Live updates: Louisiana Tech vs. Rice in C-USA tourney
Louisiana Tech opened the Conference USA Tournament on Wednesday at 9 a.m. against Rice.
The fifth-seeded Bulldogs lost to the fourth-seeded Owls, 13-12, at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. This morning's game is the first of four on the day.
Tech's Phillip Diehl and Rice's Jon Duplantier squared off in a rematch from last Thursday's game that ended in a 12-2 win for the Bulldogs.
Here are the live updates throughout from the game. Tech will play Thursday morning at 9 a.m.
Ninth inning: Rice 13, Tech 12
T9: The Bulldogs also manage to rally even when many count them out, so a three-run ninth to make things interesting was nothing new. Tech plated three runs and had the game-tying and go-ahead runs at the plate when Raphael Gladu grounded out to first base.
A pair of singles opened the ninth, and Mason Paxton's pinch-hit sacrifice fly made it 13-10. A Garrett Dodd single loaded the bases and Chase Lunecford ripped a first-pitch single to right field to score two more. Gladu came up with four hits on the stat sheet already, but he couldn't break through against Dane Myers, who picked up his fifth save of the year.
Eighth inning: Rice 13, Tech 9
T8: Tech chipped away with another run on Gladu's two-out RBI single to center field. The Bulldogs could have had more but they almost ran themselves out of the inning when Bryce Stark was gunned down at the plate from third for the first out of the inning. Two walks and a stolen base on a heads up play by Stark put runners at the corners for Jonathan Washam. He hit a hard grounder to third and Stark was called out at the plate on the close play, which caused Tech coach Greg Goff to sprint down from third base.
B8: Rice gets three insurance runs, all of which came off reliever Nate Harris. Connor Tekyl's two-run double made it 12-9 and the Owls tacked on another run via Hunter Kopycinski's sacrifice fly.
Seventh inning: Rice 10, Tech 8
T7: Tech goes down in order as Chandler Hall records the golden sombrero with his fourth strikeout of the game.
B7: Graham Ahlrich recorded a 1-2-3 inning to keep the score at 10-8. Ahrlich is currently working his longest outing of the year.
Sixth inning: Rice 10, Tech 8
T6: Jonathan Washam picked up his third hit of the game to drive in two runs, and Gladu lined a double off the center field wall to cut into Rice's lead even more at 10-8. Bryce Stark and Jordan Washam walked with one out to bring up Jonathan Washam, who lined a 2-1 pitch into the gap to score a pair.
B6: Ahlrich continued his steady presence on the mound with a strikeout to end the sixth inning. Through five innings, Ahrlich has scatted one run and five hits to keep Tech in the game.
Fifth inning: Rice 10, Tech 5
T5: Tech chased Duplantier from the game with a pair of singles and two walks, the latter of which came with Taylor Love at the plate, to score a run and trim the lead to 10-5. Duplantier exited from the game with one out after throwing his 100th pitch. He struck out nine in four-plus innings. The RBI walk was the first run scored without two outs, ending a string of 14 straight runs.
Rice coach Wayne Graham made an interesting decision to bring closer Glenn Otto on in the fifth. It worked just as he hoped as Otto induced a first-pitch inning-ending double play off the bat of Brent Diaz to keep the Owls' lead at 10-5.
B5: A relatively quick inning as Rice strands a runner at first.
Fourth inning: Rice 10, Tech 4
T4: Duplantier worked around a leadoff hit-batsmen to retire the side. He added two more strikeouts to bring his total to eight through the first four innings. Duplantier has his offspeed stuff working this morning with several strikeouts coming on pitches in the dirt. He's also responsible for three wild pitches.
B4: Tech reliever Ahlrich allowed two hits and couldn't get out of a first and third jam with two outs. Rice scored its 10th run of the game with two outs as leadoff hitter Charlie Warren lined a base hit down the left field line.
Third inning: Rice 9, Tech 4
T3: Tech is starting to crawl back in this game. Chase Lunceford launched a two-run, two-out home run to right field to get Tech back within five runs. Duplantier escaped further damge by getting out of a first and third jam. Another interesting play occurred when Cody Daigle's bat forced the ball to roll away from the catcher on a third strike. The throw sailed into right field for Rice's third error of the inning, but Duplantier got Taylor Love to ground into a fielder's choice to end the threat.
B3: Rice loaded the bases to force a pitching change as Casey Sullivan was pulled in favor of Ahlrich. Tech intentionally walked the bases loaded, and Ahlrich produced a pair of grounders as the Bulldogs escaped unscathed.
Second inning: Rice 9, Tech 2
T2: Leave it to Tech's magic to find a way to manufacture a pair of runs. Tech scored two unearned runs off a hit-batsmen, an infield error, a strikeout/wild pitch and another error on a stolen base attempt. Tech had runners on second and third with no one out thanks to a Rice miscue. The Owls, who recorded a whopping five errors in last Saturday's 10-5 loss in Ruston, booted a ball off the bat of Gladu to set up a pair of runners in scoring position.
