By Malcolm Butler
An emotional Lane Burroughs sat before the media gaggle Saturday at Baum Walker Stadium following his team’s 19-4 loss to Kansas State and 9-3 loss to Southeast Missouri State.
With tears in his eyes, a frog in his throat and the voice of a 100-year-old man, he admitted his Bulldog baseball team didn’t play up to its caliber in either of the two losses in the Fayetteville Regional.
“The last two days are not indicative of who we are,” said Burroughs. “We did not play good. I am taking nothing away from Kansas State and SEMO. They are phenomenal baseball teams. They are well coached. We did not play good.”
The Bulldogs (45-19) fell behind early Friday night to the Big 12 Wildcats and trailed 9-4 when the game was delayed due to weather and then finally around midnight postponed until Saturday morning. The two teams came back at 11 a.m. today and K-State outscored Tech 10-0 the rest of the way to push the Bulldogs into the loser bracket.
Less than two hours after the completion of that game, Tech squared off against SEMO in an elimination game. The Redhawks used a 7-run fourth inning to ultimately build a big lead and never look back.
“We don’t make excuses, but we are out of gas,” said Burroughs. “The last three weeks have been tough on us. We won a regular season championship. We had a tough trip (to Liberty) with a doubleheader. We had to win all of those games. We had to sweep the last two weekends to win the regular season. We did that.
“Unfortunately, when we got into our (conference) tournament we had weather, we got into the losers bracket, and we played five games in 72 hours. Those guys left it on the field. We ended up running out of gas on Sunday. I think we did here too. I hate we didn’t play better.”
Tech entered the regional with a well-rounded squad. The Bulldogs ranked top 10 in the country in fielding percentage, owned over 80 home runs, and a pitching staff that kept it in games all season long.
None of those things were evident in Fayetteville. The Bulldogs committed four errors in the two games while hitting just one home run — Karsen Evans vs. SEMO — in the two games. The Tech pitchers combined to walk 10 hitters while surrendering seven home runs in the two losses.
“These last two days are not who we are,” said Burroughs. “These guys have so much to be proud of. It was a historic season. 45 wins which is the second most in school history. These guys mean a lot to me. I love them.”
Conference USA Player of the Year Ethan Bates, who began his career as a Razorback, pitched the final inning of the season finale against SEMO. Ironically, his first career collegiate appearance came against SEMO on February 27, 2021, as a Razorback.
“It’s tough on you mentally,” said Bates. “You get a delay before the game even starts. It sets your starters back and then you have to warm up again and do all of that. It was just a really long day. It just got to us I guess.”
Sixth-year senior Adarius Myers doubled home two runs in the 9-3 loss to the Redhawks. Myers said he felt like the team was ready to play despite the challenges of the past few weeks.
“We’ve played a lot of baseball the last couple of weeks,” said Myers. “It’s a challenge but it wasn’t anything we weren’t up to. I think we came out ready to play. I think we thought we were going to come back and win game one. We didn’t come out here expecting to lose. It was tough, but it’s just part of it.”
The Bulldogs competed in their third regional in the past four years.
