Davis hits two homers as LA Tech eliminates Sam Houston – Crescent City Sports

RUSTON, La. – A two-homer night from Dalton Davis lifts Louisiana Tech over Sam Houston to send the Bearkats home. Louisiana Tech (43-16, 18-6 CUSA) defeats Sam Houston (34-24) in a 5-3 victory Friday night.

In a win-or-go-home game, Tech started strong with some excellent defensive plays against Sam Houston. After two scoreless frames on both sides, Dalton Davis delivered a two-run bomb to left field to give Louisiana Tech a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning.

Later in the inning, Michael Ballard continued the scoring with an RBI single to midfield, sending Cole McConnell home and extending Tech’s lead to 3-0. Eventually, Sam Houston got on the board, driving in three runs after a charged walk RBI and two ground out RBIs, tying the game.

Sam Brodersen kept the match in a stalemate with his 3.1 innings of work and five punches on the night. Brodersen (8-1) allowed one hit and walked a batter to also give him the victory.

In the seventh inning, Davis (2 for 5, 3 RBI, 2 HR) gave Tech the lead after his second homer of the evening, then Michael Ballard followed with his second RBI of the evening with a single in the middle, marking Jorge Corona. It was the third game this season where Davis hit multiple home runs.

Ethan Bates came on in the eighth inning and closed out the game by getting his 16th save this season.

QUOTES
Head Coach Lane Burroughs:
On the game…

“I’m so proud of our guys, it was hard all day and it was a fight. We didn’t particularly play baseball today. We picked a bad day to not play very well but we found a way to win. Dalton (Davis) who was just sitting here. He kind of got into a bit of a fight. He didn’t play very well last weekend, but he’s a great hitter and he found a way to do it tonight. Both circuits were huge. We finished second and third with no one out and we didn’t score in the fifth, which was as crazy as I had been all year. I think I might have eaten the concrete in the dugout. I stayed calm and the players stayed calm. It was frustrating and that kind of day. We had opportunity after opportunity, but we found a way to win this one. Sam Broderson was the key. That’s an alpha dog there. He said give me the baseball. You have to understand that it just launched two days ago. He just kept going. He came in with the bases loaded and no one came out. I know they scored three points, but he downplayed that because it could have gotten out of hand quickly and it would have been difficult to come back from. I went to get the ball from him and told him you’re going to pitch next week because of what you just did, and he looked at me and said I’m going to pitch tomorrow. We would never do that, but he’s that kind of kid. I was proud of him and Ethan (Bates) at the end of the game. This double play was huge. Ethan is good against lefties. I felt like Broderson was running out of steam, and it was hot today, and he got the ball on a double play. It was a clean double play, and Ethan finished it. I’m extremely proud of our guys, we’ve been here before and we talked about it after the first game. We were here three years ago. We had to win two games on Saturday and we knocked off Southern Miss twice. This is nothing new for us. We plan to play on Sunday. Nothing against Liberty, it’s a great team. They beat us today, but our guys expect to play on Sunday. We enjoy our crowd. I know it was hot and I know the disappointment of losing the first game, but I appreciate everyone coming out tonight to help us get through it.

FOLLOWING
No. 1 seed Louisiana Tech will face No. 5 seed Liberty in a must-win game Saturday at 12:30 p.m. to keep its chances of winning the CUSA championship alive.

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