RUSTON, La. – Louisiana Tech defeats Little Rock 10-0 Tuesday night at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.
LA Tech (26-11, 11-4 C-USA) shuts out Little Rock (16-16, 6-8 Sun Belt) behind a strong start from
Greg Martinez and two timely bases clearing doubles from
Steele Netterville and
Cole McConnell.
The Bulldogs jumped out on the board in the bottom of the first as
Taylor Young led the ball game off with an infield single, later coming around to score on a RBI groundout from
Logan McLeod.
The following inning,
Steele Netterville unloaded the bases with a two-out double into the left center field gap to extend the Bulldog lead 4-0.
The Bulldogs were held scoreless for three innings until
Cole McConnell split the gap in the sixth inning clearing the bases for a three-run double to blow the game wide open, 7-0. McConnell's three RBI totaled 50 for him on the season.
Greg Martinez was spectacular in his fifth start of the season. The right-hander hurled seven shutout innings allowing just three hits, walking two and striking out a season-high eight batters.
LA Tech scored one more in the seventh on a
Taylor Young bloop single to left, and two more in the eighth on a wild pitch and passed ball on back-to-back pitches.
Landon Tomkins and
Tanner Knight combined for two perfect innings in relief. Knight was electric in the ninth, striking out the side in 14 pitches.
NOTABLES
- Martinez season-high strikeouts (8); seven scoreless innings
- Netterville with three-hit night
- Netterville two doubles shy of the program record
- Young with sixth three-hit game; 17th multi-hit game
- McConnell 2-for-3 with three RBI; moves into top ten in the nation with 50 RBI
- Third shutout of the season
- Fourth straight game with 10 or more strikeouts for Bulldog pitching
QUOTABLES
Head Coach Lane Burroughs
"Very proud of
Greg Martinez. We have five games this week so we needed him to go pretty deep into the ball game. He went seven innings of shutout baseball so that was huge for the staff."
"
Steele Netterville had the big three-run double and then they walk him later on to face
Cole McConnell, which I do not blame them with the way Steele is seeing the ball right now, even his out had a chance of getting out. Cole came up and battled and then he gets the three-run double. I couldn't be more proud of those guys for producing runs there in the middle of our order.
Adarius Myers makes the unbelievable play in left to double the runner off. That play kind of felt like the nail in the coffin the way we are swinging it right now."
UP NEXT
The Bulldogs and Northwestern State will meet tomorrow night at 6 p.m. at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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