By T. Scott Boatright
There was an old fashioned Memorial Day lawn party in Ruston Monday afternoon.
That came as Louisiana Tech University’s Baseball Team held an NCAA Baseball Tournament Regional announcement party at JC Love Field.
The Bulldogs sat in chairs on the field while fans gathered in the stands to watch the ‘NCAA Baseball Regional Announcement Show’ televised by ESPN-2 on the scoreboard video screen as they learned they’d be the top seed at the Regional they’re hosting and will be joined by No. 2 seed North Carolina State, No.3 seed Alabama and No. 4 seed, which the Bulldogs will begin Regional play against at 6 p.m. Friday.
All games will stream live on ESPN3.
LA Tech coach Lane Burroughs said he was simply happy to learn who his Bulldogs will be facing and is ready to start getting ready. Burroughs said his players would have the remainder of Monday off before turning their focus on the Regional opener against Rider.
“There’s not a lot of teams that can say they got to host a NCAA Regional and now we’re going to get to do that forever,” Burroughs said. ”Obviously there are only 64 teams still playing and they’re all really good, so we’ll get some info on Rider. We have Alabama here, a SEC school and NC State, an ACC School. I do know NC State started off slow but they have caught fire. They’re coached very well and have a lot of tradition in the postseason.
“In Alabama I’m very familiar with (Crimson Tide head coach Brad) Bohannon. Jerry Zulli, the hitting coach was here (at LA Tech) with me my first year as an assistant so there are a lot of familiar faces there. Obviously (Tech assistant) Mitch Gaspard was head coach there for eight years, so it ought to be fun. We’re hosting a Regional. We had a great atmosphere here (during the Conference USA Baseball Tournament) on Saturday and Sunday — as good as I’ve ever seen.”
Burroughs said that while Tech’s ties with the Crimson Tide are there, right now he’s trying to maintain his focus on Rider, which won a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title for its first berth to the NCAA Regionals in 11 years.
“We’ll get help from other (teams) in the country,” Burroughs said. “There’s so much video out there now that’s easy to pull up and look at arms and look at their hitters. It used to not be that way but now it is. It’ll be good to see some old friends and maybe compete against them if we play Alabama. We’ve got to get there — we’ve got a tough opening game first.”
Burroughs admitted to the enormity of Tech’s journey to hosting a Regional touched him while talking to his team following Sunday’s 7-5 Conference USA Championship Game loss to Old Dominion, which on Monday was named the No. 1 for the Regional that will be played in Columbus, South Carolina.
“We’ll get help from other (teams) in the country,” Burroughs said. “There’s so much video out there now that’s easy to pull up and look at arms and look at their hitters. It used to not be that way but now it is. It’ll be good to see some old friends and maybe compete against them if we play Alabama. We’ve got to get there — we’ve got a tough opening game first.”
It was also tough for Burroughs not to focus on the fact that only two years after the original JC Love Stadium was destroyed by an EF 3 tornado, the new Love Shack will play host to Tech’s first home NCAA Regional in program history.
“We’re home … and I’m kind of speechless,” Burroughs said. “What the team and these guys have been through, and it’s been tough. You start thinking about it, and it got emotional. It did. Some guys in the room got emotional. I did. I wept like a baby talking to the guys. There’s not a lot of schools and university baseball programs that can say they hosted a regional and we’re going to be able to say that now forever.”
TICKET INFORMATION
Beginning at 9 a.m. today current season-ticket holders will be given first priority to purchase chairback seats.
The Louisiana Tech Ticket Office will do its best to preserve current seating locations. Due to the high demand tied to LA Tech Baseball hosting its first-ever NCAA Regional and the ticket allotment mandated by the NCAA for opposing teams, seat locations may slightly vary from current season-ticket locations.
The number of tickets available for purchase from season-ticket holders is based on the following criteria:
• Season-ticket holders who donate to LTAC may claim their total number of season tickets.
• Season-ticket holders who are not LTAC donors may claim two of their season tickets.
• Season-ticket holders who are not LTAC donors may donate $100 to LTAC for every two additional seats to reach their allotted number of season tickets.
• Season-ticket holders can also put in a request and wait until Thursday, June 3, at 2 p.m. to see if their request for additional tickets can be filled.
• Any season-ticket holder that does not get their desired number of tickets will be given first priority on purchasing All-session first base berm tickets.
Season-ticket holders may log in to their AccountManager account at latechsports.com/tickets starting a 9 a.m. on Tuesday to purchase their pre-filled seat orders.
All-session outfield berm tickets will also be available for purchase by the general public at 9 a.m. today. All-session outfield berm ticket will cost $60.
Beginning at 9 a.m. on Thursday LTAC donors who are not season-ticket holders will have the opportunity to purchase remaining chairback seats upon availability. For questions and requests prior to Thursday, please contact Jarred Latta, director of development, at 318-497-7986 or jlatta@latechalumni.org.
Beginning at 2 p.m. on Thursday, any requests made by season-ticket holders over their allotted season-ticket number will be filled upon availability.
Beginning at 9 a.m. on Friday, any remaining chairbacks will be opened to the general public.
All single-session sales for Friday’s games between NC State and Alabama (1 p.m.) and LA Tech and Rider (6 p.m.) will also go on sale at 9 a.m. on Friday. This includes all berm areas and any remaining chairback seats. Student single-session tickets will also be available for sale at 9 a.m. on Friday.
All single-session ticket sales will be available online at am.ticketmaster.com/latech/regional. All single-session sales for the remainder of the Ruston Regional will also be available at the J.C. Love Field box office immediately following the final game of each day. The box office will close one hour after the final game of the day concludes.
One game equals one session. All fans must exit and then re-enter the stadium between each game/session. A public address announcement will be made upon exiting the stadium as to when the gates will open for the next game/session.
