LA Tech drops opener late to Marshall, 7-3

RUSTON, La. – The Louisiana Tech baseball team owned a 3-1 lead heading into the eighth inning, but saw Marshall score three in the eighth and three in the ninth, as the visitors took a 7-3 comeback triumph on Thursday evening from J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.

LA Tech (25-12, 10-6 C-USA) saw yet another brilliant start from senior right-handed pitcher Matt Miller. The Tech captain allowed an unearned run in the first and worked around quite a bit of base traffic in the first three innings, but recovered and pitched through the sixth inning for the fifth straight time.

Miller tossed 7.0 innings, allowing just the one unearned run, while striking out a career-best 10 hitters, while walking three and scattered five hits.

Just as impressive was Marshall (22-15, 9-7 C-USA) starter Joshua Shapiro. The left-hander pitched 6.2 innings, while striking out a career-best 12, while walking four and gave up three runs (all earned).

Tech got all three of its runs via the long ball, as a solo blast to left in the bottom of the third from Chris Clayton tied the game at one, and then a two-run shot to left center from Taylor Young in the bottom of the fifth, gave Tech the lead at 3-1.

With a 3-1 lead, Tech made a call to the pen in right-hander Tyler Follis. The junior began the frame with a lineout to left, and then walked Tucker Linder. Follis then induced a groundball to short, but an error placed runners at the corners with one out. Marshall would capitalize on the second miscue in the field, and notched a pair of RBI base hits from Pastrana and Zban, as the visitors took a 4-3 lead, heading into the bottom of the eighth.

The Bulldog bats were unable to scratch off Marshall reliever D’Andre Knight in the bottom of the eighth, before the Thundering Herd added some insurance in the top of the ninth, plating three more runs on four consecutive base hits of Tech reliever Kyle Griffen.

Junior Bryce Fagan inherited runners at second and third with nobody out and kept the visitors from doing any further damage.

In the bottom of the ninth, Marshall turned to closer Michael Guerrero, who retired the side to end the game.

Marshall reliever Philip Hoffman picked up the win, improving to 2-0, while Braxton Smith suffered the loss, falling to 1-2.

The Bulldogs and Thundering Herd will return to action in game two of the weekend set, tomorrow at 4 p.m. from J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.