No. 16 LA Tech wins seventh straight road game with 9-7 victory at Middle Tennessee

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Five unanswered runs to open the game helped Louisiana Tech’s baseball team extend its road winning streak to seven games as the No. 16 Bulldogs defeated Middle Tennessee 9-7 on Friday night at Reese Smith Jr. Field. LA Tech’s seven-game winning streak away from the Love Shack is its longest road winning streak since 1989.

The Diamond Dogs (29-11, 15-6 C-USA) opened Friday night’s contest with five straight hits, recording three singles and a pair of doubles to build a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Leadoff batter Taylor Young set the tone on the opening night of the series, smacking a single to left field on a 2-2 pitch to open the inning.

After a single from Hunter Wells put two runners on, centerfielder Parker Bates smoked a 1-2 pitch into the gap in left center for an RBI double. RBI singles Manny Garcia and Steele Netterville then extended the Bulldogs’ first-inning lead to 3-0.

A leadoff double from right fielder Philip Matulia, who reached base four times in Friday night’s victory, opened the two-run second for LA Tech. After a wild pitch moved Matulia up 90 feet to third, shortstop Alex Ray tallied one of his two hits on the night with an RBI single to left field. The Bulldogs tallied their fifth run of the night after a fielding error on the second baseman helped Ray score all the way from second base later in the frame.

“I’m very proud of our hitters,” head coach Lane Burroughs said. “I thought we had a great week of practice, and I thought our BP was really good today.

“We were locked in and focused, and we came out of the gates strong tonight.”

Left-hander Jonathan Fincher delivered six innings on the mound with five punchouts to move to a perfect 7-0 on the season. The Shreveport native has allowed three earned runs or fewer in each of his 11 starts for the Diamond Dogs in 2021.

Middle Tennessee (21-18-1, 10-10-1 C-USA) trimmed LA Tech’s lead to 5-2 after a pair of runs in the bottom of the second. The Bulldogs answered the Blue Raiders’ pair of runs in the second the next half inning as Matulia drilled his second double of the night to stretch LA Tech’s lead back to four runs at 6-2.

The Bulldogs and Blue Raiders traded runs to make it a 7-4 ballgame entering the seventh. After a two-out RBI triple from Young made it 8-4 in the top of the seventh, right-hander Greg Martinez entered the ballgame in the bottom half and allowed just earned runs with two strikeouts over 2.1 innings. Tech’s third pitcher of the night, right-handed reliever Kyle Crigger, recorded the final two outs of the game to earn his third save of the season.

The Blue Raiders brought the winning run to the plate with two outs in the ninth, but Crigger got Middle Tennessee’s Daniel Freeman to ground out to Ray at shortstop to end the ballgame. An insurance run from the Bulldogs in the top of the eighth helped the Bulldogs secure the two-run road victory.

LA Tech has won 12 of its past 13 games away from J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park, winning five of those 12 contests by two runs or fewer.

Young’s three-hit performance helped the second baseman extend his reached-base streak to 22 games. Matulia paced the Bulldogs with two doubles and three runs scored in Friday’s victory.

Right-hander Ryan Jennings and left-hander Cade Gibson will toe the rubber for the Bulldogs in game one and game two, respectively, in Saturday’s doubleheader at Reese Smith Jr. Field.