SEGUIN, Texas — No. 5 Texas Luthetan won its 12th consecutive Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) regular season title on Saturday with an 11-1 win over Dallas in five innings to complete the series sweep at Ed Kruse Stadium.
The program has won a conference-best 12 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) regular season championships and 21 in total including tournament crowns, all under head coach Wade Wilson.
Seniors Harleigh Russell (Fort Worth/Boswell) and Taylor Vannett (Kingwood/Kingwood) led the Bulldogs at the plate, each tallying three hits on the afternoon. Russell finished a home run shy of the cycle on Saturday, driving in one run and scoring another. Vannett had a career day at the plate, going 2-for-2 with a triple and a career-high six RBI, becoming the 12th Bulldog in program history to drive in six or more runs but falling an RBI short of Hope Estes single-game record of seven against Centenary in 2015. For the weekend, Vannett hit a scorching hot .833 with ten RBI to bring her season total to 59, trailing teammate Serena Gonzalez’s single-season record of 61 by two entering postseason play. Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek) and Riley Davila (Angleton/Angleton) continue to deliver at the top of the Bulldogs lineup with both scoring three runs. The top third of the Bulldogs lineup combined to go 7-for-8 (.875) with seven RBI and seven runs scored. With Clark’s runs scored, Clark has set a new single-season record for TLU and the SCAC for runs scored with 65 entering postseason play and tied Kelly Jurden for the career runs scored record (234).
Sophomore Kezia Alvear (Kyle/Hays) (1-0) got the win in the circle, going 2.1 innings in relief and allowing no runs, hits, or walks and registering one strikeout. The win is the first of her career. Sophomore Jordyn Stuessy (Garden Ridge/Davenport) got the start, giving up one run on one hit and three walks while adding a strikeout.
Back-to-back singles from Clark and Davila started things off for the Bulldogs in the first. Clark scored on a sacrifice fly from Vannett before Davila scored on an RBI groundout from Serena Gonzalez (Corpus Christi/Foy H. Moody) to put TLU up two early.
TLU put a combined eight runs on the board in the second and third innings.
Back-to-back one out singles from Russell and Brey Jones (San Antonio/Brennan) followed by a Dallas error loaded the bases before the Bulldogs scored five unearned runs with two outs starting with an RBI single from Davila. Vannett hit a bases clearing triple before coming around to score on an RBI single from Gonzalez to cap the inning.
Dallas got one run back in the third, scoring on a wild pitch, before TLU scored three more runs on four hits in the bottom of the inning.
A lead off double from Russell and a wild pitch put her at third to set up a pinch-hit sacrifice fly from Mia Landry (Cypress/Bridgeland). In potentially her last at-bat at Ed Kruse Stadium, Vannett drove in two more runs on an RBI single to extend the TLU lead to 10-1. The Bulldogs tacked on one final run in the fourth as an RBI triple from Russell scored fellow senior Kayla Ramirez (Kingsville/Santa Gertrudis Academy) to conclude the day’s scoring.
Russell was a perfect 3-for-3 with in the series finale, while Vannett was 2-for-2 with a run scored. Davila continued her impressive debut season with the Bulldogs going 3-for-3 with an RBI and three runs scored. Clark added a 2-for-3 effort with three runs scored.
Texas Lutheran concludes the regular season 35-4 and 27-2 in SCAC play. The Bulldogs will open postseason play at the SCAC Softball Championship Tournament at Edwards Field on the campus of McMurry University in Abilene, May 1-3.
No. 1 seed TLU will match up with the winner of the No. 4 vs. No. 5 seed game on Friday, May 1 at 4 PM. The tournament will be streamed in its entirety on FloCollege. 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).