From Staff Reports
Baseball
Louisiana Tech remained perfect on the young season as Lane Burroughs and the Bulldogs swept a three-game series from defending MAC champion Kent State at JC Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.
Tech won by scores of 8-5, 10-2 and 13-2 as the Bulldogs improved to 7-0.
“We challenged them this week to get their edge back and play with a chip on their shoulder, and they did,” said Burroughs. “From an offensive standpoint, I could not be more proud of those guys. They were relentless the entire weekend, and we never let them up for air.”
For the second straight weekend the Bulldogs got solid work on the mound from its entire staff, limiting the Golden Flashes to only 11 hits in 27 innings. Tech pitchers struck out 26 and walked just 10 while recording a 3.00 earned run average for the series.
Through seven games, Tech’s staff boasts a 2.37 earned run average.
“I think the bullpen is the strength of our club,” said Burroughs. “The bullpen was phenomenal this weekend. The starters have been good. They have all pitched us into the fourth or fifth innings. We feel if they can do that then we have the bullets in the bullpen to navigate the rest of the game.
“We have two legitimate closers in (Ethan) Bates and (Sam) Broderson that can take it to the house. I tip my cap to our staff and Couper Fouts. They took their lumps last year and took some heat, but all they have done is gone to work to get better.”
Offensively, Tech recorded 38 hits and scored 32 runs over the weekend, including 12 doubles and six home runs. Cole McConnell’s return to the lineup paid dividends as he hit .308 with two doubles, two home runs and four RBI over the weekend.
Tech is hitting .289 as a team with 26 extra base hits and is averaging 8.0 runs a ballgame.
“We’ve came out, and we have swung the bats well,” said Burroughs. “We have had great at-bats all across the board.”
Tech will travel to Lake Charles to face McNeese Wednesday (6 p.m.) before heading to Sugarland, Texas, this weekend to face Army (Friday), Creighton (Saturday) and Air Force (Sunday).
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Softball
The Bulldogs took three out of four against Missouri State over the weekend at Dr. Billy Bundrick Field.
Head coach Josh Taylor and Co. got stellar pitching and used some late-inning heroics to capture the series against the Bears.
Tech (9-2) won by scores of 2-0 Friday, 3-2 in 11 innings in game two on Saturday and 7-3 on Sunday while dropping Saturday’s first game 7-5.
The Bulldog pitching staff allowed just nine earned runs over the 32 innings of action while limiting the Bears to a sub-.200 batting average. All six arms saw action over the weekend led by Allie Floyd (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 14 IP) and Brook Melnychuk (1-1, 1.36 ERA, 10.1 IP).
“I thought our staff continued to carry us this weekend,” said head coach Josh Taylor. “For the majority of the weekend, they really limited Missouri State’s scoring opportunities. We made a few mistakes behind them at times, but for the most part they were able to really limit any damage.”
Offensively, Tech recorded 36 hits in four games, including 10 extra base hits as the Bulldog hit over .300 as a team for the weekend. The only hiccup over the weekend was Tech stranding 33 runners on base.
Alexis Gilio (10-17, 4 runs, 3 RBI), Caroline Easom (7-14, 5 RBI, 2 GW RBI) and Alannah Rogers (4-9, 4 walks, 3 RBI) paced the Bulldogs at the plate over the weekend.
“Carol (Easom) had great at-bats this weekend,” said Taylor. “Alannah Rogers was phenomenal all weekend she had a big hit with the double in the fifth (Sunday). She was working the count full and getting into plus counts in every at-bat. She understands the strike zone. Gilio as well. Her stand and swing yesterday that resulted in a double led us to a win and today she was able to stand and swing and slap effectively. It was fun to watch.”
Easom had the game-tying, two-out RBI in the bottom of the 7th inning to send Game 2 on Saturday into extra innings and then had the game-winning RBI in the bottom of the 11th. Tech also scored 5 runs in the bottom of the fifth Sunday, four coming with two outs, to record the come-from-behind win.
Tech will travel to face Central Arkansas Wednesday before heading to Baton Rouge this weekend to face LSU, Illinois, San Diego State and McNeese State.
