Posted at 9:37 p.m., Friday, March 17, 2006
Louisiana Tech tops UH in baseball
Advertiser Staff
Louisiana Tech got strong pitching to stop Hawai'i, 6-1, Friday night in the Western Athletic Conference season opener before 1,110 at Les Murakami Stadium.Steven Wright (4-2) was hit for six runs, 10 hits and a walk with five strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings for the Rainbows (18-7 overall, 0-1 WAC), who had a five-game win streak snapped.
Counterpart Luke Burnett (2-2) allowed a run, five hits and two walks with four strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings for the Bulldogs (10-10, 1-0).
The Bulldogs took the lead in the second. Albie Goulder led off with a double to right, took third when Ryan Hamilton grounded out to shortstop and scored when Brian Rike also grounded out to short.
Louisiana Tech padded its lead in the fourth. Jericho Jones opened by beating out a single to shortstop, took second on Amos Ramon's sacrifice, advanced to third on a balk and scored on Albie Goulder's two-run home run to right-center to increase the Bulldogs' lead to 3-0.
The Rainbows got to Burnett in the fifth. Esteban Lopez led off with a double to left and took third when Eli Christensen grounded out to shortstop. After Derek DuPree popped out to shortstop, Lopez scored on Robbie Wilder's ground single to right. Joe Spiers walked and both runners advanced on a wild pitch. But Justin Frash grounded out to second to end the inning.
The Bulldogs chased Wright in the seventh. With one out, Brandon Hudson singled and was lifted for pinch runner Nick Grunenwald. Boyce singled to left to put runners at first and second before Cobb flied out to left. But Jones doubled to right-center to score two to make it 5-1. Ramon doubled in Jones to make it 6-1 and end Wright's night. Rich Olsen came in and struck out Goulder to end the inning.
