Box Score

Needing a win on Saturday to salvage their third straight series win of 2012, the Dallas Baptist Patriots (15-7) wanted to make a statement early in the final game at JC Love Field in Ruston, Louisiana. That statement came in the form of six runs in the first inning, five of which scored before the first out was recorded, on their way to an 11-3 win over Louisiana Tech (11-12).
 
Before recording an out, the Patriots had a 5-0 lead on the Bulldogs. Starter Trevor Petersen walked the first three DBU batters to start the game and then saw Landon Anderson single to right field to score a run and keep the bases full. Joel Hutter came to the plate next and, on the first pitch he saw, cleared the bases with his first homerun of the year and RBI five through eight in the past two days. DBU would add another run as Jaime Garrido and Nash Knight picked up hits and Garrido scored on a Chase Durham sacrifice fly to the warning track in left field for a 6-0 lead after a half inning of play.
 
Louisiana Tech got one of those runs back in the bottom of the first on an Alex Williams homerun but Dallas Baptist would respond again in the third. Duncan McAlpine led off the inning with a sharp single to right before Garrido doubled to right center field  to move him to third. Garrido had two hits on Friday night in his first start of the year and had two hits again Saturday in his first two-at bats. Knight grounded out to second to score McAlpine and move Garrido to third but he was stranded there as Durham struck out swinging and RJ Talamantes struck out looking.
 
Hutter would strike again in the fourth inning as he collected his fifth RBI on the day, and ninth of the series, by driving in Elkins - who was hit by pitch - with a double down the third base line. That run pushed the DBU lead to 8-1 with Andrew Elkins cruising on the mound through four innings with only 59 pitches thrown and the solo homerun in the first as his only blemish. Used exclusively as a reliever, though, throughout his junior college career and early this season, Dan Heefner decided four innings was enough for Elkins in his third start of the season and the fourth inning would be his last.
 
He was replaced in the bottom of the fifth by Jake Johansen who cruised in his first inning of work with two strikeouts and a lazy pop fly to short.
 
The Patriots would add to their lead in the sixth when Austin Elkins tripled off the wall in right field and scored on a Boomer Collins single past a drawn in infield. Leading 9-1, Johansen would pitch the Patriots into the seventh inning, throwing 2.1 innings, giving up two hits and two walks while striking out three. He left with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh when Tyler Rockafellow took the mound. Rockafellow struck out the first batter he faced and then got Kody Neel to pop out to second to strand all three runners left by Johansen.
 
Collins would add the momentum created by Rockafellow with a line drive homerun over the wall in left field to increase the DBU lead to 10-1. That momentum would not last long, however, as Rockafellow was replaced by Michael Smith after allowing two runs on three hits with one out in the eighth. Those two runs scored on a double to left center that landed just beyond the outstretched reach of a diving Talamantes. Smith would walk the first batter he faced before snaring a line drive off the bat of Justin Gordey and turning it into an inning-ending double play at first base to send the game to the ninth, 10-3.
 
DBU added a run to their lead after McAlpine walked with two outs in the ninth. He was followed by Knight, who tripled into the right field corner to pick up an RBI.
 
Jay Calhoun came on to throw the ninth and allowed back-to-back singles with one out before getting a groundball to third and  a strikeout to close out the game.
 
The next time these two teams meet, it will be in conference play as the Patriots will join the Bulldogs as baseball members of the Western Athletic Conference in 2013. But first, the Patriots will continue their 2012 campaign by traveling to Huntsville, Texas on Tuesday to face Sam Houston State.