Louisiana Tech lost 5-3 to Florida International University in the softball series finale on April 12 at Dr. Billy Bundrick Field. The defeat moves Louisiana Tech to a record of 22-21 overall and 8-10 in Conference USA.
The outcome matters for Louisiana Tech as they continue their conference schedule, seeking consistency and improvement during the season’s final stretch.
FIU outhit Louisiana Tech with a total of twelve hits compared to eight from the Bulldogs. Reagan Marchant led the Bulldogs’ offense with two solo home runs, marking her second consecutive game with multiple home runs and bringing her career total to thirty-three, which is third most in program history. Jina Baffuto also contributed two hits, while Allie Furr extended her hitting streak to thirteen games and Gracie Flores reached nine straight games with a hit.
Head coach Josh Taylor said after the game, “The first six innings I did not see much of anything, except for no energy and not a lot of compete. I have asked them, as we go down this stretch, to just compete…that is what you have left, to just compete. I did not see a lot of that in the first six innings. I liked what I saw in the seventh inning and we can talk about that in a minute, but you have to be able to compete at a high level every single day at this level and right now, we are confused on who we are and what we are, and it is very disappointing to me. That is probably the word I would use the most, disappointing, and maybe I haven’t done a good enough job of establishing those things and teaching the game, going to the seventh inning with that and understanding what we need there and why. We have gone over them, but maybe not enough.” Taylor now holds an overall record of 157 wins and 112 losses as head coach at Louisiana Tech.
FIU took an early lead with three runs by Kennedy Byrd’s home runs through four innings before LA Tech responded late in the game behind Marchant’s efforts. The all-time series between FIU and LA Tech now stands at sixteen wins for FIU against twelve for LA Tech.
Looking ahead, Louisiana Tech will host Sam Houston next weekend for another three-game Conference USA series.
