RUSTON, La. – Louisiana Tech led all of game three and completed the opening series sweep of Wichita State 5-3 on Sunday at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.
 
Bulldog starting pitcher, Jarret Whorff, battled through his four innings of work allowing two earned runs but striking out six Shocker hitters. Whorff did not allow a hit until entering the fifth inning when Jordan Rogers doubled to left field.
 
Greg Martinez ate up three crucial innings in his first appearance of 2022. Martinez threw three shutout innings, striking out four and allowing just two hits.
 
Kyle Crigger came on in the eighth inning and slammed the door in back-to-back days, punching out three batters and earning save number one on the young season.
 
Bulldog left-fielder Philip Matulia got the offense started early on, belting a solo home run off the scoreboard in right field to take an early lead.
 
Cole McConnell came up clutch in the third, singling to bring around two runs. Matulia then scored on a wild pitch pushing the Bulldog lead 4-1. McConnell leads the squad after the opening series with six RBI.
 
Wichita State (0-3) cut the LA Tech (3-0) deficit to one after a sacrifice fly from Brock Rodden and an infield RBI single from Couper Cornblum.
 
Adarius Myers delivered with a two-out RBI single to go up 5-3, when the Shockers should have been out of the inning following an error.
 
QUOTABLES
Head Coach Lane Burroughs
 
"Jarret (Whorff) was on a pitch count. He had some shoulders issues. I am almost glad they got a hit, because I didn't want to get boo'd when I went to take him out of the game since he had a no-hitter going. I thought he pitched phenomenal. Greg Martinez's first time out, his stuff was outstanding. We asked a lot of (Kyle) Crigger. We were asking him to go multiple nights and multiple innings and that's tough. Obviously, Philip (Matulia) made the great play throwing the guy out at home. If that doesn't happen things start to get hairy really quick."
 
"I thought we played extremely hard and that's who we are. I thought we competed our tails off. Very, very pleased with our pitching. Friday night we had fourteen strikeouts over zero walks. We talk about dominating average plays and we did that. Just one error and it was a throwing error that just got away from him."
 
"It wasn't a hitter's day today so we put some runners in motion all weekend and starting to figure out who we are. You can not start it off any better. Very proud of them and the way they competed."

UP NEXT
LA Tech hosts the No. 8 LSU Tigers Wednesday, February, 23 at 6 p.m. for the first time since 1997.
 
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