Bryce Hayes
For Immediate Release
SEGUIN, Texas — The chase is over, now its time for everyone to chase her. For major league baseball there’s Rickey Henderson and from this day forward for college softball, there’ll be Caelee Clark.
Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek) is the new stolen base queen of college softball, not just for Division-III but all three levels of the NCAA.
In front of the home crowd of friends of family at Ed Kruse Stadium, Clark stole base No. 258 to break the tie with Georgia’s Nicole Barber to be the NCAA career stolen base leader.
The historic stolen base came in the bottom of the third on a 0-1 count. Clark went 1-for-3 in the game with a walk, two stolen bases, and two runs scored.
No. 3 Texas Lutheran continued its run through the TLU Invitational on Thursday with two wins over Bethel University (MN) in the first two matchups in the programs two respective histories.
The Bulldogs (20-2) beat the Royals 8-1 in the first game of the evening. Nine Bulldogs recorded a hit in the contest, highlighted by a two-run inside the park homer from Brey Jones (San Antonio/Brennan) and a solo shot from Serena Gonzalez (Corpus Christi/Foy H. Moody).
The Royals (3-11) went up on the Bulldogs in the third on a solo home run. Texas Lutheran quickly answered in the bottom half courtesy of a game-tying RBI single from senior Taylor Vannett (Kingwood/Kingwood), scoring Caelee Clark after her record breaking stolen base.
TLU took the lead in the fourth on the two-run inside the park home run from Jones. The home run is the first of her collegiate career.
Gonzalez tacked on another run in the fifth with a solo home run, her second of the season and 27th of her career. With her solo home run, Gonzalez passed Austin College’s Stefanie Faith for third all-time in SCAC history and tied Faith for fourth all-time in SCAC history in career home runs.
TLU poured it on in the sixth with four runs on four hits and a Bethel error. The outburst began with back-to-back singles from Ashley McMahon (Las Vegas, NV/Durango) and Michelle Torralba (Eagle Pass/Eagle Pass) before Kayla Ramirez (Kingsville/Santa Gertrudis Academy) moved them over with a sacrifice bunt. The sacrifice set up an RBI groundout for Chesley Swisher (Cypress/Bridgeland) before Riley Davila (Angleton/Angleton) drove in another on a Bethel error. Natalie Pacheco (Lytle/Lytle) capped off the inning with a two-RBI single to plate the Bulldogs final runs of the games.
Seven Bulldogs drove in at least one run in Thursday’s first game. Ashley McMahon (2-for-3) paced TLU at the plate while Jordyn Joy (Kerrville/Tivy) collected the win in the circle. Joy struck out one in five innings of work, allowing three hits and a trio of walks in her scoreless performance. Katelyn Howard (Waller/Hempstead) got the start and allowed one run on five hits in two innings.
The Bulldogs turned around to run-rule Bethel in six innings by a final of 9-1.
Texas Lutheran came out swinging with five runs over the first two innings. Serena Gonzalez started things with an RBI groundout before Riley Davila scored on a Bethel throwing error.
TLU followed its two-run first with a three-run second inning. An RBI single from Chesley Swisher sparked things to chase Bethel’s starter before an RBI groundout from Davila and an RBI single from Gonzalez made it 5-1.
In the fifth inning, Brey Jones hit a sacrifice fly and Swisher executed an RBI bunt single to make it 7-0 TLU.
Bethel got a run back in the top of the sixth with a two-out RBI single.
An RBI single from Cady Bowyer (Fulshear/Jordan) pushed the game closer to run-rule territory before an RBI fielder’s choice from Mia Landry (Cypress/Bridgeland) scored Torralba to walk it off in six innings.
Sophomore Jordyn Stuessy (Garden Ridge/Davenport) earned her fourth win of the season with her second complete game of the year. Stuessy struck out two and surrendered one run on three hits and one walk.
Swisher and Gonzalez paced the squad with two hits and two RBI each.
As a team, TLU stole 13 bases in Thursday’s second contest led by three from Swisher, the third most in a single-game in program history. It’s the third time this season the Bulldogs have stolen 10+ bases in a single-game.
The Bulldogs move to 4-0 on the week and are outscoring opponents 37-2 so far in the TLU Invitational.
The Bulldogs play two more on Friday, March 20 against No. 17 Tufts to close out the TLU Invitational. First pitch is slated for 3 & 5 PM with the games being broadcast 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).