RUSTON – Louisiana Tech baseball is off to a 3-0 start and a series win for the fourth time in the past five seasons and the seventh time since head coach
Lane Burroughs arrived to Ruston in 2017. The bats slowed down a bit in comparison to Friday's season opener, but a solid all-around pitching performance and a handful of clutch at-bats proved to be successful for the home side.
The Diamond 'Dogs started right where they left off to begin the first of Saturday's doubleheader with the Houston Christian Huskies (0-3), with the first three batters reaching by means of a
Colton Coates leadoff walk followed by
Trey Hawsey getting hit by a pitch.
Colby Lunsford, who ended Friday's game with a 3-4 night in the form of two homers and an RBI double, drove in Tech's first run of the day with another RBI two-bagger before
Sebastian Mexico made it a two-run lead with an RBI groundout.
An RBI double by Coates in the second and a sacrifice fly from
Hayden Gustavson gave the 'Dogs a four-run cushion, but the Huskies answered back in the seventh after three scoreless innings from both sides. An RBI base hit and a sac fly in the seventh closed the gap to two before a bases-loaded hit by pitch in the eighth made it just a one-run game late.
A pair of base hits from
Wesley Scott and
Zeb Ruddell was how the home half got started, followed with both runners advancing 90 feet on a perfectly laid sacrifice bunt from Gustavson.
Cade Patterson, the hero from Friday's win with a pair of grand slams, gave the 'Dogs some insurance with a sacrifice fly to center.
Rowan Hudson went five scoreless innings in his Bulldog debut, allowing just one hit, two walks and punching out two Husky batters while earning the win.
Luke Nichols picked up his first save of the new year and the third of his career. The graduate southpaw tossed the final 1.1 innings giving up no runs on two hits with a pair of punchouts.
Game 2 of Saturday's doubleheader saw a similar start for LA Tech's offense, jumping out 2-0 in the first on back-to-back RBI doubles by Mexico and
Eli Berch, but an RBI double in the second and another RBI knock in the third by HCU tied the game early in the seven-inning contest.
Tech was swift to respond with two runs in the fourth on an RBI base hit through the middle of the infield from Hawsey before Berch drew a bases-loaded walk and doubled the 'Dogs' advantage. The Huskies continued to battle at the plate, making it a one-run game again in the sixth on an RBI base hit through the right side. The 'Dogs looked to put HCU away, plating two more in the home half on Mexico's second RBI double of the game followed by Patterson's second sac fly of the day to push the lead out to three.
Thomas Allen entered the game in the top of the sixth for his first career appearance, also picking up his first career strikeout to put away the final out of the frame. The freshman looked to also earn his first save with two outs and a runner on first in the seventh, but back-to-back base hits and a run scored forced the coaching staff to make a move.
Graduate
Nate Crider entered out of the bullpen, and just needed three pitches to strike out the final batter of the game and earn the first save of his Bulldog career.
The Bulldogs close out the series with the Huskies on Sunday, February 15 at the Love Shack. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT.
Notables
- Wesley Scott, Hayden Gustavson, Nathan Houston, Hudson Rowan, McCann Libby, Brecken Menuet and Thomas Allen all made their Bulldog debuts on Saturday
- Lane Burroughs earned his 312th and 313th win at LA Tech, now just three wins shy of tying Barry Hinton for the second-most coaching wins in program history
- Colby Lunsford is now 7-11 at the plate to start the season with four runs, two doubles, two homers, six RBI and an OPS of 2.031
- Cade Patterson currently leads the team with 10 RBI and is alongside Lunsford as the only two Bulldogs with home runs, each having two thus far
- Kade Parker earned his first win of 2026 and fifth of his LA Tech career, improving to 5-1 as a Bulldog
- Mexico, Lunsford and Coates all have at least one base hit through each of the first three games
Quotables
Coach Burroughs Opening Statement:
"I'm very proud of our team. A doubleheader, long day at the field and a lot different than last night. Last night, we put up a lot of runs and [HCU] had one big inning, but today was a lot different. They were closer games, we need that. They're a very prideful program—went to a regional last year and got about 3/4 of their team back. I thought
Hudson Rowan was very good. Hudson is a very emotional, high-intensity kid so it took him a while to settle in. I thought once he did, he executed the game plan to perfection. The wind was blowing in today, we had more a south wind and yesterday was more a north wind, so the ball is not going anywhere. I thought Hudson did a great job of pounding strikes and getting a lot of weak fly balls to right field. We got some big hits when we needed them. I thought, all day long, that we executed the small game really well. We had some great bunts. Obviously, Lunsford stayed hot.
Cade Patterson had some great at-bats,
Zeb Ruddell is starting to get going. One thing I loved about today is
Trey Hawsey coming back after struggling yesterday and having some great at-bats today. You have to put those bad ones behind you—the great players do. I'm proud of him. I thought
Kade Parker came in and calmed the storm on the mound, and he was outstanding. You saw the promise in freshman
Thomas Allen with his velocity and breaking ball. I wanted him to finish the game, but we went with
Nate Crider and his three breaking balls were pretty naughty. I think the bullpen can be one of the strengths of our club, and I think we saw that in moments today."
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