TLU Baseball Falls to Centenary in SCAC Championship Game

TLU Sports Information & Sports Marketing

Bryce Hayes

For Immediate Release

CLEBURNE, Texas — Texas Lutheran Baseball was unable to overcome big third and sixth innings in a 9-5 loss to Centenary in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Championship game on Monday at La Moderna Field.

Chase Bourgeois (League City/Clear Falls) gave Texas Lutheran (25-17) a 1-0 lead in the second inning with a one-out RBI single.

Centenary jumped in front with a three-run third inning, producing the runs on four hits.

Aric Vasquez (San Antonio/Brandeis), who would hit .368 in his final career SCAC tournament, would shrink the Gents lead to 3-2 with an RBI single in the fourth before the Gents would get the run right back in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI double.

Brendan Beard (Coldspring/Coldspring-Oakhurst) gave the Bulldogs three innings of relief, allowing five runs (three earned) on six hits. For the tournament, Beard pitched 12 innings and struck out ten batters. Diego Vinton (Richmond/George Ranch) got the start on the mound and took the losing decision, pitching five innings and allowing four runs on six hits.

Centenary would score five runs across the sixth and seventh innings to stretch their lead to 9-2.

The Bulldogs wouldn’t go down without a fight, scratching across a run in the eighth via an RBI groundout from Bourgeois and a two-run home run from Xavier Arias (La Vernia/Nixon-Smiley) in the ninth.

Tyler Post (San Antonio/Johnson), Aric Vasquez, Carson Draehn (Brenham/Brenham), Hayden Kesselring (New Braunfels/New Braunfels), Adam Peavy (Houston/Memorial), and JT Taylor (Conroe/Fort Bend Christian) were all named to the SCAC All-Tournament Team.

The Bulldogs  – a team picked to finish third in the SCAC preseason poll – conclude the 2024 season with a 25-17 record, going 12-9 in the SCAC to claim fourth place in the conference in the regular season. Texas Lutheran will graduate ten seniors – Dylan Swanson (Katy/Katy), Johnny Garza Jr. (San Antonio/McCollum), Aric Vasquez, Carson Draehn, Asher Bonnell (Round Rock/Stony Point), JT Taylor, Coker Novosad-Wagner (San Antonio/St. Mary’s Hall), Hayden Kesselring, Brendan Beard, and Tyler Post. We thank them for all of their contributions to the Texas Lutheran baseball program – leaving the program as 2021 SCAC Tournament Champions and 2023 SCAC Regular Season Champions.

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 X (Twitter), @tlubulldogs on Facebook, and @tlu_athletics on Instagram and TikTok).