-Bryce Hayes, TLU Sports Information
(Houston) – The No. 3 ranked Texas Lutheran softball team owns a 12-game winning streak after sweeping a three-game Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference series at St. Thomas this past weekend. The Bulldogs edged the Celts 3-2 on Friday and took Saturday’s doubleheader by 7-0 and 15-7 finals.
Friday’s series opener was a grind-it-out win for the Bulldogs, plating just three runs on the game in the battle between the top two teams in the SCAC.
Texas Lutheran struck first with Chassety Raines scoring on a throwing error from the St. Thomas catcher after stealing third in the top of the third inning.
St. Thomas answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game one-all.
The Bulldogs responded in the top of the sixth. After an infield single by Raines and a walk by Kelly Jurden, Madison Johnson would move Jurden via a sacrifice bunt to get both runners into scoring position. The next at-bat Casey Martin would hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Raines from third before Kelly Jurden stole home taking advantage of an inattentive Celts defense.
The Celts would score another run in the bottom of the sixth but would never take the lead from the Bulldogs.
Sophomore Ashlyn Strother collected her 15th win of the season in the circle, tossing her tenth complete game of the season and striking out seven batters, giving up two runs (one unearned) on four hits.
TLU was led at the plate by a 2-for-2 showing from Raines – stealing three bases and scoring two of the Bulldogs three runs on the night. Martin went 1-for-2 with an RBI. Three Bulldogs recorded a hit in the contest.
Sydney Ouellette threw seven shutout innings – blanking the Celts in game one of Saturday’s doubleheader. The shutout brings Texas Lutheran’s season total to an NCAA Division-III leading 15 on the season. Ouellette only allowed two hits and one walk while striking out one St. Thomas batter to pick up her seventh win of the season.
The Bulldogs would strike first by scoring two runs in the top of the first courtesy of Kelly Jurden scoring on a passed ball by the St. Thomas catcher and an RBI single from Faith Hernandez.
An RBI single from Laura Hernandez, a sacrifice fly from Sarah Metzer, and an RBI single from Brandalyn Dee in the fourth inning would extend the Bulldogs lead to 5-0.
Dee would double to right center field to score Riley Futrell and Lexi Coward in the sixth to bring the game to its final score of 7-0.
A nine-run first inning helped lead the Bulldogs to a 15-7 win in game two. Texas Lutheran scored 15 runs, their second highest run total of the season, on 15 hits.
Kelly Jurden led off the game with a leadoff walk and would immediately steal second base. Chassety Raines would reach on a throwing error following a dropped third strike resulting in Jurden scoring the first run of the game. After a Bailey Hudgeons walk, the Bulldogs would showcase some head’s up baserunning resulting in Hudgeons on second base and Raines stealing home to give TLU a 2-0 lead. Hudgeons would then score on yet another St. Thomas passed ball in what was a rough first inning for the St. Thomas battery.
Sarah Metzer would single through the left side to add two more runs to the Bulldogs early onslaught of runs. With the bases loaded, Kelly Jurden would bring in another run, with an RBI infield single. A two-RBI single from Chassety Raines would extend the Bulldogs lead to 8-0. Casey Martin capped off the inning with an RBI single down the left field line to score Raines, giving TLU an 9-0 lead entering the bottom of the first.
A solo home run would get St. Thomas on the board in the bottom of the first. The Celts would score a pair of runs in the bottom of the third to bring the TLU lead to 9-3 through three innings.
The Bulldogs would get two of the runs back in the top of the fourth via RBIs from Metzer and Jurden.
St. Thomas would score four runs over the fourth and fifth innings to draw the Bulldogs lead to 11-7.
The Bulldogs would not score again until the seventh inning. TLU would score four runs in the seventh inning to bring the game to its final tally of 15-7.
Amanda White started the game and pitched the first three innings, allowing three runs on five hits and would pick up her seventh win of the season. Madison Johnson would relieve White in the fourth – making her first appearance in the circle for the Bulldogs – allowing four runs in one inning of work. Ouellette would return to the circle for Texas Lutheran to toss three shutout innings to close the game.
With the series sweep, TLU has now won 56 consecutive SCAC regular season games and 49 straight SCAC conference series.
Texas Lutheran (29-4, 15-0 SCAC) will take their final road trip of the regular season as they travel to Irving, Texas, to face the University of Dallas Crusaders in a three-game weekend series. First pitch is scheduled for 5 PM on Thursday. All streaming and live stats links can be found on tlubulldogs.com.