Story courtesy of TLU Sports Information
TYLER, Texas - In thrilling extra-inning fashion, No. 5 Texas Lutheran advanced to the championship round of the NCAA Division III Softball Championship Tyler Regional for the second time in three seasons with a 12-9 win over No. 8 East Texas Baptist.
One day removed from a humbling 11-0 loss to the same ETBU squad, the Bulldogs bounced back with wins Saturday over Agnes Scott (Ga.) and ETBU to earn a Sunday date with top seed and regional host University of Texas at Tyler, the third-ranked team in NCAA DIII.
The Bulldogs will need two wins Sunday, starting with a noon contest, to claim the regional title and advance to the super-regional round.
TLU won its school-record 43rd game of 2016 and improved to 43-4 overall. ETBU, the American Southwest Conference champion, ended its season at 35-10.
The Bulldogs defeated ETBU for the first time in an NCAA regional and for the first time since 2007. The Bulldogs were 0-and-4 against the Tigers in regional play before Saturday's win.
TLU took a 5-2 lead with a two-run fifth that included a Nicole Snow RBI sacrifice fly and a Kaymee Gooden RBI single.
ETBU answered with five runs in the fifth to take a 7-5 lead.
TLU came right back in the top of the sixth. The Bulldogs' career and single-season RBI leader, Taylor Yancey, singled home Megan Armistead and Grace Estes to tie the game at seven.
The game stayed that way into the eighth as ETBU loaded the bases with one out, putting the winning run at third for two consecutive at-bats.
Amanda Lochte entered the game in relief and promptly recorded two outs - the first on a ground-ball force-out at home and the second on a three-pitch strikeout of ETBU power-hitter Lacey Lindsey.
The Bulldogs broke through in the top of the ninth, sending 11 players to the plate and scoring five runs on five hits. Kirsten Whiteside, Brayden Pinckard, Armistead, Jennifer Gallagher and Yancey each delivered RBI in the frame.
Yancey brought her school-record single-season total to 54 RBI with a four-RBI performance that included two hits in five at-bats. Pinckard and Gallagher each drove in a pair.
Estes collected three hits and scored three runs. She started the game with a double to left field and then scored on a Gallagher sacrifice fly.
Every Bulldog in the lineup had at least one hit, one RBI or a runs scored. TLU registered 16 hits total.
Taylor Grissom started for the Bulldogs, went eight innings, left in the eighth, but returned in the ninth to post her first save of the year. The Tigers scored two runs in the ninth and did not have an out before Grissom entered to retire the next three Tigers.
Lochte notched her second victory of the day and raised her pitcher record to 14-1. The junior right-hander started the day with a one-hit shutout of Agnes Scott.
