By Drew Parsley, Louisiana Tech Associate Director Strategic Communications; featured photo by Josh McDaniel
RUSTON — The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (17-11, 4-2 CUSA) clinched their third-straight weekend series and second-straight Conference USA series after defeating Kennesaw State (11-17, 3-3 CUSA) with ease in a 9-2 Sunday afternoon victory at the Love Shack.
After freshman Brooks Roberson retired the first seven Owls at the plate, Kennesaw State drew a pair of walks, hit into a fielder’s choice and knocked in a run on a base hit to strike first for a 1-0 lead through three innings. After leaving the bases loaded without allowing run in the top half, the Bulldogs put two across to take the lead over the Owls in the fourth.
Garrison Berkley and Michael Ballard started the frame with a double and a single before Eli Berch slapped a two-out knock through the left side of the Owls infield to even the score. After Trey Hawsey drew a walk to load the bases, Ballard came across to score via wild pitch from the Kennesaw State pitcher and give the ‘Dogs a 2-1 lead heading into the fifth.
Tech’s offense kept rolling with momentum after Will Safford led off with a base hit through the right side and ending up in scoring position with a stolen base. Colton Coates drew a walk before Safford stole third to put runners on the corners with one out. During Ballard’s at-bat, the new Owls pitcher pump faked a pick-off attempt to first before turning around and firing a throw to third that sailed passed the third baseman and allowed Safford to score and Coates to move into scoring position.
Ballard singled to put runners on the corners again in the inning before Sebastian Mexicoripped a base hit to score Coates. With two outs and two runners on base, Berch smoked a ball to the right-center gap to push two more runs across and give the Bulldogs a 6-1 advantage after nine batters had been to the plate in the frame.
Kennesaw State was held in check in the sixth with credit to Logan Forsythe, who entered the game out of the bullpen. After allowing a leadoff walk, the hard-throwing righty struck out the next three batters to keep the Owls at bay. Safford led off the home half of the sixth with a walk before stealing his third base of the game. With the shortstop’s three stolen bases on the day, Safford became the first Bulldog with three steals in a game since Taylor Young swiped three bags against Charlotte on May 20, 2022.
Coates drew his second walk of the day to bring Berkley up to the plate, who hit into a fielder’s choice to the pitcher. The Kennesaw State hurler attempted to get the lead runner out at third, but another throw was errant and allowed Safford to score Tech’s seventh run of the day. Two at-bats later with one out, Mexico drove in his second and third RBI of the day with a double to the right field corner and give the ‘Dogs their largest lead of the weekend at a 9-1 score going into the seventh.
The Owls put a run on the board in the seventh after a pair of leadoff walks, a single and an RBI double, but after a pitching change was made for the Bulldogs two strikeouts were thrown by freshman Landon Fontenot to put a halt to the damage and maintain a seven-run advantage.
Four of Tech’s runs on the day were scored with two outs, bringing their weekend total to nine two-out runs scored against the Owls. Brooks Roberson earned his third win of the year to improve his record to 3-1 on the mound. Three of Forsythe’s four outs recorded came as a strikeout, followed by Landon Fontenot tossing 2 2/3 innings of perfect baseball with a pair of strikeouts to close the game.
The Bulldogs look to start a five-game slate in the upcoming week, starting with midweek road tests against LSU in Baton Rouge on Tuesday and UL-Lafayette on Wednesday. First pitch against the Tigers is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT at Alex Box Stadium.
Head Coach Lane Burroughs after securing the series victory:
“I’m extremely proud of our guys finding a way to win this series. I challenged them yesterday after Game 1 in the dugout, said I was tired of people coming in here and pushing us around and they answered the bell in Game 2 and again today. I thought Brooks was good for us again, his pitch count got up so we had to get him out. Forsythe, for an inning, was really good—like I tell him all the time, if you’ll put the ball across the plate they’ll struggle with you. Sometimes he has trouble with that, but he gave us the outs we needed to get. I thought Fontenot was outstanding. A seven-run game and we didn’t have to use [Blake] Hooks. I thought, yesterday, he wasn’t ready when he came in the game. He’s thrown a lot for us, very stressful outs. Whenever he pitches, it’s going to be stressful because it’s usually the end of the ball game. I thought Landon was outstanding and it’s good to see Mike Ballard—he broke out of his mini slump with three hits, and Mexico had the big double. Eli Berch, another two-out RBI for us. He just seems to get a big hit for us every time with two outs and that’s huge. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention yesterday in Cooley’s game, Eli called most of the pitches, so that’s mentally draining in itself when you’re calling pitches. I’m proud of our team. We hadn’t won a series here since opening weekend, so it was huge. We’ve now won three series in a row, so we’re playing good baseball and when you play good you stay out of the players’ way and let them do their thing. But again, extremely proud of them for answering the bell.”
Coach Burroughs on going to play No. 8 LSU in Baton Rouge on Tuesday followed by UL-Lafayette on Wednesday:
“LSU is LSU. I coached in that league, and they have the greatest history and tradition in college baseball, them and Texas. I get it, there’s a lot of guys from this state—I grew up in Mississippi and I played Division II baseball, and we’d go play Mississippi State and Ole Miss. You get up for those games, and I know our guys look forward to going. I don’t run from this—they grow up cheering for that team and going to those games, and it’s good for them to go down and play. Obviously, they’re really good this year and they’re playing really good, so work will be cut out for us. We’re playing a really good team Tuesday and then going over to Lafayette to play another good team. UL-Lafayette is playing really well in the Sun Belt. It’s a big week—five games against anybody, now you’ve got two in state on the road and then FIU at home. We’ve got our work cut out for us this week.”
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