Louisiana Tech’s baseball team opened its 2026 season with a decisive 17-5 win over Houston Christian University at the Love Shack in Ruston. The Bulldogs took control early, highlighted by ULM graduate transfer Colby Lunsford’s two-run home run in his first at-bat for LA Tech.
The offense continued to produce throughout the game, including a seven-run third inning and eight more runs scored across the final three frames. Freshman Casey McCoy recorded his first collegiate hit and run, while Lunsford and Sebastian Mexico added back-to-back doubles to extend the lead. Zeb Ruddell was hit by a pitch and Wesley Scott drew a walk to load the bases, setting up Eli Berch’s RBI walk. Cade Patterson then capped off the third inning with a grand slam.
Houston Christian responded with an RBI double in the fourth inning, but LA Tech answered quickly as Lunsford hit his second home run of the night, bringing in three more runs. The Bulldogs’ offense continued with another grand slam from Patterson in the sixth inning—his second of the game—making him the first Bulldog since 2000 to hit two grand slams in one contest.
Patterson finished with eight RBIs, marking the most by a Louisiana Tech player since Hunter Wells drove in nine during the Ruston Regional against Rider on June 4, 2021. The Bulldogs’ 17 runs are their highest total in a season opener since their 18-1 victory over Air Force on February 21, 2021.
Head coach Lane Burroughs earned his third consecutive season-opening win at LA Tech and now holds an 8-2 record in openers as head coach of the Bulldogs. With this victory, Burroughs has accumulated 311 wins at LA Tech and is five wins away from tying Berry Hinton for second-most coaching victories in program history.
Reflecting on the game, Burroughs said: “I’ve been here 10 years—I don’t remember a more beautiful opening night. We were blessed with great weather, a beautiful night. We had a great crowd, man what a great crowd. I know this ball club—we try to keep it quiet, but we know there’s a lot of expectations and I was really proud of them with the way they handled that tonight. Obviously, they’re a little sped up and they’re going to be a little amped up. I thought Declan Dahl was really good once he settled in, he gave us the five [innings] we needed—that’s why he’s pitching on Friday night. He’s sliced us up all fall and spring to the point where he never faced adversity. There were times in intersquads I had to put runners on base so he would face adversity, so he’s been like that the entire time [he has been here]. I actually thought [Houston Christian] did a good job with him—they got his pitch count up and some three-ball counts, and we had to get him out after the fifth but he did what we anticipated him to do. Obviously, our offense was clicking tonight. Colby Lunsford—hustle double, playing his tail off with two homers also. Cade Patterson—I honestly don’t remember seeing the same guy hit two grand slams in one game. But look, that’s why we have him batting in the eight-hole. He had a good year last year, struggled some this fall and early spring, but it makes our lineup so long when you have a hitter like that at the bottom of the order. He can do what he did tonight. I don’t like the two errors, but we’ll clean that up a little bit. All in all, I was very proud of our offense and very proud of Declan. Our bullpen needs to be better, but I thought Nick Greaney did a good job getting us out of there at the end and I thought Riley Fisher did good as well.”
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