(Story courtesy of Texas Lutheran University Athletics Communications)
ITHACA, NY -- Ninth-ranked Texas Lutheran opened the NCAA tournament with a 3-1 victory over UMass Boston Thursday morning at Kostrinsky Field on the campus of Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York.
The regional one-seed Bulldogs were powered by a two-run home run from Serena Gonzalez and a three-hit performance in the circle from Katelyn Howard and Amanda White.
With the win, Texas Lutheran improved to 40-3 for the fifth 40-win season in program history with the Bulldogs reaching the milestone in four of the past six seasons.
TLU moved to 8-3 in NCAA Regional openers. In TLU's last five regional openers, the Bulldogs are outscoring the opposition 38-7.
A phenomenal start by junior right-handed pitcher Katelyn Howard and lights-out relief courtesy of Amanda White led No. 9 Texas Lutheran to the 3-2 win.
Howard earned her first career start in a NCAA regional, rewarding the Bulldogs with 4.0 innings of excellent work. The right-hander struck out a career-high seven batters in four shutout innings while allowing just one hit and one walk. She threw 37 of her 54 pitches for strikes, working to a 68.5% strike rate. The seven strikeouts are the most by a Bulldogs pitcher in a single outing since Ashlyn Strother struck out eight against Chapman in the 2022 Seguin Regional.
After trading zeros through the first two innings, Linzee Leal took advantage of an errant throw from the Beacons catcher on a stolen base to score the Bulldogs first run in the third.
The Bulldogs added their final two runs on a fifth inning two-run homer from Serena Gonzalez. The home run is Gonzalez's 12th of the season, tying Haley Padilla (2021) for the program's single-season home run record and moving within one home run of tying Padilla's all-time career home run mark (24).
Howard gave way to White in the fifth as the SCAC Pitcher of the Year retired nine of the 11 batters she faced, striking out a trio to earn her program-best sixth save of the season.
In addition to earning her ninth win of the season, Howard earned her first career postseason victory.
Texas Lutheran now plays No. 21 Ithaca (29-6), who opened the Ithaca Regional earlier Thursday with a 2-1 victory over Springfield (30-14). First pitch between the Bulldogs and Bombers is at 11 AM EST on Friday on ncaa.com. All streaming and live stats links will be available on tlubulldogs.com. A victory Friday would send the Bulldogs into an 11 AM EST contest on Saturday.
