Courtesy of LA Tech Athletics Communications
Bulldog Baseball
Lane Burroughs and the Louisiana Tech Diamond Dogs are home for what should be a highly-competitive three-game Conference USA series against Dallas Baptist.
Today’s game one start time has been moved up to 3 p.m. (due to weather forecast for the evening) while Saturday is set for 2 p.m. and Sunday for 1 p.m.
All three games can be heard on the LA Tech Sports Network on 97.7 FM and the LA Tech Athletics app and can be seen with a paid subscription to CUSA.tv.
The Louisiana Tech baseball team hosts Dallas Baptist in a three-game conference series this weekend. The Bulldogs and Patriots will face one another three more times in Dallas in late April.
Tech (13-12, 3-3 C-USA) played one of its most complete games of the season this past Tuesday against Sacramento State, defeating the former conference foe, 14-4.
LA Tech currently ranks first in C-USA and 40th in the country in total home runs with 36, nine of those coming off the bat of Philip Matulia. The outfielder has hit nine homers in 23 games played this season, already matching his single-season total of nine from last season (64 games).
Jonathan Fincher is expected to get the Friday night start. The left-hander is 4-2 with a 3.20 ERA to go along with 39 strikeouts. In his two C-USA starts, he is 2-0 with a 0.73 ERA. Alec Sparks is scheduled to get his third straight start in a conference series. His last outing versus WKU, he went 6.0 innings and allowed just three runs in the victory.
Dallas Baptist (17-8, 4-2 CUSA), who is in its first season as an affiliate baseball member of Conference USA, heads to Ruston having won 10 of its last 12 games. Among those were conference series wins over FIU and Charlotte as well as victories over Oklahoma and No. 13 Oklahoma State.
DBU has gone to 11 NCAA Regionals since 2008.
LA Tech leads the all-time series with Dallas Baptist, 14-10. The two teams met last season with the Patriots winning a midweek contest in Ruston, 7-4, while the Bulldogs prevailed, 12-5, in the first game of the NCAA Regional in Austin, Texas.
LA Tech is 11-4 versus DBU in Ruston. The first ever meeting came in Ruston, a four-game series back in 1982.
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Lady Techster Softball
The Lady Techsters will step out of Conference USA action for the weekend as they head south to participate in the Purple and Gold Challenge hosted by LSU at Tiger Stadium Friday and Saturday.
Tech will play four games, including today against NC State (11:30 a.m.) and BYU (2 p.m.) and Saturday against NC State (1:30 p.m.) and No. 14 LSU (4 p.m.).
Saturday’s contest against LSU can be seen on the SEC Network+ while all four games will be streamed (audio-only) with Malcolm Butler providing the live play-by-play call (find LISTEN LIVE links on the schedule page on LATechSports.com).
Louisiana Tech is 20-12 on the season and led by a six-arm pitching staff that boasts a team ERA of 1.74 following its 5-1 win over Northwestern State Tuesday.
Mary Martinez leads the Techsters in the circle with a 7-2 record and 1.38 ERA in 40.2 innings pitched. Martinez picked up her seventh win of the season in the 4-1 series finale win over Middle Tennessee. Brook Melnychuk leads Tech with a 1.24 ERA in 39.2 innings pitched.
Tech is among the nation’s leaders in double plays turned, averaging 0.50 a contest which ranks 11th among all DI programs.
The Wolfpack are 12-20 this season and coming off a 8-2 win over North Carolina AT&T on Wednesday.
BYU carries a 15-7 record into this weekend, coming off a 14-11 slugfest win over Utah Tech. BYU leads the all-time series with Tech 5-1. This weekend will mark the first meeting between the teams since 2012.
LSU is 26-6 and ranked 14th in the latest NFCA poll. The Tigers secured a 2-1 series win over Ole Miss last weekend. Louisiana Tech and LSU have met 30 times, with the Tigers leading the series 26-4. LSU won the last matchup 3-1 on Feb. 21 in Ruston in front of a record crowd of 1,100 fans at Dr. Billy Bundrick Field.