Lunceford led off with a hit-batsmen and came around to score when a strikeout of Brent Diaz a nasty offspeed pitch went to the backstop. Diaz stole second on the next at-bat, and Rice catcher Hunter Kopycinski hit Duplantier in the upper body with a throw down to second. The ball ricocheted off Duplantier to allow Gladu to score for a 2-0 lead. It was short-lived.
B2: Rice recorded the first hit of the game on a single to right field and ended up plating three runs on another wild play at the plate. With two outs in the inning, Bryce Stark misplayed a ball in center field then booted it to force a play at the plate. The relay throw came to catch Diaz who collided with Tristan Gray as Gray barreled down the line like a linebacker to jar the ball loose.
Gray was shaken up on the play and remained on the dirt for a few minutes. Rice then added five more runs on Grayson Lewis' RBI triple and Hunter Kopycinski's single to make it 3-2. Diehl allowed a grand slam to Ford Proctor, who cranked a 3-2 pitch to dead center field. Casey Sullivan replaced Diehl with two outs in the inning, but he walked the first runner and allowed two more singles as Rice extended its lead to 9-2. All nine runs came with two outs.
Diehl's final line is nine runs on eight hits in 1 ⅔ innings. This comes six days after he stymied Rice with seven innings of one-run ball.
First inning: Tech 0, Rice 0
T1: Duplantier, who got rocked by Tech in the first meeting by allowing nine runs in four innings, looked settled down in the first inning by retiring the Bulldogs in order. The projected first-round pick struck out Bryce Stark to leadoff the game then recorded consecutive fly outs off the bat of Jordan and Jonathan Washam.
B1: Diehl matched Duplantier's 1-2-3 first with an easy inning of his own. Diehl produced a pair of ground outs and a fly ball to left field.
LINEUPS
Louisiana Tech (37, 16)
1. Bryce Stark, CF, .235, 1 HR, 11 RBIs
2. Jordan Washam, 2B, .313, 3 HR, 29 RBIs
3. Jonathan Washam, DH, .318, 2 HR, 25 RBIs
4. Chase Lunceford, 3B, .329, 8 HR, 42 RBIs
5. Raphael Gladu, LF, .321, 2 HR, 24 RBIs
6. Cody Daigle, 1B, .283, 6 HR, 28 RBIs
7. Taylor Love, RF, 2 HR, 10 RBIs
8. Brent Diaz, C, 3 HR, 25 RBIs
9. Chandler Hall, SS, .269, 5 HR, 30 RBIs
Rice (32-20)
1. Charlie Warren, RF, .346, 0 HR, 19 RBIs
2. Ryan Chandler, CF, .286, 2 HR, 16 RBIs
3. Ford Proctor, SS, .348, 1 HR, 30 RBIs
4. Dominic DiCaprio, DH, .285, 0 HR, 15 RBIs
5. Tristan Gray, 3B, .304, 3 HR, 14 RBIs
6. Dayne Wunderlick, LF, .233, 3 HR, 18 RBIs
7. Connor Teykl, 1B, .262, 1 HR, 20 RBIs
8. Grayson Lewis, 2B, .222, 2 HR, 18 RBIs
9. Hunter Kopycinski, C, .181, 0 HR, 11 RBIs
PITCHING MATCHUPS
Louisiana Tech, Phillip Diehl (LHP) — 5-4, 3.93 ERA, 71 IP, 77 SO vs. Rice, Jon Duplantier (RHP) — 7-5, 2.88 ERA, 97 IP, 126 SO
SERIES HISTORY
Rice leads the all-time series 35-6, but Tech swept Rice last weekend to hand the Owls their first conference sweep since 2005. The Bulldogs had previously lost 17 straight games to the Owls dating back to 2005.
Game 1: Tech, 12-2
Game 2: Tech, 5-4 (15 innings)
Game 3: Tech, 10-5
LINKS
Louisiana Tech and Rice meet for the fourth time in six days as recent enemies.
Recent enemies Tech and Rice meet for 4th time at C-USA tourney
Tech is in good shape for the NCAA Tournament but it won't feel good until it wins a few games in Hattiesburg.
Tech will feel better about NCAA hopes with a few wins in Hattiesburg
Tech's magical run began at Western Kentucky. The Bulldogs are 21-6 since.
Birth of blue magic: Tech's run began at WKU
Casey Sutton, who leads the conference in ERA, earned first-team C-USA honors on Tuesday.
Former Sterlington standout Casey Sutton earns first-team C-USA selection
Tech is in its current situation with a strong resume do to an aggressive midweek approach.
Midweek games the saving grace for Tech's NCAA hopes
Tech is projected as a No. 3 seed in the Baton Rouge Regional.
Tech projected as No. 3 seed in Baton Rouge Regional
Greg Goff never dreamed Tech could be this good in year two. His impatience has paid off.
Goff's impatience pays off in the long run for Tech
Bulldog players weigh in on NCAA hopes.
In or out? Tech weighs in on NCAA at-large status after Rice sweep
Recapping Tech's sweep of Rice last weekend.