Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 April 9, 2016 Final Stats
RUSTON, La. - Louisiana Tech continued to prove why they are the highest scoring offense in Conference USA, as the Lady Techsters pushed across six runs in both games of a double-header on Saturday afternoon.
LA Tech (20-13, 2-6 C-USA) split a pair of games with UAB (17-21, 7-4 C-USA), with the Lady Techsters defeating the Blazers 6-3 in the first contest of the day.
Louisiana Tech got off to a quick start in the first inning of game one as Morgan Turkoly hit an RBI-double to score Anna Cross and give Louisiana Tech a 1-0.
The Lady Techsters weren't done yet though as Taria Page followed with a two-RBI single and Jessica Ball crossed the plate on a caught stealing. When the dust settled, LA Tech held a 4-0 lead over the Blazers.
The rest of the offense would come from the 7-spot in the order.
Katie Smith stole the show as the shortstop blasted two solo home runs in the game, just her second and third home runs of the season.
Bailey Allen got the nod for the Lady Techsters and tossed six innings, giving up just four hits and two earned runs. Preslee Gallaway came on in the seventh inning for her fourth save of the season.
With LA Tech trailing 4-1 in the fourth inning of game two, the Lady Techsters got a run in a very untraditional way. With runners on second and third, Berkley Calapp drew a walk and trotted down to first. That is when the Blazer defense fell asleep.
Lindsey Neyland took off for the plate from third; stealing home and scoring the Lady Techsters second run of the game. That would be last Louisiana Tech run until a late rally in the seventh.
The Lady Techsters entered the seventh inning trailing 7-2, but nearly snatched a victory from UAB.
The bottom of the seventh opened with a walk from Cross, a double from Kristen Miles and a home run Pauline Tufi. Just like that, the deficit was cut to 7-5. Tutsch would double off of the right field wall to score Tori Charters and cut the deficit to 7-6, but that would be as close as the Lady Techsters would get.
Despite a four-run seventh inning, Louisiana Tech ultimately fell, 7-6.
With the home run, Pauline Tufi is now alone in fifth place for the most career home runs in Lady Techster history.
Anna Cross scored two more runs in the games today, giving her 37 for the season and inching her closer to the Louisiana Tech single-season record of 46.
The two teams will be back in action for the series finale on Sunday at 1 p.m.
