AUSTIN, Texas — The No. 5 Texas Lutheran softball team (32-4, 24-2 SCAC) swept through its doubleheader with Concordia (TX) – who entered the weekend ranked 68th in the NCAA National Power Index (NPI) rankings – in Austin Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs beat the Tornados 12-1 in five innings in game one before an 11-0 shutout also in five innings in game two.
Texas Lutheran outscored Concordia (TX) 23-1 on the afternoon and collected their 18th shutout and 16th run-rule victories of the season.
In game one, all ten TLU hitters reached base with seven scoring at least once.
Cady Bowyer (Fulshear/Jordan) recorded her fourth home run of the season in Saturday’s opening contest, going 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBI. Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek) (3-for-4, RBI, 3 R. 2 SB) and Serena Gonzalez (Corpus Christi/Foy H. Moody) (2-for-4, 2B, 2 R, RBI) also turned in multi-hit efforts to lead a lineup that produced 12 hits and drew three walks.
TLU’s impressive showing at the plate backed a terrific outing from left-hander Jordyn Joy (Kerrville/Tivy). The sophomore’s scoreless inning streak ended at 19.2 innings, allowing one run over five innings of four-hit ball, improving to 9-1 on the season. She struck out one and retired 15 of the 22 batters she faced, permitting four hits, two walks, and a hit by pitch.
Taylor Vannett (Kingwood/Kingwood) opened the scoring with an RBI single in the top of the first. An RBI double from Serena Gonzalez plated Vannett before Gonzalez scored on a throwing error by the Concordia catcher for the final run of the frame.
A four-run Bulldog second inning saw Caelee Clark and Riley Davila (Angleton/Angleton) score on another Concordia error, a bases loaded walk to Ashley McMahon (Las Vegas, NV/Durango) and an RBI single from Natalie Pacheco (Lytle/Lytle).
RBI singles from Clark and Davila, another Concordia error, and a towering two-run blast from Bowyer in the fifth provided TLU with its decisive 12-1 lead.
Texas Lutheran turned around approximately 30 minutes later after a game one victory for a shutout, run-rule win in game two. It marked TLU’s sixth shutout in their last eight games.
Reigning SCAC Pitcher of the Week Katelyn Howard (Waller/Hempstead) was exceptional in her 5.0 inning complete game effort. Howard retired six of the first seven batters and recorded her 18th win of the year, allowing no runs to just four hits and no walks while striking out four.
TLU scored at least two runs in four of the five innings of the game.
Junior Cady Bowyer opened the scoring with a first inning sacrifice fly prior to two runs scoring on a Concordia error. After a quiet second inning, three more Bulldogs crossed home in the third on an RBI single from Vannett and a two-RBI single from Harleigh Russell (Fort Worth/Boswell).
A pair of singles in the fourth put three more TLU runs on the board as Vannett drove in two and McMahon drove in one.
Two more runs in the fifth closed the TLU scoring and brought the game further into run-rule territory. After an RBI double from Caelee Clark brought in Brey Jones (San Antonio/Brennan), Taylor Vannett ripped a single to left field that scored Riley Davila to make it 11-0 TLU.
The top of the Bulldogs lineup paced the Bulldogs in the box, as Caelee Clark, Riley Davila, and Taylor Vannett finished with three hits each. Davila matched a program-record with four runs scored and Vannett finished with a team-high three RBI while Russell brought in a pair. Nine Bulldogs recorded hits in the game with five registering RBIs.
With the wins, Texas Lutheran won their 84th straight SCAC conference series, dating back to joining the conference in 2014.
The Bulldogs will look ahead to the final weekend of the regular season, April 24-25, as they welcome Dallas to Ed Kruse Stadium as the Bulldogs continue to fight for their 12th straight SCAC regular season championship. The series opens with a doubleheader at 4 & 6 PM on Friday, April 24 with the games being streamed on FloCollege. Friday will act as Senior Day as the Bulldogs honor their seven-member senior class. All streaming and live stats links can be found on tlubulldogs.com.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).