RUSTON, La. – Louisiana Tech rallied in the ninth inning to force extra frames and then walked off the Sam Houston Bearkats for a 12-9 win, securing a sweep of the series on Sunday afternoon at JC Love Field.
Sam Houston (24-20, 7-11 CUSA) led 9-8 going into the ninth inning before LA Tech's (33-13, 11-4 CUSA) Adarius Myers led off with a single and eventually came home with the tying run on a 2-out single by Dalton Davis.
One inning later Myers played the hero for the homestanding Bulldogs once again, launching a 3-run homer – his first longball of the year – out to walk the game off for LA Tech.
Sam Houston had already posed a rally of its own, erasing a 7-5 deficit to ultimately take an 8-7 lead in the sixth on a sacrifice fly from Jake Tatom. But LA Tech knotted it up in the eighth before Tatom put the Kats in front again with an RBI single in the top of the ninth.
Tatom and Hunter Autrey each finished the day 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI, while Jeffrey David led the Kats with three RBI and two hits, including his second home run of the year.
Marshall Wales got the start for the Kats, but it was freshman Ryan Peterson was tagged with the loss, his second of the season, after allowing Myers' homer in the 10th. He entered in relief of Chandler David who carried the bulk of the bullpen load with 4.0 innings of work in relief. His work came after 2.2 strong innings from Logan Hewitt.
Ethan Bates picked up the win for Louisiana Tech after pitching a scoreless 10th inning. He was the last of eight Bulldog pitchers to see the mound, seven of which followed starter Turner Swistak who did not make it out of the second inning.
Both starting pitchers made quick work of the first inning, but immediately ran into trouble and did not make it out of the second inning. The near carbon-copy inning started when Jeffrey David hit a 2-run homer off Swistak just two batters into the inning and continued with an RBI double by Easton Loyd to make it a 3-0 game.
The Bearkat offense was not done, however, LA Tech elected later in the inning to intentionally walk Walker Janek to load the bases for a left-on-left situation which Hunter Autrey won with a 2-run single up the middle against reliever Connor Nation, putting the Kats up 5-0.
But the home team had an immediate response as Jorge Corona hit a solo homer on the first pitch of the bottom of the inning. The next three Bulldogs went on to reach base, loading the sacks and prompting the Kats to go to the pen for Miles Hellums. The reliever allowed a sac fly and an RBI ground out, which cut the deficit to 5-3 before consecutive walks reloaded the bases for Ethan Bates who tied things up with a 2-run single.
That proved to be the first of three consecutive scoring innings for the home team as they built a 7-5 lead with single runs in both the third and fourth innings. But the Bearkat offense had an answer in the fifth when a leadoff walk to Autrey and a double by Jake Tatom set things up for RBI from Malachi Lott and David to retie it at 7-7.
An inning later the Kats went back in front, 8-7, when Loyd got aggressive and beat a throw home on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Tatom.
David made that stand up with scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh, but ran into trouble in the eighth in a predicament which started with a 2-out double by Bates. Two batters later the second Bearkat fielding miscue of the day cost them the lead when Bates came in to score and tie it at 8-8.
Still, the Kats answered back in the ninth as Autrey tripled to center field to lead off and came home to score on a sure single by Tatom, putting Sam Houston up 9-8. But the Kats could not make that hold up as Myers opened the bottom half of the inning with a single and stood on second with two outs for Davis who lined his first hit of the day back up the middle to retie it.
The Kats went down in order against Bates in the top of the 10th, setting things up for Myers once again when he came up with two outs and two on in the bottom half of the frame. He then launched the first pitch he saw out to left-center to send the home team off winners.
UP NEXT
The Kats will next head to Austin for a Tuesday midweek clash with the Texas Longhorns. First pitch from Disch-Falk Field is set for 6:30 p.m. with the game to be aired on Longhorn Network.
