The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns baseball team fell to the Marshall Thundering Herd 9-5 on Wednesday night at the Sun Belt Conference Tournament at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery, Alabama. The loss means Louisiana has to play for their season tomorrow afternoon in an elimination game.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Marshall (32-24) started with lefty Bryce Blevins on the mound. He worked an efficient and effective first inning, retiring the Cajuns in order.
Louisiana (26-30) countered with right-hander Tate Hess. He gave up a solo home run to former Ragin’ Cajun Jackson Halter to lead off the game. That made it 1-0 Marshall.
The Herd would tack on more runs in the bottom of the third. Halter brought home another run with an RBI double. A combination of well-placed hits and funny bounces gave Marshall three more runs, making their lead 5-0.
Louisiana got a couple of runs back in the sixth, as Caleb Stelly delivered a sacrifice fly and Conor Higgs drove in an RBI single. That made it 5-2, but Marshall got out of the jam.
The Herd added four more and opened this game up in the sixth and seventh. A two-run single from AJ Havrilla matched the Cajuns runs. Then, Nolan Wilson hit a two-run shot in the next frame to make it 9-2.
Louisiana cut the lead to four at 9-5 with three runs in the eighth. That gave them a chance in the ninth, but the comeback came up short. Marshall held on 9-5.
BIG NUMBER: 9
The Marshall offense came through with nine runs in this game. It was going to be hard for the Cajuns’ offense to keep up with that, and they were unable to.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Jackson Halter
The former Cajun had himself a day. Three hits including a home run, a double, and a single saw him just a triple shy of the cycle.
UP NEXT: The Cajuns will face Georgia Southern in an elimination game tomorrow at 12:30 PM.