By Drew Parsley, Louisiana Tech Associate Director Strategic Communications
WICHITA, Kan. — Louisiana Tech’s offense bounced back accordingly after dominating the Wichita State Shockers in a 27-12 blowout Friday night at Eck Stadium. The series-opening victory marked the first win over the Shockers on their home field ever.
Friday’s contest featured some very high winds with gusts of up to 51 miles per hour just before first pitch, with the wind blowing out to right before shifting from right to left as the night went along.
The Diamond ‘Dogs came out of the gates immediately in the opening frame. One-out back-to-back base hits by Garrison Berkleyand Michael Ballard followed by a double steal put pressure on the Shockers early. The scoreboard went crooked in the first inning after a two-run knock by Colton Coates before Sebastian Mexico pulled a double to put runners on second and third with one out yet again.
Eli Berch then belted his first homer as a Bulldog 421 feet over the left field wall to cap off the five-run opening inning.
The Shockers answered back with a five-spot on their own, coming in the form of a three-run blast to center field and two more runs coming off a throwing error.
After a scoreless second inning, Tech’s bats continued to rake in the third with nine runs put up and eight of them crossing the plate with two outs. Coates led off the inning with his third homer of the year to give the Bulldogs a lead back that they would not give up the rest of the game. Berch drew a walk and advanced to scoring position on a groundout before scoring on an RBI double by Brody Drost. Will Safford then traded places with Drost off a double of his own for the ‘Dogs’ third run of the inning.
Cade Patterson drew a walk before Berkley ripped a ground-rule double to score Safford. Ballard then sent his fourth homer of the season to left field on the first pitch of his at-bat to tack on three more runs. After a Wichita State pitching change, Coates and Mexico turned in back-to-back base hits before Berch drove both runners in with a double to the left field corner to make it a 14-5 game through three innings.
The momentum continued into the fourth for the Bulldog offense with seven more runs added to their advantage. Drost and Safford led off with walks before moving to second and third on a wild pitch with no outs. Cade Patterson then drew a walk to load the bases before Berkley drove in a pair with a double to the left-center gap. Ballard then drew a walk before Coates added the 17th run of the game with a bases-loaded walk. Berch added two more RBI to his already impressive day at the plate with a base hit to right-center to make it a 19-5 ball game.
Drost added one on a groundout before another bases-loaded walk by Patterson capped off the inning and put the Bulldogs ahead 21-5 heading to the home half. An RBI knock by the Shockers cut it to 21-6 before they plated four more runs in the sixth on an RBI double, a pair of RBI singles and a groundout.
Ballard’s second homer of the game and fifth of the year put the Bulldogs up 12 in the seventh until the Shockers added two in the home half on a two-run single, but that was all they could muster across for the rest of the contest.
Reid Snider stepped up to the plate as a pinch hitter with one out and a runner on first after Berch drew a walk on five pitches. With just five at-bats entering the night, the sophomore ripped his first base hit for a two-run homer in the eighth to put the Bulldogs ahead by 12 yet again. A pair of bases-loaded walks and a wild pitch put three more runs up to conclude the offensive clinic put on by the Diamond ‘Dogs.
Game 2 of the weekend series is set for Saturday, March 15 with a 2 p.m. CT scheduled first pitch.
