MOBILE, Ala. – The Diamond 'Dogs (10-7) secured a rubber match victory on Sunday afternoon, defeating the South Alabama Jaguars (11-5) by a score of 6-1 at Eddie Stanky Field in Mobile.
Tech was efficient at the plate at the start of Sunday's game, scoring a run in each of the first four innings. The 'Dogs had runners on second and third in the opening frame with a leadoff single by
Cade Patterson and a one-out double from
Trey Hawsey before loading the bases on
Sebastian Mexico getting hit by a pitch.
A looking strikeout gave South Alabama two outs, but Patterson came across for the first run of the game on a passed ball in the next at-bat.
Matt Houston led off the second with a solo homer on a 2-2 count before a sacrifice fly gave Tech a 3-0 lead in the third. The Jaguars scored their lone run of the day in the home half on a sac fly.
The 'Dogs put runners on first and third in the fourth after
Zeb Ruddell reached on a one-out base hit and advanced to second on a walk drawn by
Casey McCoy. A fly out to right allowed Ruddell to advance to third before scoring on an errant throw to first for a pickoff attempt that rolled to the wall outside of the Tech dugout.
The score held stagnant for three innings until the eighth when Tech drew four walks in the frame to add a run to their lead, with two of the walks drawn occurring on four pitches each.
Trey Hawsey capped off the day with some late insurance, belting his fifth homer of the season and second in as many games on the first pitch of his at-bat.
Brooks Roberson recorded a quality start on the mound for the Bulldogs, tossing five innings allowing one run while scattering four hits and punching out two Jaguar hitters.
Luke Nichols threw 2 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball, allowing no hits and a walk with three punchouts.
Nichols ran into some trouble late in the eighth, loading the bases with two outs by hitting two batters and giving up a walk on a 3-2 count. Freshman
Thomas Allen entered out of the pen and delivered a clutch strikeout with the tying run at the plate to send the game into the final inning.
The Benton native ran into some traffic to start the home half of the ninth hitting the leadoff batter and giving up a base hit, but a pair of swinging strikeouts and a fielder's choice ended the day and secured the series win for the 'Dogs. Allen earned the first save of his collegiate career, and Roberson improves to 3-1 on the season.
The Bulldog pitching staff picked up their sixth-straight game with eight combined strikeouts, while the offense saw their fourth-straight game hitting a homer and three of the last four with multiple round-trippers.
LA Tech returns to the Love Shack on Tuesday, March 10 for a midweek contest with the Lamar Cardinals. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT. Tuesday's contest will be streamed on ESPN+, and can be heard on 97.7 FM, the LA Tech Athletics app or the Varsity Network app.
Quotables
Head Coach Lane Burroughs:
"We had three intense ball games all weekend. Everybody was into it on both sides. I'm very proud of our guys. We were down, and we challenged them this weekend especially after Friday night, and they answered the challenge and showed what kind of team we can be. Maybe we're getting hot at the right time. We have a big week ahead of us with Lamar, and then Delaware coming in town to start league play. I'm very proud of our hitters the past two days in getting runners on base. Even if we don't get them in, we create traffic on the bases and that puts pressure on the pitchers and the defense.
Matt Houston had a great game—hit another homer, and Trey got on one as well. Two unbelievable outfield plays by Zeb and Cade—just tremendous outfield plays that were huge plays for us. I'm proud of the whole team. I thought Brooks gave us a great start—he started to run out of gas and then Luke came in and did his thing. He gave us what we needed, and then Thomas came in and was electric there at the end. He's showing what kind of pitcher he can be, and for a freshman to walk in this environment in that situation and nail it down, that says a lot about him. Very proud of the whole unit. A lot of energy—everybody was pulling in the same direction, and when we do that, we're hard to beat."
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