By Drew Parsley, Louisiana Tech Associate Director Strategic Communications; featured photo courtesy of Wichita State Athletics
WICHITA, Kan. — Louisiana Tech secured a series victory on Sunday after downing the Wichita State Shockers, 7-1, in the series finale at Eck Stadium. It was the first road series win over the Shockers in program history, as well as the first road series win of the season.
The combined offensive performance from both programs cooled down some after 39 total runs were scored in the series opener on Friday and 21 combined on Saturday. The weather conditions appeared much different than the first two contests of the weekend with a lot less wind and a lot more sunshine.
It was a defensive showcase through the first four innings of Sunday’s contest as Wichita State had the only two hits of the game during that span. Freshman Brooks Roberson had himself an outstanding performance in his second start, scattering seven hits across 7 1/3 innings of work with one run and one walk allowed along with four punchouts. His one run allowed did not cross the plate until the eighth inning.
The Lubbock, Texas, native earns his first winning decision as a Division I player and moves to 1-1 on the season.
LA Tech broke the scoreless tie in the fifth inning after Eli Berch led off with a hit-by-pitch followed by Brody Drost drawing a walk before both runners advanced to second and third on a wild pitch. Grant Comeaux was hit by a pitch with one out to load the bases for Will Safford to bring in the first run of the game on a four-pitch walk.
After a pitching change and a strikeout, Garrison Berkley hit a fly ball to center field that the Shocker outfielder ultimately lost in the sun as the ball fell off the top of his glove to allow all three runners on base to score. This gave the Bulldogs a four-run cushion without getting a hit in the inning.
The Diamond ‘Dogs added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth after Berkley doubled and Michael Ballard walked before Colton Coatesmoved up both runners with a sacrifice bunt. Berch was hit by a pitch for the second time to load the bases before Drost sliced a two-run base hit to a diving Wichita State left fielder. The Shockers got a run back in the home half on a double and a base hit, but the Bulldog defense kept them at bay for the remainder of the game.
Ballard provided one more insurance run for the ‘Dogs with a double to the left-center gap. His double gave him his 100th hit as a Bulldog in just his second season since arriving to Ruston.
Drost tacked the only multi-hit and multi-RBI performance of the day, while seven different Bulldogs came across the plate. Blake Hooksclosed the door on the Shockers by taking care of the final five outs, allowing just two walks and striking out four Wichita State batters.
Tech returns to the Love Shack on Tuesday, March 18 to take on ULM in a midweek at 6 p.m. CT before heading to Huntsville, Texas to open up Conference USA play with the Sam Houston Bearkats March 21-23 at Don Sanders Stadium.
Head Coach Lane Burroughs‘ comments after securing the series victory:
“It was kind of weird with no wind today. There were no elements, you have to battle. It was actually a very beautiful day here today and nobody acted like they wanted to hit. The last two days we had hurricane-type winds blowing everywhere and everybody swinging the bat. Brooks Roberson—outstanding. I mean, what can you say? We needed that worse than anything in the world and he had to get up here late Friday night, take care of some stuff academically. He flew in here and got in about midnight Friday night. He’s been through a lot this week and to go out there and do what he did was unbelievable. I couldn’t be more proud of him, and Blake Hooks there at the end. It was a tremendous pitching performance. I want to tip my hat to Coach Cooper Fouts and Matt Houston. Coach gave Matt the clicker and they were basically talking together, working in sync, and I thought Matt was spot on today. Him and Coach Fouts were so in sync and it was a beautiful thing to watch them work that game today.”
Coach Burroughs on the performances of his catchers this week:
“Matt Houston is a great kid, he’s in the aviation department and he’ll be a pilot one day. He’s the kind of guy you want flying your plane, I can assure you. Eli—you know, we played three really long games this week, Oklahoma and then Friday and Saturday here. Four plus hour games and he needed a break. He got beat around last night. Those games, they’re mentally taxing on you—I could talk about a lot of stuff. I thought Brody Drost on the left-handed pitcher—he’s worked extremely hard. That dude has been through a lot and he’s worked his tail off, and I told him I was going to give him a run and he’s taken full advantage of it. For him to drive in those two runs before Mike got the double—left on left, he’s always struggled against lefties and that was huge. Just extremely proud of our team. We come up here on the road. This is a tough place to play. It’s a huge stadium, and I’m just going to leave it at that. It’s a tough place to play. You have to create your own environment, and our guys—all the stuff we’ve been through and we’re still scuffling. To come on the road, a long road trip, and find a way to win the series is huge moving forward.”
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