RUSTON – Landon Tomkins threw 5.1 innings of one-hit baseball and Philip Matulia hit a three-run homer as the two seniors propelled Louisiana Tech to a 7-5 victory over UTSA in the regular season finale on an overcast Saturday afternoon at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.
 
Tomkins and Matulia got standing ovations on their exits.  And rightfully so.  Not just for their standout careers with the Bulldogs, but for their standout performances in their last game played at the Love Shack.    
 
Tomkins (6-1) had a no-hitter going until the sixth inning when a soft chopper got through the right side for a single to break it up.  Meanwhile, Matulia broke a 2-2 tie in the second inning with a three-run jack to right center off Ryan Beaird (4-2) for his 18th homer of the season.   
 
Just like in games one and two, UTSA (38-17, 21-8 C-USA) plated two runs in the top of the first inning.  No hits were required this time as both runs scored as a result of two infield errors by the 'Dogs.
 
LA Tech (27-29, 15-15 C-USA) quickly erased that deficit in the bottom half of the inning thanks to a leadoff home run by hot-hitting Dalton Davis and an RBI bloop single from Adarius Myers with two outs.
 
Matulia's homer, which came two pitches after taking a hard foul ball off his right foot, made it 5-2 in favor of the Bulldogs an inning later.  Then a second solo blast by Davis, his fourth of the series and ninth in the last 11 games, made it 6-2 in the fourth.
 
The Roadrunners got that run back in the sixth when Josh Killeen singled through the right side off reliever Caden Copeland to score Leyton Barry who had broken up the no-hitter by Tomkins.
 
Myers gave the 'Dogs a four-run lead yet again in the seventh, leading off the inning with a single.  He then advanced to second on a single by Logan McLeod, tagged up and went to third on a flyout by Kyle Hasler, and then raced home on a wild pitch. 
 
UTSA got solo homers from Antonio Valdez in the eighth and Shane Sirdashney in the ninth, but Ethan Bates claimed his 10th save of the year after throwing 1.2 innings, getting his second strikeout to end the game.
 
QUOTABLES
Head coach Lane Burroughs
 
"I want to give a sincere shout out to our fanbase.  It has been a tough year.  It has not always been pretty.  A lot of growing pains, but our fans kept coming out.  We have a tremendous fanbase and they showed up today.  I can't thank them enough."
 
"I'm extremely proud for our seniors, going out with a win at home.  We have been playing good baseball for the last month now, but we just got behind the eight ball early.  We did not intend to pitch Landon that long, but he did have a no-hitter going.  He was phenomenal.  Gutsy effort by Ethan, getting six tough outs against a good hitting team.  Very proud of our guys.  It was the last game at home and we went for it."
 
UP NEXT
LA Tech will be the No. 6 seed in the Conference USA Baseball Championship in Houston, Texas.  The Bulldogs will play Wednesday, May 24 at a time and against a team to be determined.
 
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