The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs baseball team experienced their first loss of the 2026 season on Tuesday night, falling to the McNeese Cowboys 8-3 at J.C. Love Field. The defeat ended LA Tech’s bid to extend their perfect start beyond four games.
Louisiana Tech began strongly when Colby Lunsford hit a two-run home run in the first inning after Colton Coates drew a leadoff walk. This marked Lunsford’s third home run of the season and continued his trend of productive starts at the plate.
Starting pitcher Landon Fontenot delivered three scoreless innings, striking out three batters and allowing only two hits in his first start of the year. He kept McNeese off balance early, retiring the side in order to open the game and not yielding a hit until there were two outs in the second inning.
McNeese took control in the middle innings, scoring their first run with a leadoff double in the fourth and taking a 3-2 lead with a two-run homer in the fifth. The Bulldogs struggled offensively during this stretch, going five consecutive innings without scoring as McNeese’s pitching limited opportunities.
Lunsford added his second home run of the game—his fourth this season—in the seventh inning to narrow McNeese’s lead to one run. However, Louisiana Tech managed only two hits over their final two turns at bat while McNeese scored four runs in the ninth inning to secure victory.
Afterwards, head coach Lane Burroughs addressed his team’s performance: “It’s hard to lock in for 56 games a year, and that has been our challenge all year [to the team]: Can you lock in and focus for 70 games—if you want to play a long time in the postseason, then you hope to play 70 games. We showed the team today the Dave Roberts speech to the Dodgers in their locker room, in their first team meeting about how hard this game is and how everybody is out to beat you. We don’t have the luxury in our conference to drop midweek games at home. If you start doing that and you want to get in a regional, you’re just going to have to win games down the line. We have to find a way to regroup—we struck out way too many times tonight. I’m not taking anything away from McNeese’s pitching staff, but from my vantage point we were swinging at balls outside of the zone. Basically, they were done throwing fastballs and were going to just throw off-speed pitches. We did not do a good job of laying off those pitches, we did not do a good job of laying off of elevated fastballs. We struck out 13 times, and it’s unacceptable—I don’t care who we’re playing. We had opportunities—we got ahead in the game on Lunsford’s homer and you have them right where you want them at home. I didn’t think they were bringing much energy, and that’s the time to put them away. Credit to their bullpen, they just kept showing different looks. Our margin of error at our level is very slim. If we want to play in a regional, and get to where you want to go, then we’ve got to find a way to win these ball games.”
Louisiana Tech will begin its first road trip of 2026 later this week with scheduled matchups against Ohio State on Friday (12 p.m.) and Saturday (5 p.m.), as well as Memphis on Saturday afternoon (12 p.m.), all played in Memphis.
Supporters interested in contributing directly toward LA Tech Athletics can do so through various initiatives such as LTAC or Bulldog Community Outreach by visiting BuildTheLegacy.com.
For more information about Louisiana Tech Baseball or updates throughout this season follow @LATechBSB on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram (@LATechBSB), or Facebook (LATechBSB).
