Boxscore

FRESNO ? Louisiana Tech gave 13th-ranked Hawaii all it wanted before falling 5-2 in the first game of Thursday?s action at the 2007 Western Athletic Conference Tournament at Bulldog Diamond.

With the loss, Tech falls to the losers bracket where it will face Nevada today at 8:15 p.m. CST. The Wolf Pack lost their opening game Wednesday night by the score of 4-0 to New Mexico State.

?I?m very proud of the way we responded today,? said Tech head coach Sarah Dawson. ?We got the lead and then Hawaii scored those four runs in the second. We could have easily started doubting ourselves but the girls fought and gave themselves a chance. We just couldn?t get hits with runners in scoring position.?

One day after defeating Utah State 8-1 to open the league tournament, Tech (22-37) jumped on the Wahine (46-9) in the first inning. After Hawaii starter Justine Smethurst retired the first two batters of the game, Rochelle Sandberg doubled to the gap in right center.

Senior Ashley Cameron then jumped on a 0-2 offering from Smethurst and launched it over the left field fence, giving the Lady Techsters a 2-0 lead. It was Cameron?s ninth home run of the year and the 32nd of her Louisiana Tech career.

Hawaii cut the deficit to 2-1 in the bottom of the first, scoring an unearned run with two outs.

The Wahine, who won the WAC regular season title to earn the No. 1 seed in the tournament, then erupted for four runs on four hits in the bottom of the second inning off Tech starter Krissi Oliver.

However, Oliver settled down and didn?t allow the Hawaii juggernaut offense a hit over the final four innings of work, giving her team an opportunity to cut into the lead.

Tech, which registered six hits on the day (the same number as Hawaii), put runners on base in four of the last five innings but couldn?t get the big hit when needed. The biggest opportunity came in the fourth when Kylie Bassett and R
Regan Clark registered back-to-back one-out singles.

However, Smethurst struck out the next two Tech batters to end the threat.

The Lady Techsters had another opportunity to cut into the deficit when Ashley Cameron doubled to deep center field with one out, but once again Smethurst retired the next two Tech batters on infield pop ups.

Cameron led Tech with two hits and two RBI while Amberly Waits, Sandberg, Bassett and Clark each registered one hit.

Oliver (17-26) picked up the loss, allowing five runs ? four earned ? on six hits and two walks in the complete game performance.

Smethurst (17-7) recorded the win, allowing two earned runs on six hits and one walk while striking out 10.

Tech fans can follow all of the action of the 2007 WAC Tournament via live stats at www.latechsports.com.