RUSTON – After spending the last five games at home, Louisiana Tech hits the road to take on Florida Atlantic in a three-game conference series this weekend. The Bulldogs are in fourth place in the C-USA standings while the Owls are half a game back in a three-way for fifth.
 
SERIES INFORMATION
Dates/Times: Friday, May 12 (5:30 p.m. CT) | Saturday, May 13 (3 p.m. CT) | Sunday, May 14 (11 a.m. CT)
Location: FAU Baseball Stadium (Boca Raton, Florida)
TV/Stream: CUSA.tv
Stats: HERE | LA Tech Athletics app
Radio: Sportstalk 97.7 FM | LA Tech Athletics app
Weekend Rotation: Friday (LHP Jonathan Fincher) | Saturday (TBA) | Sunday (TBA)
 
ABOUT LOUISIANA TECH (25-25, 13-11 C-USA)
LA Tech is coming off a 12-8 victory over rival UL-Lafayette this past Tuesday. Down two after allowing six unanswered runs by the Ragin' Cajuns, Walker Burchfield hit a pinch-hit grand slam to propel the Bulldogs to the win. He became the third Bulldog this season (along with Ethan Bates and Brody Drost) to hit a grand slam.
 
LA Tech blasted four home runs in the victory, marking the sixth time this season they have hit at least four homers in a single game.
 
The offense has started to come alive for LA Tech, having scored double-digit runs in three of its last eight games (averaging 9.0 runs and batting .308). During this stretch, Adarius Myers has started to heat up again batting .389. Meanwhile, four Bulldogs (Ethan Bates, Will Safford, Dalton Davis, and Brody Drost) have hit at least three homers.
 
Ace left-hander Jonathan Fincher is slated to make his 13th start of the season and the 47th start of his career on Friday. He is 27-12 all-time on the mound, having won at least eight games in each of the last three seasons. His eight victories this year is the most in C-USA and tied for the 12th most in the country.
 
ABOUT FLORIDA ATLANTIC (28-21, 12-12 C-USA)
Florida Atlantic had won five straight, tied for its longest winning streak of the season, prior to suffering a Sunday conference loss at Charlotte and a midweek road defeat to Florida Gulf Coast.  Those five victories came in a three-game sweep over FIU and taking the first two games in the series versus the 49ers.
 
FAU is 22-8 at home this season, including 8-4 in C-USA games.  Six of those conference home wins came in sweeps over FIU and Middle Tennessee.
 
Offensively, the Owls are anchored by one of the best players in college baseball, Nolan Schanuel.  The infielder/outfielder ranks top 10 in the country in several categories including walks (52), batting average (.454), on-base percentage (.610), slugging percentage (.902), and total bases (147).  He also has a team-high 17 home runs and 53 RBIs. 
 
Pitching wise, FAU's top two throwers are Hunter Cooley and Jacob Josey who each have four victories this season.      
 
THE SERIES
Florida Atlantic leads the all-time series over LA Tech, 6-5.  Despite being C-USA opponents since 2014, this will be just the fourth time LA Tech and FAU face off in a weekend series (2014, 2019, and 2022).
 
The Owls took two of three from the Bulldogs last season in Ruston while the Bulldogs won two of three in 2019, the last time they played in Boca Raton. Eight of the 11 meetings have come in Florida or in the Conference USA Championship.
 
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