By Drew Parsley, Louisiana Tech Associate Director Strategic Communications; featured photo courtesy of Oklahoma Athletics
NORMAN, Okla. — Louisiana Tech fell to the No. 12 Oklahoma Sooners Wednesday night, 9-5, at L. Dale Mitchell Park. The Bulldogs attempted a comeback with four unanswered runs across the final four frames of the game after blanking OU from the fifth inning on.
A scoreless opening frame started the contest despite the ‘Dogs getting a runner on third. The Sooners were retired in order in the first before cracking the scoreboard with five runs in the second. A leadoff single and a two-run homer gave OU their first runs of the game followed by an RBI base hit to make it 3-0. An RBI groundout followed by another run-scoring base hit gave OU their five-run advantage heading to the third.
Back-to-back doubles in the third from Thaxton Berch and Will Safford put Tech on the board, before a bases-loaded walk and a sacrifice fly on the home side made it a 7-1 game. A pair of RBI knocks increased the Sooners’ advantage to 9-1 before the Bulldog bullpen shut down the opposing offense for the remainder of the game.
A leadoff walk in the sixth drawn by Garrison Berkley, a Colton Coates double and another walk drawn by Eli Berch loaded the bases with one out for pinch hitter Reid Snider. Snider, who entered the game for Trey Hawsey, tacked on another run for the ‘Dogs on an RBI groundout.
Later in the eighth, Berkley reached base again via error before landing himself on third after a pair of wild pitches to the Oklahoma backstop. Eli Berch drove him in with an RBI single before a base hit by Drost scored Berch following a walk drawn by Snider. With two outs in the ninth, Michael Ballard did his best to give Tech a chance at a rally on an RBI base hit before a groundout sealed the deal for Oklahoma.
Berkley extended his reached-base streak to 12 games on Wednesday, with Coates and Cade Patterson extending their streak to eight games. Berkley also crossed the plate three times for his fourth game this year scoring at least three runs.
The Bulldogs’ road trip continues when they take on the Wichita State Shockers for a three-game weekend series starting on Friday, March 14. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. CT at Eck Stadium in Wichita, Kansas.
Head Coach Lane Burroughs‘ comments after Wednesday night’s game:
“They’re really good and they have a long lineup. They’re 15-1 for a reason. They put a lot of pressure on the defense, [and] I thought every arm we saw tonight was really good. They threw a lot of lefties at us—we tried to play some different guys. The last part of the game, I was proud of our guys. They played hard and competed—we talked about that in pregame. We just wanted them to compete and play hard, and I thought they did that for the most part.”
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