Bulldogs fall in CUSA title game

When Louisiana Tech's 2024 senior class arrived in Ruston as freshmen, a moment like Sunday afternoon at the Love Shack would have sounded near impossible. 

Qualifying for a Conference USA tournament, let alone as the No. 1 seed with one game to go for a second tournament title in three years? No shot for the Bulldogs of old.

But those teams didn't have Jorge Corona, Adarius Myers, Cole McConnell, Logan McLeod, Ethan Bates, and many more. 

It's why in the minutes after Dallas Baptist celebrated on the Love Shack field as Conference USA Tournament Champions on Sunday, with the Patriots defeating LA Tech 17-10 to secure the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, Lane Burroughs told his program-changing Bulldogs to hang their heads high.

Score be damned. 

"A nine run first is hard to overcome. We knew it would be an uphill battle. I had a Conference USA official tell me we played twice the innings that Dallas Baptist did. It's a lot of baseball," Lane Burroughs said postgame. "At the end of the day they're fatigued, they're tired, they're sick. But we never quit. If you're a Louisiana Tech fan, alumni, and you're ashamed of this game, you need to check yourself. Our guys kept fighting till the last out was made. It ends up being 17-10 after 9-0 start."

Fourty-five wins. Tied for the most home wins in a single season in history. A top 30 RPI heading into selection Monday. That's what Burroughs and his Bulldogs want to fan and pundits at large to take away from what the Bulldogs have done.

Burroughs is confident his group will be playing in an NCAA Regional next weekend.

"The game doesn't define us. It was a tough loss. But the good news is we have more baseball in front of us. That was the message. Expect us to go win a regional. Doesn't matter where they send us. It's time to take this program to the next step. And I want to be sitting here next week talking about the Super Regional we're getting ready to go play in. You gotta put this behind you. We grinded. We got to the championship and we're still regular season champions."

DBU and Tech put up a combined 27 hits and 24 runs through six innings, with the Patriots having a distinct advantage in extra-base hits (9 XBH, 6 HRs) to Tech's 0. By game's end, DBU finished with 6 home runs and a season-high 21 hits with 5 HBP at the plate.

The Patriots jumped all over Tech starter Reed Smith in the first inning with the first six batters reaching on hits, including a grand slam and a solo home run with no outs. Ethan Mann blew the game open with a grand slam to left on the first pitch he saw. The next batter, Grant Jay, launched a solo shot on the first pitch he got as well.

Lane Burroughs pulled the plug, handing the ball to Caden Copeland with no outs in the first after the first six Patriots reached base. Copeland didn't fair any better, giving up three runs and getting one out as a Chayton Krauss two-run double and an RBI single from Michael Dattalo opened the wound even further for a 9-0 DBU lead by the time Tech came up to bat.

It would be prove to be the difference in the game as Tech outscored 10-8 over the final eight innings.

Tech didn't lay down quietly, with Jorge Corona coming through with an RBI single scoring Cole McConnell and Adarius Myers bringing in a run on a double-play groundout, cutting the deficit to 9-2 after the first. The first inning took 41 minutes, however.

Isaac Crabb came back out in the second and continued DBU's torrid start, giving up back-to-back, two-out, hits for DBU to extend its lead to 10-2. DBU looked to make matters worse with the bases loaded but Crabb got the final out on a ground ball to Logan McLeod. LA Tech cut away at the deficit with an HBP RBI from McConnell, a sac fly from Ethan Bates, and an RBI single from Jorge Corona to make it 10-5.

Turner Swistak didn't help Tech in the third, giving up three solo HRs to extend the lead to 13-5 by the time he exited. He finished with a line of 2 innings pitched of 5 earned.

Adarius Myers, in his final game at the Love Shack, led the Bulldogs from the front like he's always done with a 3-4 showing at the plate, including an RBI in the eighth. 

He knows how far he and this program have come. Sunday's loss stings for sure, but this won't be the last act for these Bulldogs. He heard straight from his head coach after the loss.

"That we're going to win a regional and play in a Super Regional and have an opportunity to go to Omaha," Myers said of the message postgame. "That's pretty much it. That was our goal at the beginning of the year. We got an opportunity."

Burroughs sat and watched Myers take postgame questions with the look of a proud dad, disappointed he couldn't close out the home chapter of this story with a win but thankful to be in his life.

He closed with a story from a previous 'Bulldog Man' captain.

"I'll never forget, we're practicing one day and Phil Matulia said, 'What was going on in this program between 1987 and 2016?' That was the gap in regional appearances. My answer was, "Honestly, not very much.' We were kidding but that's amazing. Those guys come into this program and boom, they start going to regionals. They win championships. They start getting drafted. We got All-Conference. We have a Player of the Year now. We got a Gold Glove winner. Those are things programs never had. It's all about them."

LA Tech will now await its fate for the NCAA Tournament, sitting with a 45-17 record and an RPI of 28. The selection show is Monday at 11 a.m. on ESPN2.