RUSTON – The Louisiana Tech baseball team gets set for a five-game road stretch coming up, starting with a midweek contest at Northwestern State.
GAME INFORMATION
Date/Time: Tuesday, April 4 | 6 p.m. CT
Location: Brown-Stroud Field (Natchitoches, La.)
TV/Stream: ESPN+
Stats: LA Tech Athletics app
Radio: Sportstalk 97.7 FM | LA Tech Athletics App
ABOUT LOUISIANA TECH (14-14)
LA Tech took the series opener from Dallas Baptist, 5-2, but the Patriots got the better of the Bulldogs in games two and three, winning 14-7 and 9-1 to take the series in Ruston. The Bulldogs fell to 4-5 in Conference USA, putting them in 7th place in the league standings.
The Bulldogs recorded five more home runs in the series, giving them 41 for the season which ranks first in C-USA and 39th in the country.
Philip Matulia had two of those five homers, giving him 11 on the season. His 11 home runs ranks second in the league and 21st in the country. He now has 30 home runs for his career.
Logan McLeod has reached base in 14 straight games. Over the last seven games, the third baseman is batting .393. He is now hitting .306 for the season, the second best batting average on the team behind Walker Burchfield who is batting .313.
Jonathan Fincher improved to 5-2 on the season and 3-0 in C-USA after his Friday night victory over Dallas Baptist. In his three conference starts, he has thrown 18.1 innings with a 1.47 ERA, allowing just three runs while registering 20 strikeouts.
Reed Smith is slated to make his sixth start on the mound. The right-hander is 1-3 this season, throwing 20.1 innings.
ABOUT NORTHWESTERN STATE (15-12)
After dropping all four games in its road series at Oregon, Northwestern State took two of three from New Orleans in its first Southland Conference series of the season.
The Demons have been very successful at home, going 10-3 at Brown-Stroud Field and having won seven of their last eight on their home field.
NSU is batting .255 as a team with Michael Dattalo leading the charge with a .363 batting average. He leads the team in hits (37), doubles (eight), RBIs (20), walks (18), and on-base percentage (.460). The Demons rank 30th in the country in walks with 150.
Pitching wise, NSU has a team ERA of 4.81. The Demons, who are scheduled to start right-hander Andrew Cossio, has produced three shutouts this season.
THE SERIES
LA Tech leads the all-time series over Northwestern State, 83-52 (on record since 1970). After not playing in 2020 or 2021, the two teams met twice last season with the Bulldogs winning both by narrow scores of 6-4 and 4-3 in a home-and-home midweek series.
LA Tech has won two straight and 15 of the last 21 meetings (dating back to 2008). The Bulldogs and Demons will meet up again on May 2 in Ruston.
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