RUSTON, La. – Two home runs from Dalton Davis led Louisiana Tech to victory over Sam Houston University, sending the Bearcats home Louisiana Tech (43-16, 18-6 CUSA) posted a commanding 5-3 victory over Sam Houston University (34-24) on Friday night.
In a win-or-lose game, Tech played great defense against Sam Houston and got off to a strong start. After two scoreless innings by both teams, Dalton Davis hit a two-run home run to left field in the bottom of the third to give Louisiana Tech a 2-0 lead.
Later in the inning, Michael Ballard continued the scoring with a hit to center field, driving in Cole McConnell to extend Tech's lead to 3-0. Sam Houston finally scored, tying the game at three on a walk and two grounders with the bases loaded.
Sam Brodersen kept the game close, striking out five over 3.1 innings. Brodersen (8-1) allowed one hit and walked one to earn the win.
In the seventh inning, Davis (2-for-5, 3 RBI, 2 HR) hit his second home run of the night to put Tech in the lead, then Michael Ballard singled to center field for his second RBI of the night, driving in Jorge Corona. This was Davis' third game with multiple home runs this season.
Ethan Bates took the mound in the eighth inning and closed out the game for his 16th save of the season.
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Head Coach Lane Burrows:
About the game…
“I'm proud of my guys. We worked hard all day, we kept battling. We didn't play particularly great baseball today. We picked a bad day to not play very good, but we found a way to win. Dalton (Davis) is sitting here. He looks like he's struggling a little bit. He didn't play very good last weekend, but he's a great hitter and he found a way to win tonight. The two home runs were big. We had runners on second and third with no outs, and not scoring in the fifth inning was the most pissed me off all year. I could have eaten the concrete of the dugout. I kept my cool, and the guys kept their cool. It was one of those days. We had a lot of chances, but we found a way to win. Sam Broderson was the key. He's an alpha dog right there. He said, 'Give me the ball.' You have to understand that he just pitched two days ago. He just kept pitching. He came in with the bases loaded and no outs. I know they scored three runs, but he made light of it. Because it got out of hand quickly and it could have been tough to come back.” I went up to him, took the ball away and said, “Given what you just did, next week you're going to be the one pitching. And he looked at me and said, I'm going to pitch tomorrow. We never do that, but that's the type of kid he is. I was so proud of him and Ethan (Bates) when the game was over. That double play was huge. Ethan is strong against lefty pitchers. I felt like Broderson was exhausted and he was hot today, but he got the ball for the double play. That was a clean double play and Ethan finished it off. I'm very proud of our guys. We've been here before and we talked about it after the first game. We were here three years ago. We should have won two games on Saturday, but we held Southern Miss to two walk-off wins. This is nothing new for us. We expect to play on Sunday. We're not against Liberty. They're a great team. They beat us today, but our guys expect to play on Sunday. Thanks to the crowd. I know it was hot and I know it was disappointing to lose the first game, but I'm grateful that everybody came together tonight and helped us out.”
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No. 1 seed Louisiana Tech will face No. 5 seed Liberty University in a must-win game on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. to clinch a spot in the CUSA Championships.
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