Bulldogs sweep Sam Houston

LA Tech (16-4, 3-0 CUSA) is off to its best start since 1990 after defeating Sam Houston (9-13, 0-3 CUSA) 2-1 on Sunday at Dr. Billy Bundrick Field - led by the Bulldogs' top pitching arms in Allie Floyd and Brook Melnychuk.

The duo combined for seven innings of work, allowing three hits and one earned run - the eighth time this season Tech's opponent has been held to one or fewer runs. Melnychuk started the game and gave up two hits and one earned run on a solo home run to center - only her 10th earned run all year - in her three innings of work. She finished her day after three innings, allowing only two hits while striking out two batters.

Floyd finished the job with authority for LA Tech, allowing two base runners over the final four innings to end her statline at 4 IP, 1 hit, 3 K, 0 ER.

In the two season prior to Melnychuk and Floyd throwing a pitch for the Bulldogs, Tech's pitching staff had held an opponent to one of fewer runs in 20 total games.

After Sunday's 2-1 victory, Tech has allowed one or fewer runs to opponents in 26 games since the start of the 2023 season. And the number is still growing.

"Allie and Brook, and our entire pitching staff, is really good," LA Tech head coach Josh Taylor said postgame. "It begins and ends with Chelsea Cohen our pitching coach. She does a phenomal job with them as far as handling them and keeping them loose, helping them understand what they do well and what they don't. You got two different types of pitchers in Allie and [Brook] and they just combo off each other so well. They do a really good job. And then we have bridge pitchers that come in and go three innings and keep us in games and we can go to them whether they're starting or in the backside. They're the same every time so we reallly know what we're going to get."

Tech is the only CUSA school to have two pitchers top-five in ERA in the league, with Floyd holding a 1.41 ERA after picking up her sixth win of the season, while Melnychuk isn't too shabby at a 1.79 ERA in 50.1 IP.

Floyd's 40 strikeouts and four walks gives her the 10th best strikeout-to-walk ratio in the country at 10:1.

The lights-out duo got their run support from an RBI double off the bat Katelin Cooper in the second inning to score Kylie Neel - her third RBI of the weekend after she walked it off for LA Tech with a two-run home run in Friday's 7-5 win.

After Sam Houston's only run of the afternoon came off a solo home run in the top of the third to tie the contest at 1-1, the Bulldogs got the deciding run in the bottom of the fifth after another double from Katelin Cooper - her second of the double of the game after two in her previous 17 games. After the extra-base hit from Cooper, sophomore Alannah Rogers smacked a single whistling past Sam Houston pitcher Mika Vento to score Cooper for a 2-1 lead.

"We're dangerous one through nine. [Saturday] was the top half that got it done and today is was the bottom half," Taylor said. "Cooper, yeah she's struggled early but she's a tough a kid. We made some adjustmwnts down at that one practice we were able to get in at LSU and she was able to feel some things and she's starting to get right."

Floyd, in response, sat SHS in 1-2-3 fashion the top of the sixth. Floyd struck out five batters in eight innings of work over the weekend.

Tech's sweep of SHS is also the program's first CUSA opening series sweep since 2019 - when Tech finished 45-16 overall.

Taylor hopes it's the first step in big months ahead for the Bulldogs.

"We say championships are won on Sundays and you gotta be able to win on Sundays - whether it's a 2-1 game or whatever it may be," Taylor said. "To be able to come out and get that opening series sweep in Conference USA is huge and hopefully leads us to bigger and better things down the road. We talk about winning series, but when you can sweep series you can win championships and that's where our mentality is right now."

LA Tech returns to action Tuesday to host Northwestern State at 6 p.m.