RUSTON, La. - Daniel Palo put in a career outing Sunday, but it wasn't enough as the Middle Tennessee baseball team fell 3-2 to host Louisiana Tech at J.C. Love Field in Ruston, La.
Palo set a new career-high in strikeouts with 7 over a career-best 7.1 innings of work. The native of Germantown, Tenn., faced the minimum number of batters three times.
Offensively, Johnny Thomas was 3-for-4 at the plate and Jordan Rorex was the only other Blue Raider with multiple hits, going 2-for-5 with a run scored. Trent Miller scored the other Blue Raider run.
Neither Justin Guidry nor Davis Pearce recorded a hit, but both earned a run batted in.
Will Skinner was 1-for-2 with a pair of walks.
Middle Tennessee (1-9) opened up the scoring in the first inning. Rorex started things off with a single to left and then stole second. A Thomas single up the middle advanced Rorex to third, and he ultimately scored on a Guidry groundout.
The Blue Raiders tacked another run in the fourth. After Miller led off with a walk, Hank LaRue doubled down the left field line, and a Pearce flyout to center scored the run.
Louisiana Tech (8-2) tied things up with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom half of the fourth. Mark Threlkeld reached on an error and later scored on a wild pitch. Alex Williams, who reached on single earlier in the frame, scored on a two-out single by Ryan Gebhardt.
LaTech grabbed their first lead in the eighth. Threlkeld reached after being hit by an errant pitch, and made it to third on a Williams single to left field. A Joey Ford bunt single brought home the run. Paul Mittura replace Palo on the mound and recorded the final two outs.
Middle Tennessee will now prepare take on Louisiana Tech later this afternoon in the final game of the series before heading back to Murfreesboro.
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