Never dead: Tech wins semifinal thriller to advance to title game

Cardiac Dogs.

Trailing 4-1 through seven innings and hitting 3-15 with runners on base at one point, Louisiana Tech redshirt freshman Grant Comeaux delivered a walk-off single in a 6-5 comeback victory over Liberty on Saturday to advance to the Conference USA Championship game.

You wouldn't have known Comeaux had been drilled in the face by a fastball in the fourth, dropping to a knee and spitting up blood in a scary scene. Anyone else would have been right to leave the game.

Not Comeaux. Not in this program.

"I was about to take him out of the game, concussion protocol and all that stuff," Lane Burroughs said. "He said, "I'm staying in.' I really didn't feel good about it. I don't know if he's all there. I'm giving him outs and he's not giving them. And I'm like, 'Give them to me' and he gave them to me. It defines what this program's about."

"Kind of speechless to be honest with you. Trying to get through this without getting emotional. Grant Comeaux gets hit in the face and he's bleeding everywhere and he gets the game-winning hit and doesn't come out of the game. That's what our program is about. They never relented."

Comeaux, now with 5 RBIs in the CUSA Tournament - second on the team - had loads of high school postseason experience after a storied carrer at Barbe High School. But taking a ball to the face in a win-or-go-home semifinal in your first DI postseason, no big deal to him. 

"The at bat before, bases loaded, he got the best of me," Comeaux said. "Throughout the next couple innings, my mind was like, 'If I come up again, I'm out-toughing him. I'm not letting it happen again. My teammate set me up for the really good position in the last inning - wouldn't have done it without them."

Before Comeaux could provide heroics, fifth-year senior Jorge Corona smashed a two-run, game-tying double to right in the eighth, bringing home Dalton Davis and Cole McConnell.

For the tournament, Corona has 7 RBIs and is batting .360 with 21 RBIs in the month of May.

"He is the standard," Burroughs said. "One word for each senior when it came to me at 1:30 one morning two weeks ago. I couldn't sleep. I said I'm going to get my phone out and write one word. Write the kid's name and put one word. Corona. I said standard. I told him, 'You're the standard forever as a catcher at Louisiana Tech. You're the best to ever do it here.'"

Outside of a Dalton Davis solo home run in the fifth - his 15th of the year - Tech's next extra-base hit was Corona's double. Cole McConnell's RBI single in the eighth started the late rally, bringing around Kasten Furr.

The heroics didn't end there, with Nate Crider coming in for relief of Ethan Bates after Bates loaded the bases in the top of the ninth. With no outs and the bases juiced, Crider started his appearance with a strikeout, putting a double-play on the table. Sure enough, on a 2-2 count, Crider got the ground ball he needed as Kasten Furr flipped to Michael Ballard who fired to Grant Comeaux at first for the third out.

Electricty.

"Ryan Harland and Nate Crider were unbelievable," Burroughs said. "They come out of nowhere. If you get in the loser's bracket, and you're going to come through it, you gotta have guys like that step up. Ryan was outstanding. Nate comes in and inherits bases loaded, nobody out, and gets a huge punchout and gets a double play. You kind of felt it then. It reminded me so much of three years ago."

Harland pitched 3 scoreless innings with 4 punchouts to keep Tech afloat after rough pitching to start the game, letting out a vein-popping yell towards his dugout as he finished the seventh with a strikeout.

LA Tech will now play in the CUSA Championship in four years. 

The title game is set for Sunday at 1 p.m.