Box Score RUSTON, La. – UALR baseball's (11-17, 8-6) comeback bid in the latter part of Tuesday night's game at Louisiana Tech (14-15, 2-9) fell short as the Trojans took a 9-7 loss.
Tanner Rockwell and Kyle Kirk each had three hits against the Bulldogs on Tuesday. There was no shortage of offense as both teams combined for 28 hits with UALR having 16 hits and Louisiana Tech having 12.
“Once again, I'm proud of this team for fighting back,” head coach Chris Curry said. “We had one of our most competitive efforts for a midweek game, but again, we're not into moral victories.”
Louisiana Tech scored the game's first run in the second inning. The Bulldogs led the bottom of the inning off with a single up the middle. The Louisiana Tech runner then moved over to second with a sacrifice bunt. Another single up the middle gave the Bulldogs an early 1-0 lead.
The Bulldogs went up 2-0 in the bottom of the third inning. Louisiana Tech led off the inning with a walk and a stolen base. The Trojans gave up another walk to put runners on first and second with no outs. A sacrifice bunt moved the runners up 90 feet to second and third. The Bulldogs then singled through the right side to take a two-run lead.
Louisiana Tech added one more in the bottom of the 5th inning. With one out, the Bulldogs singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch. LA Tech hit an RBI single to left, scoring the runner from second to take a 3-0 lead.
UALR finally got on board in the top of the six. Ryan Scott led off the inning with a double up the middle, his 13th of the season. Tanner Rockwell flied out to center, but Scott tagged up and advanced to third. Kyle Kirk then grounded out to second, but Scott was able to score decrease the deficit to 3-1.
Starter Reed Willenborg pitched five innings, striking out two and giving up three runs on six hits.
Reliever Chad Bradford came on in relief to begin the sixth inning. Louisiana Tech singled with two outs and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Two consecutive walks loaded the bases for the Bulldogs. A LA Tech single to right scored two and put runners on the corners. Another walk given up by UALR loaded the bases for a second time. A wild pitch scored the third run of the inning to give Louisiana Tech a 6-1 lead.
Junior Brent Mason made his first appearance of the season by relieving Bradford to begin the bottom of the seventh.
After giving up the seventh run of the game in the seventh inning, UALR's offense clicked into overdrive. UALR started the inning with five consecutive singles off the bats of Kyle Barret, Scott, Rockwell, Kirk and Sam Vogel, allowing three runs to score. Drew Merten then singled through the right side with runners on second and third, allowing Kirk to score for the Trojans fourth run of the inning. The Bulldogs changed pitchers while Jason Prevatt came on to pinch run for Merten. Vogel then scored on a passed ball for UALR's fifth run of the inning. Hayden Martin then walked to put runners on first and second with one out. The Trojans tied the game at 7-7 with a single from Petr Sila as Prevatt scored from second.
“There were so many great positives,” Curry said. “We had 16 hits and battled back to score six runs in the eighth. I'm proud of those guys. We had a lot of guys throw the ball tonight that had not pitched in a while. Brent Mason got his first outing and he was competitive. Those are positives, but when we talk about being a championship program, we want to get past looking for small parts of the game that are positive. We want to come out on top.”
Rockwell moved from third to pitch in the eighth while Kirk moved to third after starting as the designated hitter. The Bulldogs bit back in the bottom of the inning as they the led off the frame with a single to left center. A fielding error with one out put runners on first and second. Louisiana Tech then walked to load the bases. A single through the left side scored two runs to give the Bulldogs a 9-7 lead.
Looking to make another comeback, UALR started the ninth inning with two consecutive singles off the bats of Rockwell and Kirk. The Trojans then hit some bad luck as they lined into a double play at first base. UALR's comeback bid came to a halt as a strikeout ended the game.
Five Trojans ended the night with at multiple hits including Rockwell, Kirk, Sila, Scott and Merten.
“There is no question that this dugout is going to come out, fight and play hard,” Curry said. “We gave a lot of outs and free base runners away, and that came back to bite us. You have to give credit to Louisiana Tech for taking advantage of it.”
UALR will try to split the season series with Louisiana Tech on Wednesday with the first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m. in Ruston.
