By Stephen Featherston, Louisiana Tech Director of Strategic Communications; featured photo by Darrell James
RUSTON — Louisiana Tech softball used a six-run third inning to propel itself to a 10-5 comeback win over McNeese on Tuesday evening at Dr. Billy Bundrick Field. The win moves LA Tech to 13-11 (1-2 CUSA) on the season.
The Bulldogs outhit the Cowgirls 11-9 as Allie Furr notched a career-high three base knocks for the Bulldogs. Alannah Rogers recorded two hits, while Nicole Hammoude, Claire Raley, Addison Snyder, Elena Heng, Karli Sellers, and Alexis Gilio all registered one hit apiece.
Rogers and Hammoude both drove in three runs, while Furr, Raley, Snyder and Reagan Marchant all logged one RBI each. Hammoude, Furr, Heng, and Gilio all scored two runs for LA Tech.
Laney Johnson made her sixth start of the season in the circle and recorded 1.0 inning, while giving up two runs on three hits. Mattison Buster pitched 1.2 innings in relief and allowed three runs on five hits. Allie Floydheld the Cowgirls scoreless as she pitched the final 4.1 frames to earn the win. Floyd struck out five batters while allowing one infield single.
HOW IT HAPPENED
McNeese jumped out to an early lead after plating two runs in the second and three in the third to take a 5-0 lead. The Cowgirls used a single through the right side to plate their first run of the game, followed by a caught stealing play that allowed the lead runner to advance home. McNeese would use two more singles in the top of the third inning to take the 5-0 lead, their last two runs of the night.
After a groundout to start the bottom of the third, LA Tech used back-to-back singles from Gilio and Heng two put two on board for Furr. Furr singled up the middle to score Gilio, followed by a triple down the right field line from Rogers that plated both Heng and Furr to make it 5-3 MSU. After a pitching change, Raley singled to short which scored Rogers to cut the deficit to one run. Hammoude drew a walk and Raley advanced to third on a throwing error by the MSU catcher. Marchant did her job as she plated Raley on a sac fly to tie the game at five apiece. With two outs and a runner in scoring position, Snyder singled to right field to score Hammoude, giving Tech its first lead of the day at 6-5.
The Bulldogs went up 7-5 in the bottom of the fourth as Gilio came around to score on a Rogers single up the middle after she reached on a walk. A Three-run home run from Hammoude in the bottom of the sixth made it 10-5 LA Tech. Hammoude was able to plate Furr and Heng. Heng reached base on a walk, while Furr recorded a bunt single to get on base.
NOTABLES
The Bulldogs move to 61-31 against McNeese all-time and have now won five straight dating back to 2022.
The Bulldogs have scored 10 runs in back-to-back games.
Laney Johnson made her sixth start of the season in the circle.
Allie Floyd moved to 9-5 on the season after pitching 4.1 innings in relief to earn the win.
Allie Floyd struck out five to move her consecutive games of 5+ strikeouts to 10 games.
Nicole Hammoude hit her fourth home run of the season.
Nicole Hammoude recorded her seventh multi-RBI game of the season.
Nicole Hammoude extended her hitting streak to 10 games.
Allie Furr recorded a career-high three hits.
Alannah Rogers hit her third double of the season.
NEXT UP
LA Tech will be back in action this weekend as they travel to El Paso, Texas, to face UTEP in a three game CUSA series. The Bulldogs and Miners will play one game on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. CT, followed by a double header on Sunday that is set to begin at 11:30 a.m.