Notes from the game:
- Tech’s 27 runs tied for the second-most runs scored in a game in program history, and was the fourth time such a feat was accomplished (five runs shy of program-record 32 runs)
- 17 walks drawn sets a new single-game program record
- Largest margin of victory since defeating McNeese by 16 runs on March 4, 2022
- The last time the Bulldogs scored 27 runs in a game dates back to May 8, 2010 vs. Sacramento State
- The Bulldogs’ nine runs scored in the fourth were the most scored by a LA Tech team in a single inning since putting up 12 runs against Houston Baptist (now known as Houston Christian) in the seventh inning on March 11, 2022
- Eli Berch’s seven RBI were the most produced by a Bulldog in a game since Hunter Wells posted nine against Rider in the Ruston Regional on June 4, 2021
- The last time LA Tech had nine batters come to the plate multiple times in the same game was May 3, 2024, at New Mexico State
- The last time the Bulldogs batted around multiple times in a game dates back to March 11, 2022, vs. Houston Baptist
- Seven Bulldogs recorded at least three RBI on the night (Brody Drost – 3, Reid Snider – 3, Garrison Berkley – 3, Michael Ballard – 4, Colton Coates – 4, Eli Berch – 7)
- Eight Bulldogs with multi-run performances (Cade Patterson – 2, Will Safford – 2, Brody Drost – 2, Sebastian Mexico – 2, Garrison Berkley – 3, Michael Ballard – 4, Colton Coates – 5, Eli Berch – 5)
- Reid Snider’s pinch-hit home run in the eighth was the first time a Bulldog hit a pinch-hit home run since Walker Burchfield hit one against UL-Lafayette in the seventh on May 9, 2023
- LA Tech’s five home runs sets a new season high as a team and was the third game this year with multiple home runs
- First program victory at Eck Stadium
- Most runs in a game since scoring 26 against Maine on March 1, 2020
- Most hits in a game since May 4, 2024 (18 at New Mexico State)
Head Coach Lane Burroughs after Friday’s blowout victory:
“We talked about it at home plate [before the game]—I always bring up the 10-run rule and they didn’t want to play it, but I’m glad we didn’t play the 10-run rule. Coach [Brian] Green was the coach at New Mexico State for a few years and he said before the game, ‘This is going to be a Las Cruces game’, and you can just tell. You guys have a perfect view of the wind, it was howling, and you knew there was going to be some balls hit out of the ballpark, and fortunately we got most of them. I thought our hitters were outstanding, I didn’t realize we had 17 walks. I knew it was a lot, but great job by our hitters being selective and staying with the plan. The thing I’m most proud of is—that was really discouraging when you hit a five-spot and they come back and hit one right back on you. I thought our guys—obviously the nine and seven-spot kind of put the game away, but you knew they were going to keep scoring. We had this at New Mexico State last year, it’s one of those games where no lead is safe because if you hit the ball in the air, it’s probably going to go out of the ballpark. But extremely proud of our hitters and, again, I thought our bullpen was really good. The scary thing when you’re coaching a game like this is the wind is blowing out and the strike zone was really small tonight. It was a good umpire; it was just a small zone. It was a big-league zone. You had to shove it in there and you don’t want to get ejected when you’re up by 20. But it was one of those deals— ‘Hey, we can’t put it on a tee’ and they get runners on, somebody’s going to blow the yard and now we’ve got a game. But just like playing out there in Las Cruces, you’re never really relieved until that last out is made. Extremely proud of our guys with the way they responded. Last night we came to practice, and we had a 45-minute meeting and I told our guys, ‘I don’t care if we practice, we’re going to get some stuff out tonight’ and we did. A lot of guys stood up and talked and—I don’t know, maybe that turned it around. But I do feel good about tonight, on the road against a team that has a lot of history and tradition, and to come out on top 27-12.
Coach Burroughs on the team’s eight runs scored with two outs in the third inning:
“I did know that because a couple of guys standing next to me, players were saying that. They were like, ‘All of these are with two outs.’ That’s huge, two-out hitting. We call it the bad-break at-bats, and our guys did a good job of that. Two-out hitting wins and obviously did a good job of that. There wasn’t much we didn’t do good at home plate tonight—we only struck out eight times. But we’ve done a good job of that for the most part. We struck out too many times on Wednesday, but we were facing good arms. It’s like I told the guys, you’re capable of doing that when you play together and you pull together, and nobody cares who gets the credit. When you’re not selfish, that’s what you’re capable of doing. We talk about it all the time. We talked about it pregame that I believe in this team. I think we have good hitters [and] I think we have good pitchers, and we obviously talk about how good defensively we are—we made three errors, but we’ll clean that up. I’m surprised we didn’t have more fly balls dropped or misjudged tonight. I thought that was going to be the case, when we were here five years ago it was a circus. We knew the wind was howling and it played like it tonight.”
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