La Tech loses first series of baseball season to UT Arlington - KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana

The Louisiana Tech (0-3, 0-0 WAC) Bulldog baseball team dropped the third and final game of the weekend to the Mavericks of UT Arlington (3-0, 0-0 WAC) 9-3 Sunday afternoon at Clay Gould Ballpark in Arlington, Texas.

"They really played well, and I thought we played well at times," head coach Wade Simoneaux said. "We pitched all 12 guys and played all 16 position players, so we had some players that got their feet wet. It is not the start we wanted, but we definitely did not give them a glimpse of what we are going to be like in a couple weeks when they come to our place. We will be a different ball club by then."

Tech struck first with an RBI double down the left field line in the second inning by Bre'shon Kimbell. Jacob Derouen scored on the base knock from second after reaching on a single to left field.

UT Arlington responded in the bottom half of the second with two runs to take the lead 2-1 heading into the third inning. The Mavericks continued adding runs to the board in the third as UT Arlington sent eight batters to the plate, scoring three runs on three hits to extend the lead to four.

Tech would answer back in the fourth inning with singles by Tyler Ervine and Jacob Derouen, followed by two consecutive walks for Ryan Jones and pinch hitter Colby Johnson to plate a run for the Bulldogs. A fielder's choice by Tyler Qualls would send another run to the plate for Tech before a fly ball would end the inning.

Tech would make six defensive changes in the bottom of the fourth with Kody Neel, Taylor Love, Thomas Simoneaux, Kyle Arnsberg, Austin Hedges and Colby Johnson would all see the field. The Mavericks would go on to score a run in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to lead 8-3 after six innings of play.

UT Arlington added a run in the eighth inning to lead the Bulldogs 9-3 in the final game of the weekend. Tech left 10 runners on base in the loss.

The Bulldogs five pitchers in the loss, with junior college transfer Richie Navari tabbed with the loss after allowing six hits, five runs, five earned runs and two strikeouts in three innings of work.

Freshman Adam Derouen would come on in relief to pitch 2.2 innings while giving up three runs on six hits before being replaced by Sam Alvis in the sixth to finish the inning. Dakota Doss and Luke Giddens would pitch the seventh and eighth innings respectively to close out the game.

At the plate, Tech was led by Tyler Ervine and Jacob Derouen, who had two hits each. Kimbell added an RBI double. The Bulldogs had seven hits on the afternoon, while UT Arlington totaled 13 in the win.

Tech returns to action at 3 p.m. Tuesday to take on Arkansas-Little Rock at Gary Hogan Field in Little Rock, Ark.