By Drew Parsley, Louisiana Tech Associate Director Strategic Communications
Louisiana Tech (29-22, 12-11 CUSA) won its second-straight game and enters the final regular-season weekend on a high note following a 7-4 win over ULM (21-31, 7-20 Sun Belt) Tuesday night at the Love Shack. Tech secured the rubber match of the season series with the Warhawks after splitting the first two games earlier in the season.
After Tuesday’s win, the ‘Dogs improved to 19-3 on the year when posting at least 10 hits and a staggering 22-1 when outhitting their opponents. Luke Cooley earned his team-leading sixth win of the year after tossing four innings allowing just one earned run. He struck out three batters while walking three and giving up three hits.
ULM applied pressure early by putting the first two runners of the day on base via walk, but a line drive to Will Safford at short and a quick toss back to Michael Ballard at second secured Tech’s 39th double play of the season and sent the game into the home half.
After the Bulldogs were retired in their first time at the plate, the Warhawks then scratched a run across in the second after a base hit, fielder’s choice and a walk put runners at first and second with two outs. A base hit up the middle to center followed to bring in the lead runner before a strikeout looking ended ULM’s half of the inning.
The ‘Dogs answered back with a five-spot in the second inning that started with Tech loading the bases. Zeb Ruddell legged out an infield single followed by Garrison Berkleygetting hit by a pitch before Brody Drostpoked a hit to right to advance the runners 90 feet and load the bags.
Eli Berch then delivered a base hit through the right side on an 0-2 count to plate two runs and give Tech a 2-1 lead before ending up on second after advancing on the throw. The ULM infield then played in with Safford coming to bat, who snuck a double down the right field line to double the ‘Dogs’ score.
Sebastian Mexico followed up with a lined single off a diving first baseman’s glove that spit to the outfield, allowing Safford to come around and cap off Tech’s five-run inning. The Warhawks added a run in the fourth after an error and a stolen base put a runner in scoring position followed by a base knock through the left side of the infield, cutting Tech’s deficit to 5-2.
After the first two batters of the fifth for ULM were put away on a groundout and a fly out, the Warhawks hit back-to-back singles before an RBI double cut Tech’s lead to 5-3. A throwing error allowed an unearned run to cross the plate, bringing ULM’s deficit to just one run entering the bottom of the inning.
The Bulldogs got those two runs back in the home half of the sixth off the bat of Mexico once again. After Berkley led off the inning with a base hit back up the middle, Safford drew a two-out walk before the LA Tech designated hitter burned the ULM center fielder with a liner to the wall, scoring two runs and putting the ‘Dogs back up by three with a 7-4 game heading into the seventh.
Blake Hooks earned his eighth save of the season, which is tied for the ninth-most in a single season in program history. The senior righty tossed a scoreless ninth inning while striking out a pair of batters. Mexico tabbed his fifth three-RBI game and 12th multi-RBI game of the year, both of which lead the Bulldogs.
LA Tech’s 39th double play of the season is one shy of extending the ‘Dogs’ streak to 12-straight seasons with at least 40 double plays and 12 in the last 13 years.
The Bulldogs conclude the regular season with a three-game series against New Mexico State at the Love Shack, with the series opener set for Thursday, May 15 at 6 p.m. CT.
Head Coach Lane Burroughs after Tuesday’s win over ULM:
“I’m proud of our guys. I thought we came out tonight just like we did Sunday—I thought the energy was good, the effort was good. Attitude in the dugout was great. Sometimes when you’re grinding, you’re in a storm and you’re trying to get out of it—it’s hard to bring it every day. It’s a tough game to play, and we kind of went through a storm. We were able to get out of it Sunday and now we’ve won two in a row. We loosened the guys up on Sunday and had a little fun, and they’re going to take their cue from the coach. I tried to be loose and let them know it’s not life or death and I thought it loosened them up on Sunday and even tonight. This was a big game, they knew it—anytime you play ULM and the series is on the line, it’s huge. Every game is so tough, it doesn’t matter who you play in college baseball. It’s in a great place and it’s as tough as it’s ever been. It doesn’t matter who you play—you need to bring it or you’re going to get beat. I thought Luke Cooley was okay. I didn’t think his stuff was great, but he grinded through it. I thought he got better the deeper he went in the game, but he was able to get us off the mat with a good start. As far as [Landon] Fontenot, I thought as good as the ball has come out of his hands in a long time, I was shocked they were getting such good swings on him. Credit to their hitters, but our board said he was up to 95 and we haven’t seen that in quite some time. I talked with Landon Thursday night at practice—I think freshmen sometimes hit that wall and they aren’t used to playing these many games at this high of leverage. Every game is so important, and I thought he answered the bell tonight. His line may not look great, but I thought the ball was coming out of his hand. I thought Nate Crider was outstanding, good enough where we talked about running him out in the ninth, but when we didn’t extend the lead we went with Hooks. Hooks went through his stuff, and it’s good to see him back to where he was early in the year. He pitched two real important innings on Sunday, was able to close the game so we couldn’t press him and we couldn’t push him. He had one inning in him tonight and I thought he was very efficient. Hitters did a great job. [ULM] scored, and we answered with a five-spot. We strung a lot of singles together, wind was blowing in so you knew the home run probably wasn’t going to be in play. I thought Mexico’s two-out double to drive in two runs to extend the lead was huge. All in all, just extremely proud of our guys for coming out, playing hard, playing with some intensity and finding a way to win.”