DALLAS – The Diamond 'Dogs (28-21, 15-9 CUSA) were unable to secure a fifth consecutive series victory after falling to Dallas Baptist (28-20, 16-8 CUSA), 9-5, at Horner Ballpark in Dallas on Sunday afternoon.
 
Once through a scoreless opening frame, the 'Dogs and Patriots exchanged runs in the second. A pair of walks drawn by Matt Houston and Cade Patterson brought up Casey McCoy with two outs, who muscled a base hit to left and advanced to second on the throw. Houston rounded third to score and put the 'Dogs up 1-0 in the visitors' half.
 
The first two DBU hitters were retired in the bottom frame on a groundout and a strikeout before tying it with a solo homer. An RBI knock from Eli Berch put Tech up 2-1 before the Patriots took the lead with a four-spot in the third.
 
The first two DBU batters reached on a walk and a hit-by-pitch before a first-pitch three-run blast put the home side out front before a pair of singles and a fielder's choice gave the Patriots a 5-2 lead.
 
A two-out RBI knock delivered by Colby Lunsford in the fourth cut the deficit to two runs before DBU expanded their lead in the fifth, adding three runs that were driven in on a pair of doubles hit in the frame.
 
Runs were exchanged again in the seventh with an RBI double from Colton Coates and the Patriots matching it by scoring on a wild pitch. Houston responded by leading off the eighth with his ninth round-tripper this season, cutting DBU's lead to 9-5.
 
Coates picked up his second double with one out in the ninth followed with a walk drawn by Berch before an error occurred on a batted ball, allowing Coates to score and cut the Patriots' lead to three runs. Houston provided his second RBI in as many innings with a sacrifice fly to left, but a closely played groundout to short ended the comeback attempt.
 
With Sunday's loss, the 'Dogs fall to 3-2 in rubber matches this season and have their streak of four-straight CUSA series wins snapped. Tech's 13 strikeouts as a staff marks three-straight contests with 10+ and the most since striking out 20 at Kennesaw State on April 17.
 
Hawsey, Houston and McCoy recorded the only multi-hit performances of the afternoon, along with Houston (3 runs) and Hawsey (2 runs) being the lone run scorers for the 'Dogs.
 
Tech returns home to the Love Shack for its final midweek contest of the 2026 campaign, hosting Northwestern State at 6 p.m. CT on Tuesday, May 5.
 
Quotables
 
Head Coach Lane Burroughs:
"I'm proud of our guys for trying to fight back in the ninth. They never stopped. The hitters kept fighting and plucking away. We talk about that on day one—put yourself in a position to tie the game or take the lead. At the end of the day, we just didn't play well enough to win. We ran ourselves out of an inning, we tried to score—had runners on second and third with the top of the order up, and the ball didn't get away from the catcher to make the play at home plate. We don't catch a pop up and that run scores, and a guy scored from second base on a wild pitch. I know the runners were going, but we just didn't do the things we needed to do to win the game. I thought our guys fought and I'm very proud of that, because they didn't throw the towel in and didn't give in. But, the two crooked number innings in the third and fifth killed us. It just wasn't clean enough to win the game, but the positive is our guys kept playing hard and kept coming after them."
 
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