By Drew Parsley, Louisiana Tech Associate Director Strategic Communications
RUSTON — The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs handled business again Wednesday night by taking down the Nicholls Colonels, 10-0, for a second-straight seven-inning run-rule shutout.
It was the first time the Bulldogs recorded consecutive shutouts since shutting out Army and Creighton on March 1 and 2 during the 2024 season. It is the first time shutting out the same opponent in consecutive games since the ‘Dogs did it against Tulane on March 19 and March 20 during the 2021 season.
Luke Nichols shined again on the home mound in his start, tossing five scoreless innings allowing just one walk and two hits with a pair of strikeouts. His performance was the third time since arriving to Ruston that he threw at least five innings with no runs allowed.
Tech jumped to a 2-0 lead in the opening frame after Sebastian Mexico opened up with a two-run base hit with the bases loaded. The Bulldogs then exploded for six runs in the second. After Trey Hawsey drew a walk to lead off the inning, Will Safford reached on a fielder’s choice before the Nicholls shortstop overthrew his second baseman to attempt the force out on Hawsey. The ball went wide and allowed the runners to advance to second and third with no outs.
Cade Patterson drove in both of those runs on a base hit up the middle before a bunt single by Garrison Berkley and a walk by Colton Coates loaded the bases for Tech yet again. Zeb Ruddell then delivered a pair of runs on a base hit before Safford drew a bases-loaded walk to make it an 8-0 game.
Safford extended the advantage to nine runs after a groundout in the fourth before Coates walked it off and secured the run-rule victory in the seventh.
Landon Fontenot recorded his first collegiate appearance and strikeout after relieving Nichols in the sixth inning.
The Bulldogs close out their nine-game homestand with a three-game weekend series against South Alabama, with the series opener slated for a 4 p.m. CT first pitch on Friday, March 7 at the Love Shack.
Head Coach Lane Burroughs‘ comments after Wednesday’s victory:
“29-0 these last two nights is a good recipe for winning, and it comes at a much-needed time. We’ve been scuffling a little bit—we talked about it last night, talked about it with our team the other day that this is nothing new to us. It seems like every year we’ve been 6-5, 5-4 or whatever [to start the season], and we needed these two wins. Double midweeks are tough. You have to have really good pitching, and I thought we got another good start tonight from Luke Nichols. [I’m] very proud of him—we need him. [He was] First Team All-Conference last year and Preseason All-Conference player this year. He’ll be the first to tell you sitting here, he hasn’t gotten off to a good start. For him to go out—and that’s why we kept him in the ball game, we wanted him to get that win. I thought he was really good, really efficient with his pitches. He threw five innings and I think he only threw 57 pitches, so extremely proud of him. And Landon Fontenot was electric. I’ve been waiting to see him on the mound—a true freshman from Shreveport, just has an electric arm and he was really good. We wanted to get him out of there because he had success and we wanted him to have a good taste in his mouth, walk off the mound feeling that success the first time he’s pitched at this level. And that’s what he did [and] what we’ve been seeing. He was really, really good. Again, I thought our offense—quality at-bat after quality at-bat. Came out of the gates smoking and that’s been our whole deal the last couple of weeks, is to try and get five men to the plate every inning. And we’ve been doing that. I think Coach [Jake] Wells has done an unbelievable job. I’ve been doing this a long time, and that guy works harder than any hitting coach I’ve ever been around. He’s in here with these dudes every day and he’s sweating with them and pouring his heart and soul into them, and I think you’re starting to see some of the fruits of that labor. I think our confidence is good right now, we’ve got a tough team coming in this weekend. Just really proud of how we’ve played the last two nights. Like I said, 29-0, and you can’t ask for much more than that.”