RUSTON, La. - Six batters for Louisiana Tech tallied multiple hits on Sunday to secure a series sweep over Northwestern State. Tech (16-5) with a 15-5 win over Northwestern State (5-15), the Bulldogs had fifteen runs on nineteen hits while the Demons earned five runs on seven hits and two errors on Sunday afternoon at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.
Tech's offense started hot with a two-run homer from
Dalton Davis, which happened to be his fourth of the year.
Ethan Bates gave the Bulldogs back-to-back home runs after he hit his fourth homer of the season. Tech closed out the first inning with a 3-0 lead over the Demons. Northwestern State struck with a homer to left-center field from Daniel Burroway in the top of the second, making it a 3-1 game.
Louisiana Tech's bat struck again after scoring five runs in the bottom of the second inning. After a
Cole McConnell (3-for-5, 2 RBI, 2B) RBI single scored
Kasten Furr, made the game 4-1 in the Bulldogs' favor. Bates (3-for-6, 3 RBI, HR) earned an RBI single after scoring McConnell afterward,
Jorge Corona (4-for-5, 3 RBI, 2 2B) earned himself an RBI on the night after he scored Davis in the inning, putting Tech up 6-1.
Michael Ballard walked, which led Bates to score due to a passed ball from Northwestern State's pitcher.
Logan McLeod (2-for-4, RBI, BB) also earned an RBI with a single up the middle, advancing Corona to home while extending Tech's lead to 8-1.
Eventually, Tech scored two more runs in the bottom of the fifth, with help from Bates's RBI single and an
Adarius Myers sac fly RBI, while the lead grew to 10-1. Afterward, the Demons scored five runs in the sixth, following a two-RBI double, an RBI double, and an RBI single, cutting the score to 10-5. Then Tech extended the lead from a bases-loaded HBP RBI from McConnell, and Davis tallied a two-RBI double with Corona earning a sac fly RBI, and the score to result in 14-5.
A Corona RBI double ended the game in the bottom of the eighth inning, resulting in a 15-5 score. Pitcher
Reed Smith with 2.2 innings of work, faced 11 batters and struck out five on Sunday evening.
Turner Swistak had 5.1 innings of work while having six strikeouts, and he had the longest outing of any Tech pitcher this season. Davis, with his five-hit day, became the first player since Manny Garcia against Southern Miss in May of 2021 to have five hits in a game.
QUOTABLES
Head Coach
Lane Burroughs:
"I'm proud of our guys, obviously, a sweep against a good team, but don't let their record fool you. Northwestern State is good and more than capable of winning a lot of games. We had the delay, some rain, and fight through some elements, which you worry about the mindset of a team when that happens. I thought our guys came out smoking and made a statement with three and five runs. Our top-five hitters, when we get our guys rolling like that lineup becomes nasty."
UP NEXT
Louisiana Tech travels to Baton Rouge on Tuesday in a midweek match-up against the No. 2 LSU Tigers. The first pitch for Tuesday's game will be at 6:30 PM at Alex Box Stadium.
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