RUSTON, La. – The Louisiana Tech baseball team will return to play in North Louisiana for the first time in nine games, hosting Conference USA foe Western Kentucky in a three-game weekend set from Warhawk Field on the campus of ULM.
 
The Bulldogs (30-19, 13-11 C-USA) and Hilltoppers (23-22-1, 14-9-1 C-USA) will play Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. from the campus of ULM after Tech's usual home facility in J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park was destroyed by an EF3 tornado that ripped through the city of Ruston two weeks ago.
 
Admission is free to all three contests and fans can tune into CUSA.tv (subscription required) to watch or listen locally on KNBB 97.7 FM or through the LA Tech X Mobile App with Dave Nitz on the broadcast for the weekend set.
 
Tech will celebrate its 12 seniors in a pregame ceremony 30 minutes prior to Saturday's first pitch at 4 p.m. The Bulldogs will honor seniors, Logan Bailey, Chris Clayton, Graham Hackbarth, Tanner Huddleston, David Leal, Quinton Logan, Mason Mallard, Matt Miller, Logan Robbins, Mason Robinson, Braxton Smith and Shelton Wallace.
 
Tech enters the weekend on a positive note after dismantling No. 15 LSU, 12-1, on Tuesday evening – claiming its first win over the Tigers since 1987. The win marked the largest home loss for the Tigers since the 2007 season (5-16 vs. Ole Miss).
 
The Bulldogs will look to snap a streak of two consecutive league series defeats, after winning four straight leading into its most recent nine-game road stretch.
 
Meanwhile, WKU enters the weekend on the heels of a home sweep over Rice last weekend. The three-game sequence moved the Hilltoppers into sole possession of third place in the C-USA standings, leading the fourth-place Bulldogs by slim percentage points (.604 to .542).
 
The race for the top eight in Biloxi remains wide open as Southern Miss (18-6) and Florida Atlantic (17-7) are the only two programs who have clinched spots in the postseason league tournament with just two weekends left.
 
The Bulldogs are led offensively by senior first baseman Mason Mallard who leads the team and ranks second in the league with a .373 batting average. The Whitehouse, Texas, native is having a banner senior season, while leading the club in hits (69), home runs (7), total bases (102), slugging (.551), on-base percentage (.473) and stolen bases (18).
 
WKU is led offensively by junior outfielder Jake Sanford, who leads C-USA in nearly every statistical category – batting average (.420), slugging (.867), on-base percentage (.505), hits (76), RBI (62), home runs (20) and total bases (157).
 
Tech will stick with its new weekend rotation debuted last week with three veteran arms in senior RHP Matt Miller (5-1, 3.41 ERA, 71.1 IP, 86 K, 27 BB), senior LHP David Leal (2-1, 4.05 ERA, 33.1 IP, 34 K, 4 BB) and senior LHP Logan Bailey (5-5, 6.16 ERA, 61.1 IP, 54 K, 20 BB) in that order.
 
WKU is projected to counter with RHP Reece Calvert (1-2, 4.61 ERA, 41.0 IP, 30 K, 15 BB), LHP Troy Newell (3-3, 6.66 ERA, 50.0 IP, 52 K, 33 BB) and RHP Joe Filosa (1-0, 5.14 ERA, 35.0 IP, 28 K, 21 BB).
 
With inclement weather in the forecast for most of the weekend, be sure to stay plugged into LATechSports.com and follow @LATechBSB on Twitter for all updates and possible schedule changes.