80, 1994), Florida Southern's Traci Wood (81, 1996), and UC-Riverside's Deanna Dresmann (82, 1990) on the NCAA all-time single season stolen bases list across all three divisions to move into fourth all-time. The next benchmark for Clark is 85 stolen bases which would tie her for third all-time with North Carolina Central's Cheryl Bogues (1992) as she continues her pursuit for the NCAA record of 96 stolen bases. As a team, Texas Lutheran has now stolen 224 bases in 2024, seven stolen bases shy of the record the Bulldogs set just two seasons ago in 2022 - a season that saw Kelly Jurden set the previous record of 77 stolen bases that season.

The Bulldogs meet the Trinity Tigers in a rematch, who staved off elimination Saturday night by defeating the Southwestern Pirates. The championship game is slated for 1 PM Sunday on TLU+ with Sidney Cox and Easton Allen on the call. All streaming and live stats links available on tlubulldogs.com.

Texas Lutheran is going for its ninth SCAC Championship in ten seasons in the conference. The title would be TLU's 19th SCAC title in program history.

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).