Louisiana Tech’s baseball team began its season with a doubleheader sweep against Houston Christian, securing a series win and improving to 3-0. This marks the fourth time in five seasons that the team has started with a series victory, and the seventh since Lane Burroughs became head coach in 2017.
In the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, LA Tech took an early lead with Colton Coates drawing a walk and Trey Hawsey being hit by a pitch. Colby Lunsford drove in the opening run with an RBI double, followed by Sebastian Mexico’s RBI groundout. Additional runs came from another Coates double and a sacrifice fly by Hayden Gustavson.
Houston Christian narrowed the gap late in the game, but LA Tech responded with insurance runs from Cade Patterson’s sacrifice fly. Rowan Hudson made his debut for LA Tech, pitching five scoreless innings and earning the win. Luke Nichols secured his first save of the year.
The second game saw LA Tech again take an early lead on back-to-back RBI doubles from Mexico and Eli Berch. After Houston Christian tied it up, LA Tech regained control with two runs in the fourth inning on hits from Hawsey and Berch. The Huskies kept it close until late runs from Mexico and Patterson extended LA Tech’s advantage.
Freshman Thomas Allen made his first career appearance in relief during Game 2, recording his first strikeout before Nate Crider finished off the win with three pitches for his first save as a Bulldog.
Coach Lane Burroughs commented on his team’s performance: “I’m very proud of our team. A doubleheader, long day at the field and a lot different than last night. Last night, we put up a lot of runs and [HCU] had one big inning, but today was a lot different. They were closer games, we need that. They’re a very prideful program—went to a regional last year and got about 3/4 of their team back. I thought Hudson Rowan was very good. Hudson is a very emotional, high-intensity kid so it took him a while to settle in. I thought once he did, he executed the game plan to perfection. The wind was blowing in today, we had more a south wind and yesterday was more a north wind, so the ball is not going anywhere. I thought Hudson did a great job of pounding strikes and getting a lot of weak fly balls to right field. We got some big hits when we needed them. I thought, all day long, that we executed the small game really well. We had some great bunts. Obviously, Lunsford stayed hot. Cade Patterson had some great at-bats, Zeb Ruddell is starting to get going. One thing I loved about today is Trey Hawsey coming back after struggling yesterday and having some great at-bats today. You have to put those bad ones behind you—the great players do. I’m proud of him. I thought Kade Parker came in and calmed the storm on the mound, and he was outstanding. You saw the promise in freshman Thomas Allen with his velocity and breaking ball. I wanted him to finish the game, but we went with Nate Crider and his three breaking balls were pretty naughty. I think the bullpen can be one of the strengths of our club, and I think we saw that in moments today.”
Several players made their debuts for Louisiana Tech during Saturday’s games: Wesley Scott, Hayden Gustavson, Nathan Houston, Hudson Rowan (listed as Rowan Hudson), McCann Libby, Brecken Menuet and Thomas Allen.
With these wins Coach Burroughs reached 313 victories at Louisiana Tech; he is now three wins away from tying Barry Hinton for second-most coaching wins in program history.
Colby Lunsford started strong this season by going 7-for-11 at bat through three games including four runs scored along with two doubles , two home runs , six RBIs , resulting in an OPS over 2 . Cade Patterson leads Louisiana Tech with ten RBIs so far this season; both he & Lunsford are currently tied as team leaders for home runs , each hitting two .
Kade Parker picked up his fifth career win for Louisiana Tech during this stretch . Players Mexico , Lunsford & Coates have recorded base hits across all three opening games .
The Bulldogs will conclude their series against Houston Christian on Sunday at Love Shack stadium; first pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m . Central Time .
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