Texas Lutheran Bulldogs Open NCAA Regional Tournament Against Birmingham-Southern

Texas Lutheran Bulldogs Open NCAA Regional Tournament Against Birmingham-Southern

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- 2019 SCAC Tournament Champions, the Texas Lutheran University Bulldogs, will head to Marshall, Texas to take on the 2012 SCAC Tournament Champions, the Birmingham-Southern University Panthers, this weekend in the opening round of the 2019 NCAA Div. III Softball Tournament. Interactive Bracket | NCAA Release  

The game times and schedule for the regional are still being determined, but TLU and BSC (34-5) will play on Friday at Taylor Field in the Marshall Texas Regional, hosted by East Texas Baptist (39-4). The tournament begins as a three-team round-robin, but is in a double-elimination format.  

The team to emerge victorious from the Marshall Regional will compete in a super regional against the winner of a three-team regional held at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in Claremont, California. This round will be played May 17-18 at a site to be determined.

Texas Lutheran enters the 2019 tournament coming off its sixth-straight SCAC Tournament Championship and is currently riding a nine-game winning streak. TLU is led offensively by SCAC Player-of-the-Year sophomore outfielder Kelly Jurden.

Jurden finished the regular season at the top of nearly every statistical category in the SCAC. She led the league in batting average (.470), was first in on-base percentage (.551), tied for first in walks (21), first in runs scored (50) and first in hits (54). Jurden also set a new SCAC mark for stolen bases in a single season with 49.

In the circle, the Bulldogs are led by junior Kayla Oliveira, who enters the NCAA Tournament with an overall record of 12-3. In 92.1 innings pitched, Oliveira sports a 1.29 ERA with 66 strikeouts.

Since joining the SCAC in 2014, TLU owns an overall NCAA Tournament record of 7-10.

The finals, hosted by Texas-Tyler, will be held May 23-28 at Suddenlink Field in Tyler, Texas.