BASEBALL
Louisiana Tech opens up a pivotal three-game road Conference USA series against Marshall today with the Bulldogs and the Thundering Herd playing at 1 p.m. at Kennedy Center YMCA in Huntington.
The two teams will wrap up the series with a Saturday doubleheader starting at 10 a.m.
Fans can hear the game on the 97.7 FM and the LA Tech athletics app while watching a stream of the game on Youtube Live.
LA Tech (23-10, 9-3 C-USA) is coming off of a midweek series split with UL-Lafayette and a three-game conference series sweep of the Rice Owls.
The Bulldogs will stick with the same pitching rotation as last week. Cade Gibson will get the Friday afternoon start. Ryan Jennings will throw game one on Saturday and game two is to be determined.
Marshall (15-18-1, 4-8) rolls into play winning its midweek matchup over Ohio 10-3 and dropping two of three to Middle Tennessee.
The Bulldogs and Herd will meet for the 24th time on Friday night with the Bulldogs leading the all-time series 13-10. The two schools met four times last year in Ruston as the Bulldogs and Herd split the series 2-2. The last time the schools met in West Virginia the Bulldogs swept the three-game series back in 2018.
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SOFTBALL
North Texas used a 5-run fifth inning to blow open a tight game as the Mean Green defeated Louisiana Tech 8-2 Thursday night at Lovelace Stadium in the first game of the Conference USA series.
Trailing 3-2 after plating a run in the top of the fifth, the Lady Techsters (27-16, 7-6) surrendered five runs in the bottom of the frame as North Texas capitalized on two home runs and a two-run double in the inning.
“We are still learning from our mistakes,” said Tech head coach Josh Taylor. “And sometimes that’s the only way to learn. It’s the hardest, but sometimes it’s the best. The first three runs we surrendered came because of miscommunication mistakes defensively. And you can’t give championship caliber teams extra outs. And then offensively, I thought we were not very good tonight. I didn’t see the quality at bats outside of about five or six that we have been getting. The good news is it’s just one game, and we come right back tomorrow and have another chance.”
Tech took an ealry 1-0 lead in the first as Sierra Sacco singled, stole second and then scored on Brooke Diaz’s RBI hit up the middle. Tech loaded the bases with two outs, but a ground out ended the threat.
North Texas scored one in the second and two more in the third to take a 3-1 advantage. Tech scratched for a run in the fifth as Sacco and Amanda Gonzalez led the frame off with back-to-back singles and then Sacco scored on a two-out error by the Mean Green.
Sacco was 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored while Gonzalez added two hits and Diaz one.
Audrey Pickett (18-5) took the loss in the circle, allowing eight runs on 10 hits and no walks in 4.1 innings of action. Lauren Menzina retired all five batters she faced in the game.
Game two of the series is Friday at 6 p.m. on ESPN+.
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TENNIS
In a back-and-forth match that took over four hours to complete, Louisiana Tech fell 4-3 to Northwestern State on Thursday afternoon at the Jack Fisher Lady Demon Complex.
LA Tech (17-5) was attempting to end NSU’s (14-4) eight-match winning streak. To do so, they needed to come from behind as the Lady Demons opened the day by claiming the doubles point.
Both courts one and three picked up 6-2 wins, including the doubles tandem of Leonie Schuknecht and Ana Rodrigues who put a stop to the seven-match winning streak of Tjasa Klevisar/Mariella Minetti.
This made the clincher come down to court two where Tiffani Nash and Najah Dawson were teamed up for the first time this season. The duo forced a tiebreaker versus Rozi Dohnalova/Viktorie Wojcikova, but ended up falling 7-6 (6).
LA Tech quickly evened things up in singles as Schuknecht picked up a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Dohnalova at the No. 1 spot. Soon thereafter, Alexia Romero gave the visiting team a 2-1 advantage with a 6-4, 6-4 win against Gig Kanaphuet at the No. 6 position, extending her singles winning streak to four.
NSU took the lead right back with straight-set wins on courts three and four that finished almost simultaneously. Meanwhile on court two, Olga Bienzobas found herself down a set before storming back to claim a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win versus Klevisar to make it 3-all.
The deciding point came down to court five between Ilana Tetruashvili and Wojcikova. In a marathon match that lasted three hours, Wojcikova ended up coming out on top by a score of 5-7, 7-5, 6-4.
