LA Tech ends season with loss to SEMO

FAYETTEVILLE - A season that seemed poised for more than ever before ended sooner than anyone expected.

Louisiana Tech fell 9-3 to Southeast Missouri State (SEMO) (35-26) in an elimination game in the NCAA Fayetteville Regional on Saturday, ending the Bulldogs' season with a 45-19 record - the second most wins in school history.

In the aftermath of an end that still didn't feel real to the Bulldogs, Lane Burroughs, Adarius Myers, and Ethan Bates spoke with media with tears in their eyes but full perspective on a ride Ruston hasn't seen in years.

"The last two days are not indicative of who we are. We did not play good. I'm taking nothing away from Kansas State and SEMO. They're phenomenal baseball teams. We did not play good. We don't make excuses but we were out of gas," Burroughs said. "The last three weeks have been tough on us. Won a regular season championship. We had a tough trip and play a double-header and we had to sweep the last two weekends to win the regular season. We did that. We get in our tournament and unfortunately, we had weather, we had the loser's bracket and we had played five games in 72 hours. Those guys left it on the field. They ran out of gas on Sunday and I think we did here too."

"I hate we didn't play better. These last two days are not who we are. They got so much to be proud of. Historic season. Fourty-five wins is second most in school history. These guys mean a lot to me. I love them like my own kids. I'm extremely proud of them. Ran out of gas, man. This part of the year, you can't do that. You gotta be full speed. I just want everyone out there to know how proud I am of this team and how proud I am to be the head baseball coach at Louisiana Tech. One of my highest honors of my entire life. It's going to be tough."

Tech's pitching woes from a 19-4 loss to Kansas State earlier in the day - with the Wildcats hitting .419 with 5 home runs - continued with starting pitcher Reed Smith giving up 3 earned runs and 6 hits through 3 2/3 innings to begin the afternoon. Matters only got worse for Tech in the fourth, with SEMO plating seven runs.

The Bulldogs did themselves no favors after SEMO's leadoff man reached on a fielding error, only for the next batter to walk. As is natural in postseason baseball law, SEMO took advantage with a two-run single to pull ahead 4-1 in the fourth. Sam Brodersen came in to steady the ship but SEMO brought a hurricane with an RBI triple from Brooks Kettering to left and then a grand slam from Josh Cameron to center to blow open its lead 9-1.

Prior to Saturday, Broderson had not allowed more than 1 earned run since May 4. It was another sign Saturday, and the weekend overall, was not for the Bulldogs. Even before first pitch, starting catcher Jorge Corona (16 HRs, 51 RBIs) was ruled out due to a finger injury, unable to compete in his final game as a Bulldog.

It left Burrough emotional postgame to not have his fifth-year veteran catcher finish on the field with his teammates.

"The dude has been catching for three weeks with an infection in his finger. His finger looks like this bottle. He just couldn't go today," Burroughs said. "He left it all out there. He's one of the best players I've ever coached."

In Corona's absence, Tech still had chances to break open offensively but left 10 on base and hit 1-10 with runners in scoring position, most crucially getting the bases loaded with no outs in the eighth and going down in order without a run to end the potential threat. Corona ends his career in the top four in Tech history in HRs (47; 2nd), RBIs (182; 4th), games played (237; 2nd), hits (261; 4th) and is first in runners caught stealing (71).

Tech's only runs came courtesy of a Karson Evans' solo HR in the third - his first since March 12, 2023, - and a two-run double from Adarius Myers in the fifth to score Ethan Bates and Cole McConnell.

Myers, who led Tech with RBIs in the NCAA Regional, fittingly spoke postgame to cap off one of the most successful Tech baseball careers of anyone and thanked Burroughs for trusting him to develop and letting him find another place to call home for life.

"This program has turned me from a boy to a man to say the least," Myers said. "I came in, I was young and I've matured as a person and as a player in my six years here at Louisiana Tech. That's pretty much all I can ask for. I gotta big place in my heart for Louisiana Tech and coach Burroughs."

Bates, known for his stoic and straight-forward answers to media questions, even began to well up with emotion as he tried to put into words what his two years at Tech have meant to him.

"He took a shot on me two years ago and I'm forever grateful of that. I'd go run through that wall for that guy right there," Bates said of Burroughs. "They took me in when I was at my lowest and they helped me excel and that means the world to me."

Since 1989, no DI two-way baseball player had ever led the country in saves - that is until Bates did so with 17 this season. The Conference USA Player of the Year finished his final year at Tech with 74 RBIs, 15 HRs, 17 saves, and 52 strikeouts.

As emotions settled down from a heartbreaking end, Burroughs acknowledged getting this far is no longer good enough. Three regional appearances in four years after the program went 30 years without one is worth celebrating, but the eighth-year head coach of the Bulldogs feels confident Tech is on the cusp of their goal.

"The next step is you want to get to a Super Regional," Burroughs said. "I've coached in one Super Regional when I was an assistant at Mississippi State down in Florida, we were seven outs from Omaha. Once you get to that point, it's a three-game set. Anybody can beat anybody in a weekend series. We've been to the regionals now and we've talked about that. You've gotta crawl before you walk and walk before you run. We need to get through. We will. We will. I said it in my press conference eight years ago. You say things at the press conference to try to get people fired up and probably overstepped your boundaries but I said we will host a regional. And we did. And we're going to get to Omaha. I firmly believe that. I firmly believe that we're going to get this program there."