RUSTON, La. – Louisiana Tech defeats Northwestern State 6-4 Wednesday night at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.
LA Tech (27-11, 11-4 C-USA) takes midweek matchup from Northwestern State (17-19, 6-6 Southland) behind solid performance from three Bulldog arms and production from the top of the order.
The Demons jumped out on top in the first inning on a two-out three-run home run from Brock Holmes. The Bulldogs answered with one run in the bottom half as
Taylor Young scored on a RBI groundout from
Steele Netterville.
LA Tech scored one more in the second cutting the deficit to 3-2 when
Wade Elliott grounded into a double play with the bases loaded.
The Bulldogs took the lead in the third on an RBI from
Walker Burchfield and a
Philip Matulia sacrifice fly to center.
In the fourth, Netterville added another RBI on a line drive single to left bringing home the fifth run and
Cole McConnell followed up with a base knock up the middle extending the lead 6-3.
The Bulldogs scored all six of their runs between the first and fourth innings.
Jarret Whorff threw two solid innings after the three-run shot in the first, earning the win in a bullpen game and improving to 4-5 on the season.
Ryan Harland was nails once again in relief. The left-hander tossed four shut down innings punching out five, allowing just two hits, no walks and no runs. The true freshman has now hurled 24 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run which came back in his first outing against Tulane on February 27.
Kyle Crigger threw the final two innings. Crigger pitched a clean eighth inning and managed to work around a bases-loaded no out jam in the ninth clinching the win and his seventh save of the year.
NOTABLES
- Bulldogs have won four straight.
- Five straight games with 10 plus strikeouts from Tech pitching
- Netterville extends hit streak to 10
- McLeod extends hit streak to seven
- McConnell 2-for-4 with an RBI single
- Harland with four shutout frames in relief
- Crigger earns seventh save of the season
QUOTABLES
Head Coach Lane Burroughs
"I didn't feel anyone panicked after the three-run homer in the first inning. Whorff made a mistake and he proceeded to throw up two zeroes.
Ryan Harland did
Ryan Harland stuff. He kept us in the ball game as we kept chipping away and we took the lead. Credit their guys. They kept us off balance as we weren't able to get runs across in the later innings. Both of us played games last night so you knew it would be a tight game."
"Steele had the big hit for us. Cole had a big RBI, Matulia had a sac-fly and Burchfield as well. We had some huge at-bats. Any way you can get out of here with a win."
UP NEXT
LA Tech is set to host Middle Tennessee for a three-game conference series beginning Friday at 6 p.m.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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