-Tim Clark, TLU Sports Information
(Kerrville) – Rebecca Snow homered and then delivered a walk-off single in the seventh inning to bring a seventh consecutive Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Softball Championship to the Texas Lutheran Bulldogs.
At Schreiner University’s Mountaineer Field, Snow and the Bulldogs prevailed 2-1 over Centenary College (La.) in the first championship game of the tournament. Centenary needed to defeat TLU twice on Monday to claim the conference championship. The Ladies advanced to the championship round with three wins in the weather-shortened tournament.
TLU improved to 28-4 overall and won its 20th consecutive game of the year.
The Ladies (18-20) led 1-0 until the sixth inning when Snow, the senior designated player, belted a curveball over the right-center field fence. The home run was Snow’s fourth of the season and her eighth as a Bulldog.
Snow’s walk-off hit in the seventh came with the bases loaded and two outs. Kali Chatham, the Bulldogs’ senior shortstop, scored the conference championship-winning run. Chatham doubled earlier in the inning.
“Mostly I was just thinking get a hit because I know that is what (Coach Wade Wilson) was thinking down at third base,” said Snow on her approach at the plate prior to the home run. “I knew I had to do something to pump the team back up. With the home run, you know, it was about even the game out and give us a chance to do what we do and score a run.”
“It was a lot of nerves, but I did what Wilson wanted, so we are all good.”
TLU, the defending NCAA Division III national champion and the No. 1-ranked team in the latest NFCA poll, was shut-out by Centenary’s Ashley Hunter until the Snow home run in the sixth.
Bulldog right-hander Ashlyn Strother (10-1) kept the Bulldogs close by not allowing an earned run and striking out three in seven strong innings of work. She issued one walk and stranded seven Centenary base-runners.
“I thought Ashlyn pitched well,” said Wilson. “She gave up a run early on an error and a couple of little fist shots that she gave up, and they found a way to score a run. And we chased that the entire game.”
“I don’t think we handled our game plan early on. We were trying to hit the ball on the ground, and we had too many pop-ups. And I don’t think they missed a pop-up. We had a couple of opportunities. We had a kid thrown-out at the plate on a bang-bang play, with (Sarah) Metzer on-deck, which was probably, looking back on it as well as she hit the ball today, a crucial mistake on our part. But we were trying to tack one on, and they made a good play.”
Snow was thrown out at home plate in the bottom of the fourth inning trying to score a fly ball to center.
“Hats off to Centenary for the job their pitcher did and for the energy they had,” said Wilson. “We found a way. I am proud of our team for that. I’m not necessarily proud of the way we played, but we found a way to win and that is always important.”
TLU advances to the NCAA Division III Softball Championship regional round, but the team won’t know its destination until May 17.
“We have three weeks off now, and we won’t know where we are going now until the 17th. We could be hosting. We could be on the East Coast or the West Coast, who knows. We are going to hang tight and try to get through finals and start playing softball again.”