RUSTON, La. – Louisiana Tech's baseball team will ride a four-game winning streak into a weekend home series against No. 1 Arkansas starting on Friday night. The Bulldogs search for their first win versus a top-ranked team in program history during the three-game home series against the 10-0 Razorbacks.
All three games this weekend at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park will be broadcasted on Cox Sports TV. For a full list of Cox Sports Television affiliates, visit
coxsportstv.com/affiliates. This weekend's games will also be streamed live on ESPN+.
LA Tech (8-3) is 0-14 in program history against top-ranked opponents, dropping five of those contests by two runs or less. The Bulldogs last played a No. 1 team in 2010, which is when the 'Dogs dropped a pair of games at No. 1 Texas.
Tech's most recent victory over a top-five opponent came against the Razorbacks in 2007. The Diamond Dogs defeated No. 4 Arkansas 9-2 on Feb. 3, 2007, in the old Love Shack. Former LA Tech third baseman Courtney Jones went 3-for-4 with four RBI and two runs scored in the win.
Series Information
Game Times (Friday-Sunday): 6 p.m. | 2 p.m. | 1 p.m.
Location: J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park
TV/Live Stream: Cox Sports TV | ESPN+
Radio/Streamed Radio Broadcast: KNBB 99.3 FM (Friday & Sunday); Skyview Z107.5 FM (Saturday) | latechsports.com (Friday-Sunday)
Projected Starting Pitchers (Friday-Sunday)
LA Tech: Jonathan Fincher (LHP),
Ryan Jennings (RHP) &
Jarret Whorff (RHP)
Fincher: 2-0, 1.20 ERA, 15.0 IP, 22 K, 4 BB
Jennings: 1-0, 3.65 ERA, 12.1 IP, 14 K, 2 BB
Whorff: 2-1, 2.76 ERA, 16.1 IP, 13 K, 4 BB
Arkansas: Peyton Pallette (RHP), Zebulon Vermillion (RHP) & Lael Lockhart (LHP)
Pallette: 1-0, 1.35 ERA, 13.1 IP, 26 K, 5 BB
Vermillion: 0-0, 3.86 ERA, 9.1 IP, 6 K, 6 BB
Lockhart: 1-0, 2.77 ERA, 13.0 IP, 19 K, 6 BB
About the Diamond Dogs:
LA Tech earned its first true road victory of the season on Tuesday with a 10-3 come-from-behind triumph at ULM. The Diamond Dogs trailed 3-1 entering the seventh, but Tech's bats came alive as the 'Dogs tallied seven runs on five hits, three walks and an HBP.
Right after Tech took a 4-3 lead, left fielder
Philip Matulia cleared the bases with a three-run triple to push the lead to 7-3. Catcher
Jorge Corona smacked a single through the left side of the infield to tack on the seventh run of the inning, making it 8-3 Bulldogs heading into the bottom half.
Relievers
Tanner Knight and
Greg Martinez provided outstanding performances in relief, combining to tally 10 strikeouts while allowing just one earned run in 7.1 innings on the mound. Martinez nailed down the final 10 outs of the game to earn his second pitching victory of the season.
Conference USA Co-Hitter of the Week
Manny Garcia continued swinging a hot bat in Tuesday's game, smacking his second home run of the year during his first at-bat at Warhawk Field. Garcia became the fourth Diamond Dog this season to tally a home run in back-to-back games, joining Matulia, senior
Hunter Wells and senior
Taylor Young.
The Bulldogs remain undefeated in their new stadium, recording back-to-back sweeps of Southern and McNeese State to sit at 6-0 at the Love Shack this season. LA Tech has outscored visiting teams 55-14 through six games in the friendly confines at the corner of West Alabama and Tech Drive.
LA Tech holds a 6-25 record all-time against Arkansas, going 3-7 against the Razorbacks in the past 10 meetings. Tech won back-to-back games against Arkansas between the 2016 and 2017 seasons, avenging a pair of one-run defeats in the previous two games to record a 3-2 win on March 2, 2016, and a 4-3 win on Feb. 28, 2017.
Scouting Arkansas:
The unanimous No. 1 team in the country will play its first true road games of the 2021 season in Ruston this weekend. The Razorbacks opened the season with three straight wins over top-10 teams, defeating No. 3 Texas Tech, No. 9 Texas and No. 10 TCU at the State Farm College Baseball Showdown in Arlington, Texas.
Arkansas is also 2-0 in one-run contests this year, battling back twice at home to record wins by a single run. The Razorbacks most recently completed a three-game sweep of Murray State at Baum-Walker Stadium over the weekend.
Junior Brady Slavens leads the Hogs with four home runs, 27 total bases and is tied with teammate Christian Franklin for a team-best 11 RBI. Arkansas has tallied 17 homers in just 10 games this season.
The Hogs' pitching staff ranks 18
th in the nation with 12.1 strikeouts per nine innings, tallying 117 total punchouts on the year. Arkansas' weekend rotation has allowed just two extra-base hits in 35.2 innings pitched in 2021.
The last time the Hogs dropped a game to a C-USA opponent came to the Diamond Dogs on March 9, 2019. LA Tech scored 12 runs at Baum-Walker Stadium to knock off the Razorbacks on the road.
