Boxscore

RUSTON ? Louisiana Tech was down but not out.

Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh and down to its final out, Louisiana Tech strung together three straight hits to tie the game and send it into extra frames where the Lady Techsters eventually downed Louisiana-Monroe 6-5 Tuesday night.

Tech (16-14) evened the season series between the two I-20 rivals heading into its Western Athletic Conference opener against Top 25 Hawaii this weekend in Honolulu.

?It was tough with two outs and it didn?t seem like we had much to work with,? said Tech head coach Sarah Dawson. ?We didn?t make it easy on ourselves. We?ve won a few games this year that way so we?ve done it before. It?s matter of getting the timely hit or not getting the timely hit. Tonight we got them late.?

UL-Monroe (13-20) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead scoring single runs in the first and second innings before Tech answered with a three-run home run by junior second baseman Rochelle Sandberg with two outs in the bottom of the third. It was Sandberg?s third home run of the year.

The game remained 3-2 until Louisiana-Monroe scored two runs in the top of the sixth inning to retake a 4-3 lead.

UL-Monroe starter Lindsay Rittenhouse appeared to have Tech on the ropes in the bottom of the seventh, retiring Emma Barnes and Amberly Waits leading off the frame. However, Sandberg and Regan Clark registered back-to-back singles and Kyle Basset tied the game with an RBI single up the middle sending the game to extra frames.

Using the international tiebreaker rule, UL-Monroe took a 6-5 lead in the top of the eighth inning on a one-out run-scoring double to right field by Calli Baker.

Tech answered in the bottom of the eighth as Danielle Sheridan singled up the middle off the glove of Louisiana-Monroe shortstop Cary Roussel, scoring Ashley Cameron and Christine Echols and giving the Lady Techsters the win.

?My message to our kids after the game was to remember what this feels like,? Dawson said. ?Remember that we can come from behind with one out left and we survived. We are going to face a really tough team in Hawaii (this weekend) and there will be times when the chips are down and things look bleak. But we need to remember what we can do when we don?t give up.?

Sandberg, Clark and Carly White led Tech with two hits each while UL-Monroe was led by Jamie Liles, Heather Williams and Baker with two hits each.

Krissi Oliver (11-10) picked up the win for Tech, allowing five runs ? four earned ? on nine hits and three walks while striking out six in the complete game performance.

Rittenhouse (8-11) was tagged with the loss, allowing six runs ? five earned ? on 11 hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.