Thursday, May 16
Miami, FL
6:00 PM CT
Louisiana Tech University
at
FIU
LA Tech Concludes Regular Season at FIU
5/15/2019 4:49:00 PM | Baseball
MIAMI – With a Conference USA tournament berth clinched, the Louisiana Tech baseball team will look to improve its seeding this weekend, taking on the FIU Panthers in the final regular-season series of the year.
LA Tech (32-21, 15-12 C-USA) and FIU (22-30, 11-16 C-USA) will play an earlier weekend series than usual due to the upcoming conference tournament, as the two teams will play Thursday at 6 p.m. CT, Friday at 5 p.m. CT and Saturday at 10 a.m. CT.
The Bulldogs are one of four teams that have clinched a league tournament berth (Southern Miss, Florida Atlantic and WKU), while the final four spots remain up for grabs, as none of the remaining eight teams have been officially eliminated from contention.
Tech is coming off a 7-3 defeat to No. 5 Mississippi State in Starkville on Tuesday, while FIU will look to rebound from a 6-4 road defeat to Stetson in midweek action.
This will be the 29th all-time meeting between Tech and FIU, with FIU leading the series 16-12. Tech has won three straight meetings and seven of the last nine, including winning three of four matchups last season.
The Bulldogs will stick with their normal weekend rotation as of late, in senior RHP Matt Miller (5-1, 3.62 ERA, 74.2 IP, 91 K, 29 BB) for game one, senior LHP David Leal (3-1, 3.57 ERA, 40.1 IP, 42 K, 4 BB) for game two and senior LHP Logan Bailey (6-5, 6.04 ERA, 67.0 IP, 60 K, 20 BB) for game three.
FIU will counter with last season's Freshman All-American in LHP Logan Allen in game one (4-5, 3.04 ERA, 77.0 IP, 110 K, 24 BB) and RHP Nick MacDonald (4-4, 4.00 ERA, 72.0 IP, 64 K, 16 BB) in game two. A starter for game three has yet to be announced.
Tech will look to reigning C-USA Hitter of the Week in first baseman Mason Mallard to continue his scalding senior campaign. Last week, the senior hit .733 (11-for-15) in Tech's four games, with seven doubles, five RBI and nine runs scored.
Against No. 15 LSU on the road, Mallard went 4-for-5 with three doubles, three RBI and four runs scored, while leading Tech to a 12-1 triumph in Baton Rouge (LSU's largest home loss since 2007). Then, against Western Kentucky, Mallard notched three + hits in two of the three games, including a double in all three. The Whitehouse, Texas, native slugged 1.200, while reaching base at a .737 clip for the week.
For the season, Mallard has raised his average to .390 (second-best in C-USA), while scoring the most runs of anyone in the league (63) on the strength of 78 base hits (second-most in C-USA).
Be sure to stay plugged into LATechSports.com and follow @LATechBSB on Twitter for breaking news and other items of interest on the 2019 Diamond Dogs.
LA Tech (32-21, 15-12 C-USA) and FIU (22-30, 11-16 C-USA) will play an earlier weekend series than usual due to the upcoming conference tournament, as the two teams will play Thursday at 6 p.m. CT, Friday at 5 p.m. CT and Saturday at 10 a.m. CT.
The Bulldogs are one of four teams that have clinched a league tournament berth (Southern Miss, Florida Atlantic and WKU), while the final four spots remain up for grabs, as none of the remaining eight teams have been officially eliminated from contention.
Tech is coming off a 7-3 defeat to No. 5 Mississippi State in Starkville on Tuesday, while FIU will look to rebound from a 6-4 road defeat to Stetson in midweek action.
This will be the 29th all-time meeting between Tech and FIU, with FIU leading the series 16-12. Tech has won three straight meetings and seven of the last nine, including winning three of four matchups last season.
The Bulldogs will stick with their normal weekend rotation as of late, in senior RHP Matt Miller (5-1, 3.62 ERA, 74.2 IP, 91 K, 29 BB) for game one, senior LHP David Leal (3-1, 3.57 ERA, 40.1 IP, 42 K, 4 BB) for game two and senior LHP Logan Bailey (6-5, 6.04 ERA, 67.0 IP, 60 K, 20 BB) for game three.
FIU will counter with last season's Freshman All-American in LHP Logan Allen in game one (4-5, 3.04 ERA, 77.0 IP, 110 K, 24 BB) and RHP Nick MacDonald (4-4, 4.00 ERA, 72.0 IP, 64 K, 16 BB) in game two. A starter for game three has yet to be announced.
Tech will look to reigning C-USA Hitter of the Week in first baseman Mason Mallard to continue his scalding senior campaign. Last week, the senior hit .733 (11-for-15) in Tech's four games, with seven doubles, five RBI and nine runs scored.
Against No. 15 LSU on the road, Mallard went 4-for-5 with three doubles, three RBI and four runs scored, while leading Tech to a 12-1 triumph in Baton Rouge (LSU's largest home loss since 2007). Then, against Western Kentucky, Mallard notched three + hits in two of the three games, including a double in all three. The Whitehouse, Texas, native slugged 1.200, while reaching base at a .737 clip for the week.
For the season, Mallard has raised his average to .390 (second-best in C-USA), while scoring the most runs of anyone in the league (63) on the strength of 78 base hits (second-most in C-USA).
Be sure to stay plugged into LATechSports.com and follow @LATechBSB on Twitter for breaking news and other items of interest on the 2019 Diamond Dogs.
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