WEST LAUDERDALE HIGH, MERIDIAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE ALUMNUS LANE BURROUGHS LEADS LOUISIANA TECH TO CONFERENCE USA BASEBALL TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP – Mississippi Scoreboard

Picture by Louisiana Tech Athletics
Story by Robert Wilson

No. 1 seed and Convention USA common season champion Southern Miss didn’t win the C-USA Match championship, however a workforce coached by a Mississippian with 13 Mississippians on the roster got here away with the event title.

West Lauderdale Excessive and Southern Miss alumnus Lane Burroughs guided his Louisiana Tech workforce to their first event championship since 1987 with a 9-8 victory over College of Texas-San Antonio Sunday afternoon at Southern Miss’ Pete Taylor Park-Hill Denson Discipline in Hattiesburg.

Louisiana Tech senior proper fielder Steele Netterville hit an RBI single within the backside of the ninth to offer No. 2 seed Louisiana Tech a win over No. 5 seed UTSA.

Louisiana Tech improved to 42-19, obtained an automated bid to the NCAA Match and gained its first postseason convention event title since successful the Southland Convention in 1987. UTSA, 38-20, eradicated Southern Miss Saturday.

Louisiana Tech will play within the Austin Regional and Southern Miss will host the Hattiesburg Regional.

One of many 13 Mississippians on the Louisiana Tech roster – senior pitcher and Corinth Excessive and Itawamba Group School alumnus Kyle Crigger – was the successful pitcher Sunday. He allowed one run and had one strikeout in his one inning, the ninth, to enhance to 7-1 this season.

Burroughs grew up in Mississippi and coached in Mississippi till getting his first head teaching job at Northwestern (La.) State in 2013. He performed for Jerry Boatner at West Lauderdale, former Southern Miss coach Corky Palmer at Meridian Group School and Tom Gladney at Mississippi School. After one 12 months as a graduate assistant at MC, Burroughs was an assistant at East Mississippi CC (1997), Northwestern State (1998), Southern Miss (1999-2007), Kansas State (2008) and Mississippi State (2009-12). As an assistant, Burroughs was part of eight groups, which performed in regionals.

Burroughs spent 4 years as head coach at Northwestern State earlier than being named head coach at Louisiana Tech in 2017.
He led Louisiana Tech its sixth 40-win season in class historical past and hosted an NCAA Regional for the primary time in class historical past final season and made it to the Regional championship sport.

“We’ve been sweating it to attempt to get right into a regional for the previous month and now we don’t need to anymore,” Burroughs mentioned. “I’m so pleased with our guys, realizing we now can play subsequent week and a possibility to maneuver on. It’s all due to these gamers and we’ve acquired some nice ones. We wouldn’t have been ready to do that with Crigger. He’s our nearer and has accomplished an impressive job this season. We challenged our guys in in regards to the fifth inning and I believe I truly pulled a again muscle doing it.”

Crigger has a conference-high 9 saves and a 1.79 earned run common in 35 appearances. Crigger had the third lowest ERA within the nation going into this week. The 2 Mississippians with essentially the most enjoying time within the subject this season has sophomore outfielder and Seminary Excessive alumnus Adarius Myers and junior infielder and Clinton Excessive alumnus Walker Burchfield. Myers began 41 video games and hit .265 and Burchfield began 27 video games and hit .202.

Different Mississippians on the roster are senior pitcher/outfielder Jackson Lancaster (Corinth), junior pitcher Tanner Knight (Eupora and East Central CC), junior pitcher Landon Tomkins (Northwest Rankin, Hinds CC), junior pitcher Cade Hodges (Loyd Star and Pearl River CC), sophomore infielder Ben Brantley (Hernando), sophomore outfielder Jesse Boydstun (Winston Academy and East Central CC), sophomore infielder Riggs Easterling (Mississippi Delta CC), freshman infielder Thaxton Berch (Jackson Prep), freshman infielder Colton Hegwood (Brandon) and freshman infielder Jeffrey Ince (Jackson Prep).