Box Score RUSTON – Louisiana Tech's Jordan Washam blasted a double off the top of the center field wall with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, scoring J'Mar Smith as the Bulldogs walked off with an 8-7 win over the 23^rd-ranked McNeese Cowboys here Tuesday night.
 
The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Cowboys as they fall to 26-10 on the season. Louisiana Tech improved to 24-13 overall and avenged a 5-3 loss to the Cowboys two weeks ago.
 
Collin Kober, the sixth McNeese pitcher to touch the mound, took the loss after he allowed the game-winner while throwing two-thirds of an inning, dropping his record to 1-2 on the season while Sulphur native Kyle Griffen (1-1) got the win after facing just one batter in the top of the ninth.
 
The Cowboys put 12 hits on the board but just two in the final four innings as Bulldog reliever Graham Ahlrich silenced McNeese's bats by allowing just two hits and not runs in 4 2/3 innings of work.
 
"Ahlrich, what he did, he stretched the ball game out really well," said head coach Justin Hill. "He kind of had us at bay a little bit and gave them a chance to come back."
 
McNeese led 3-0 after the first inning when Robbie Podorsky led off the game with a home run followed by two more runs scored off a double by Shane Selman.
 
The Bulldogs rallied back with four runs in the third to go up 4-3. All four runs were scored with two outs after Cowboys' starting pitcher Zach Rider hit a rough patch after pitching nicely for 2 2/3 innings.
 
"I thought he (Rider) did good," said Hill. "They put some good swings on a couple of things and made him run out of gas there in the third inning."
 
McNeese took the lead back in with three runs in the fourth behind a three-run home run by Matt Gallier, his 10^th of the season. Then added another run in the fifth in an inning the Bulldogs were fortunate to escape as the Cowboys loaded the bases with no outs.
 
"I thought we played really well," said Hill. "There were a couple of plays here or there. I thought we hit some balls on the screws that were hit right to them.
 
"I thought it was a great battle. Tech is a good team who is returning a ton of guys that went to a regional last year and won 40 games.
 
McNeese held a 7-5 lead until the bottom of the seventh inning when Chase Lunceford hit his second home run of the game followed by an RBI fielder's choice by Dalton Skelton that scored Sean Ullrich, who reached on a single following Lunceford's lead-off home run.
 
The Cowboys had a chance to go up in the ninth when Gallier drew a one-out walk and Selman hit a two-out infield single to put runners at first and second. Austin Nelson, hitting for Jake Cochran and facing his old Sulphur High School teammate in Griffen, hit a long fly ball to center field for the third out and stranding the runners.
 
Jonathan Washam led off the bottom of the ninth with a single up the middle off Kober then moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by pinch-hitter Parker Bates. Kober then got Skelton to strike out swinging for the second out and that preceeded Jordan Washam's game-winning double which was hit with an 0-2 count.
 
Selman tied a season-high with four hits in the game to lead the Cowboys while Will Fox, Gallier and Cochran each had two knocks.
 
Jonathan Washam and Raphael Gladu led Louisiana Tech's 14-hit attack with three hits apiece.
 
McNeese will return to Southland Conference play this weekend when it visits Northwestern State beginning with Friday's opener at 6 p.m.