By Drew Parsley, Louisiana Tech Associate Director Strategic Communications; featured photo by Drew Parsley
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs fell short of a comeback on Saturday to Sam Houston, who took the second game of the weekend series, 7-4, at Don Sanders Stadium.
The Bearkats responded after being held in check in a one-run loss to the Bulldogs Friday night with a four-spot in the first. Sam Houston led off their half of the first inning with three-straight walks before a passed ball allowed the first runner to cross the plate and go ahead 1-0. With runners on second and third with one out, the Bearkats delivered a two-run base hit before a double capped their scoring.
Tech was able to get a runner in scoring position after a leadoff single and a two-out hit-by-pitch in the second but could not push anything across. The Bearkats continued to bring the pressure after a batter knocked a one-out single and moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch. The next batter sent a fly ball to the right-center gap where a sprinting Brody Drost was reading it. With an extra effort on a dive and full extension, Drost webbed the ball to prevent extra bases and a run.
With that runner still holding at second base, he eventually stole third the next at-bat before scoring on a ball thrown away from the base to give Sam Houston a 5-0 lead through two frames.
Once both sides were through a scoreless third inning, the ‘Dogs put up a crooked number on the board in the fourth to close the gap. Three-straight singles led off the inning from Michael Ballard, Colton Coates and Drost, with Drost’s knock scoring Ballard and advancing Coates to third base. Eli Berch then drew a walk to juice the bases before a double play brought another run across. Zeb Ruddell, who was in the lineup as a designated hitter for the Bulldogs, cranked a triple off the batter’s eye to dead center to bring it to a 5-3 score going into the middle of the fourth.
A defensive battle ensued the next two innings before Sam Houston struck the scoreboard again in the seventh with a two-run homer. The Bulldogs tried chipping away and creating a rally in the ninth when Berch reached on a fielding error and scored on a double hit by Trey Hawsey to cut the deficit to 7-4, but runners were left on first and second to end the game.
The rubber match is set for Sunday, March 23 at Don Sanders Stadium with a scheduled 12 p.m. CT first pitch.
Head Coach Lane Burroughs‘ comments after Saturday’s game:
“Well, they’re not good. We got our face kicked in in the first two innings, we let the game absolutely crush us. We dropped two fly balls—average plays in my opinion. I played outfield, wasn’t a great player [but] we have to make those plays. You want to be good, you want to be a championship team [then] make plays. When we get a three-spot and then go out there and walk a guy and hit a guy, I mean we just have to be better. We’ll see how tough we are tomorrow. Credit their guy, [Ryan] Peterson, obviously he had something going on. Then we had shock, and we get rung up, the umpire had the same zone the whole day. I don’t know if it was good, bad [or] indifferent, bottom line is he had the same zone. We’re not going to drive in a run with the bat on our shoulders. Just extremely, extremely disappointing. Who do we want to be? Do we want to win a championship? We are the defending champions. We’ll see how tough we are tomorrow.”
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