DBU sweeps Saturday twinbill at LA Tech

DALLAS, Texas | Louisiana Tech ran into some bad luck and a good team on the road, an unfortunate combination that led to a three-game sweep at the hands of Dallas Baptist, Conference USA’s leader in hitting, fielding, and pitching.

After dropping Friday’s opener 9-1, the Bulldogs were swept, 11-3 and 10-5, Saturday before 1,367 on an afternoon that began in the 70s and ended on a cool and breezy evening at Horner Ballpark. Because of the rain forecast Sunday, the clubs played two Saturday.

Tech came in on a four-game win streak but is now 20-21 and 9-9. Dallas Baptist, 31-9, 15-3, has won 14 straight and has not lost since March 31 when Tech beat the Patriots in Ruston.

Leaders in CUSA, DBU and UTSA have won a combined 60 games overall and 30 in league play with a month to go in the regular season.

Tech remains on the road next week with a single game Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Southern Miss, then three CUSA games at Middle Tennessee in Murfreesboro beginning Friday at 6 p.m. Tech is scheduled to be back in Pat Patterson Park at J.C. Love Field Tuesday, May 2 against Northwestern State.

GAME ONE

Tech’s Game 1 starter Greg Martinez, a tough-luck 0-3, cruised through the first five batters on 18 pitches but with two outs in the bottom of the second, the Patriots took a 2-0 lead on a single and a pair of doubles.

With Tech trailing 2-0, Brody Drost got Tech’s first hit of the afternoon on a ground ball up the middle. Jorge Corona walked and Phil Matulia laid down his first sacrifice bunt of the season to put runners on second and third with one out. Ethan Bates walked to load the bases, and Adarius Myers hit a cue shot as he had Friday night, this one through the Patriots first baseman for an error that scored both Drost and Corona to tie the game at 2-2 and move Bates to third and Myers to second. But Braxton Bragg, the DBU starter, got out of it with a pair of strikeouts, as he had earlier in the game with two on and one out in the second.

Then the Patriots broke things open with a four-run fourth, single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh, and two in the eighth to build an 11-3 lead.

In the tide-turning fourth, DBU loaded the bases on two walks and a base hit before a pair of dramatic two-run doubles, each on a 3-2 count, gave DBU a 6-2 lead. One of the doubles came after a pair of questionable ball calls that would have meant a strikeout for Martinez, and on another the righthander was charged a ball because of a pitch clock violation that ran the count to 3-2; the umpiring crew later admitted Martinez should have been given a warning first and not charged with a ball, something the crew explained to Tech coach Lane Burroughs before they tossed him after a relatively long, quiet, but animated discussion along the first base line.

Maybe it would have made little difference as the Dogs had only two hits in the game, although they did walk six times and left six on.

GAME TWO

In the nightcap, Dalton Davis was moved to the leadoff spot and doubled after a nine-pitch at-bat, advanced to third on a hit by Logan McLeod, his first of the series, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Drost to give Tech its first lead of the series. Corona, who walked three times and scored a run in the afternoon’s first game, walked, Matulia reached on fielder’s choice, and Ethan Bates pulled a 2-2 pitch past first base for a pair of RBIs and a 3-0 Tech lead, Tech’s first and only lead of the weekend.

But DBU had an answer. After scoring one off two doubles in the first, the Pats took the 4-3 lead in the bottom of the second and chased Tech starter Alec Sparks (3-2). After the first four batters reached base, lefty sophomore Ryan Harland relieved and gave up a single before getting a fielder’s choice out and a groundball double play.

The Patriots added two in the fifth for a 6-3 lead on a couple of errors, a single, and the Patriots 10thdouble of the series. Landon Tomkins relieved Harland with a runner on second and nobody out and stopped the rally with a couple of groundball outs and a strikeout. But DBU got three more in the sixth on two hits and an error to make it 9-3.

The Bulldogs put up two in the seventh against freshman righty Zane Russell, DBU’s third pitcher of the game, when an error, a pair of walks and a hit-by-pitch forced in a run and chased Russell. Junior righthander Alec Baker game on with the bases loaded and one out, but the Dogs could get only one more run, on a sacrifice fly from Bates, and trailed 9-5.

The Patriots got one back in the bottom of the seventh on a solo homer by Grant Jay, who had four RBIs in the Saturday opener.

Tech got six hits, six walks, and left nine on base.