TLU Drops 2-1 Battle to St. Thomas in SCAC Title Game

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- No. 5 ranked and top-seed Texas Lutheran dropped its second game of the 2023 SCAC Tournament in the championship game Sunday, losing 2-1 to two-seed St. Thomas.

It marks the first time that TLU has not been the SCAC regular season and tourney champs since joining the conference in 2014.

The fourth matchup between TLU and St. Thomas was tightly contested, with the two teams exchanging runs across the second and third innings before the Celts plated the game-winning run in the fourth via an RBI groundout.

St. Thomas (32-8) got on the board first in the second inning courtesy of an RBI double down the left field line.

In the top of the third, TLU (38-6) plated the tying run on an RBI single from Caelee Clark (Montgomery/Lake Creek) that allowed Isabella Rodriguez (Pearland/Pearland) to race home.

After a pair of scoreless innings, St. Thomas plated the go-ahead run on an RBI groundout.

Isabella Rodriguez paced the Bulldogs at the plate with a 1-for-3 performance, while Amanda White (Lockhart/Lockhart) took her fourth loss of the season, moving to 13-4. White started the game and went 4.1 innings and allowed two runs (one earned) on six hits and a walk to two strikeouts. Sydney Ouellette (Corpus Christi/Gregory-Portland) entered in relief and went 1.2 innings, allowing no hits or walks and striking out one.

Caelee Clark, Linzee Leal (Corpus Christi/

Mary Carroll), Serena Gonzalez (Corpus Christi/Foy H. Moody), Madison Johnson (Round Rock/Round Rock), and Sydney Ouellette were named to the All-Tournament Team.

The Bulldogs await their postseason plans to be announced during the NCAA DivisionIII Softball Selection Show on May 15 at 12 PM CST.

For more information on Texas Lutheran softball, follow the Bulldogs on Facebook (@ txlutheransoftball), 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).