JOURNAL STAFF
Louisiana Tech and Dallas Baptist were planning to be rivals next spring when DBU joins the Conference USA baseball lineup, but the NCAA sped up the timeline Monday.
The Bulldogs (42-19) and Patriots (34-22-1) will head to a nearby neutral site, Austin, Texas, to take part in the NCAA Austin Regional at UFCU Disch-Falk Field beginning Friday. No. 2-seeded Tech will face No. 3 seed Dallas Baptist at 6:30 in the double-elimination, four-team bracket, joining host Texas, the national No. 9 seed, and Air Force.
The Longhorns (42-19) will face the Falcons (30-27) Friday afternoon. First-day losers meet early Saturday, then winners square off, and a regional champion should be identified by Sunday evening, heading to a Super Regional matchup.
Tech earned an automatic bid by claiming the 2022 Conference USA Baseball championship on Sunday with an 9-8 victory over UTSA in the title game.
It’s the first time since 1986 and 1987 that the Bulldogs will appear in a regional in back-to-back seasons. It’s the 10th NCAA Regional appearance in program history and the third appearance since 2016.
The Bulldogs hosted the Patriots March 29, and fell 7-4 at J.C. Love Field in a midweek game.
“They beat us, got the best of us,” said Tech coach Lane Burroughs. “Tons and tons of respect for Coach (Dan) Heefner and Dallas Baptist. We’re going to have to bring it. We’re looking forward to going out and competing with DBU again.”
Byrd High School product Steele Netterville, whose RBI single was the game-winner in Sunday’s championship game, said he and his teammates liked the draw.
“I’m excited we’re playing DBU,” said Netterville. “We played them early in the year, did not play well against them.
“I like our regional a lot. I like our matchups. We’re going to go in there and do our best and I think it will be good enough.
Burroughs knew Dallas Baptist was ahead for his program, but not this soon.
“They’re coming into our league next year, and I guess we’ll have to play them twice (then, since) they’re our closest opponent. We’ll get to know them really well in the future,” he said.
LSU: The Tigers didn’t act jilted, just determined, Monday when they received their NCAA Regional assignment, a short trip up to be the No. 2 seed in the Hattiesburg Regional. LSU’s performance in the past two weeks created hope for homefield advantage in a regional, but the NCAA selection committee didn’t include the Tigers among the top 16 seeds hosting.
First-year coach Jay Johnson believes the rugged SEC Tournament experience has the Tigers (38-20) ready for win-or-go home stakes the rest of the way, starting Friday with a 6 p.m. meeting with third-seeded Kennesaw State (35-26). USM (43-16) and Army West Point (31-23) are the other teams in the regional.
“There’s probably very few things you can do that can prepare you better for the postseason than the SEC Tournament, and it was a great exercise for our team. It was a good challenge, especially after going through the 30-game regular-season SEC schedule. To go against teams that are fighting to get into the NCAA Tournament, fighting to host, fighting for seeding, it was a good experience that will benefit from moving forward.”
https://shreveportbossierjournal.com/2022/03/30/la-tech-gets-nothing-extra-drops-top-21-showdown/
Photo by TOM MORRIS, Louisiana Tech