RUSTON – The Diamond 'Dogs (8-2) fell in a hard-fought battle to #12 Southern Miss (8-1), 8-3, at the Love Shack Friday night.
 
The Golden Eagles jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning on a two-run homer from the second at-bat of the game. The Bulldogs quickly escaped the inning on a groundout and a pair of punchouts. LA Tech threatened in the home half with a double and a single on two outs, but a swinging strikeout left the runners stranded at the corners.
 
The 'Dogs evened the score in the home half of the second thanks to a two-run no-doubter off the bat of freshman second baseman Casey McCoy with two outs, and eventually took the lead in the third on a one-out RBI knock through the left side from redshirt sophomore right fielder Cade Patterson.
 
Southern Miss responded with a three-run blast over the right center wall with no outs in the top of the fourth before adding three more insurance runs in the eighth on a one-out RBI single and a two-out two-run base hit to cap off Friday's matchup.
 
Outside of a small number of mistaken locations, Declan Dahl put together a solid performance on the mound in his third start as a Bulldog. The junior righty went 5 2/3 innings allowing five runs on six hits with nine strikeouts and no walks allowed. Thomas Allen was efficient in his bullpen appearance, tossing a scoreless final 1 1/3 innings giving up a hit and striking out a batter.
 
Colby Lunsford continued his hot hitting at the plate, posting his sixth multi-hit game with a pair of doubles and a run scored. Lunsford and Sebastian Mexico both extended their hitting streak to 10 games.
 
Game 2 of the weekend series is set for Saturday, February 28 at 4 p.m. CT at the Love Shack. Live stream will be available on ESPN+ and live stats can be found at LATechSports.com/stats. Saturday's radio broadcast will be available on 99.3 FM, the LA Tech Athletics app and the Varsity Network app.
 
Quotables
 
Head Coach Lane Burroughs:
"I thought the crowd was unbelievable. We had a great crowd tonight, and I thought our energy was really good. I thought it was two really good college baseball teams going at each other. I thought Declan pitched extremely well, very proud of him. He made one mistake in the first with the homer, and their guy made a mistake with our homer, and we get the lead early in the game. When you're playing a good team like Southern Miss, who has a tremendous bullpen that's deep, you have to pounce when you get a lead and expand it. Credit to their bullpen—they did a good job. We had our opportunities. They loaded the bases late and got the bloop single to put it away, but I never felt like we didn't compete. I didn't feel like the energy wasn't there. It's a Friday night loss. I thought it was two really good pitchers going at each other, and I felt like we took some good swings. I felt like we did a good job of getting their starter's pitch count up. He's a sinker-slider guy, and I thought we laid off some good pitches and pounced on some good pitches that were in the zone, and we took some good swings at those. Their plan was to swing early in the count. Declan had nine punchouts with no walks—I don't think you can ask much more from the young man when he's pitching against a top-15 team. I was really pleased with him. I thought Riley Fisher threw the ball really good, and Thomas Allen there at the end of the game was good as well. I have no problem with the way we competed. We're playing a really good team, and you have to find a way to get the runners in when they get on, and we didn't do that tonight. Credit to Southern Miss—they outplayed us and won the game. The main thing we have to do is get some rest, get some food, and come out here tomorrow and find a way to win the game, and put ourselves in a position to win the series. I felt like our guys came ready to play, and I thought they played extremely hard. It's baseball—sometimes it'll go your way, and sometimes it won't. I'm not down on our team, I'm not upset with our team, and I'm looking forward to coming out tomorrow to compete and try to get a win."
 
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