Feb. 19, 2011

Box Score

"Mike (Jefferson) kept his pitch count down and only had one walk on the night. When you don't give freebies it really helps your cause," said Bulldogs' pitching coach Brian Rountree. "It is important to just be a professional mitt hitter and that is what Mike did. He gave us a chance to win tonight by pounding strikes and not walking people."

The Bulldogs got on the board during the first inning after Kyle Roliard scored on a throwing error by Chase Jaramillo. Junior Alex Williams added another run for Tech as his RBI single up the middle drove in Mark Threlkeld. Both runs were unearned.

Nicholls State (1-1) starter Patrick Shreve was sacked with the loss after fanning six Bulldogs while allowing just one hit over 5.0 innings of work.

After a quick first inning on the mound for Tech, Mike Jefferson allowed a walk and an infield single to start off the Colonels' second inning. However, Jefferson worked out of the early jam with his first pickoff of the night followed by a fly out and a strikeout to retire the side.

In the top of the fourth inning, Scott Moseley had a leadoff single through the right side but was picked off by Jefferson during the next at-bat. Following a ground out and consecutive base hits to put a run on the board for Nicholls, Jefferson ended the scoring threat with his third pickoff of the evening.

In the bottom of the sixth inning the Bulldogs jumped over Nicholls' reliever Michael Baxter as Joey Ford doubled down the right field line and was driven in courtesy of an RBI single by Clint Ewing. Corey Poche entered the game in relief of Baxter with no outs and stranded two Tech runners on base.

Jefferson got a quick out to start the seventh inning but a base hit and a throwing error followed by a Mace Krol RBI double brought the Colonels within one. Looking to shut down the rally, the Bulldogs called upon sophomore Dan Breazeale from the bullpen. Needing just one out to get out of the inning, Breazeale induced a ground ball to second base to sit down the Colonels.

Jefferson finished the night allowing seven hits, two runs, one walk and five strikeouts in 6.2 innings of work. Breazeale fanned one batter in 1.1 innings of hitless relief.

With one out in the bottom of the inning, 3B Mark Threlkeld drilled a first pitch over the center field batter's eye to give Tech a two-run cushion in the game. The home run was the 20th of his career.

Looking for his third career save, Caleb Dudley entered the game in the ninth inning for Tech. Beau Faulk led off with a single down the left field line but was thrown out by Kyle Roliard after attempting to advance to second base. Dudley would need just three more pitches to force a groundout and a fly out to close out the game for the Bulldogs.

"We've had two quality starts so far this weekend," said senior Clint Ewing. "It was a hard fought win tonight but you need to fight early in the season. We wouldn't accomplish anything if we were just blowing doors off of people right now. The experience in close games will pay dividends for us when we enter conference play."

Louisiana Tech (2-0) returns to action tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. as the Bulldogs play host to Grambling State in the finale of the Louisiana Tech Classic.

Notes: Tech improves to 21-24 all-time against Nicholls State and 8-2 during the Simoneaux era... Tech has now won eight-straight games at J.C. Love Field which is the longest such streak since Tech won nine games from April 5 to May 14 during the 2009 season... Ryan Gebhardt and Taylor Burch saw their first action in a Louisiana Tech uniform... Caleb Dudley recorded his first save of the season and the third of his career...Mike Jefferson's three pickoffs marked the first time that a Tech pitcher had accomplished the feat since David Arthur picked off three runners against New Orleans in 1997.