EUNICE – The LSU Eunice baseball program is headed back to the NJCAA Division I World Series.
The Bengals secured a trip to the World Series on Saturday, after defeating Shelton State 8-6 in a winner-take-all Game 3 of the South District Championship Series at Bengal Stadium.
LSUE (46-11) will make its first trip to Grand Junction, Colorado, for the JUCO World Series after moving up to the Division I level in 2025.
The Bengals are set for their 12th overall appearance in the NJCAA National Tournament, having made 11 previous trips including 8 National Championships at the Division II level. LSUE’s most recent National Title came during the 2024 season.
It was a fitting end to a back-and-forth series with the Buccaneers. After slugging 19 runs off 18 hits including 4 home runs in LSUE’s Game 2 win, the Bengals used small ball and the timely hit to manufacture their offense. LSUE jumped out to a 4-0 lead through through three innings, kicked off by a two-out single from Milan Obradovich to score Jordan Luna. The Bengals added to their tally an inning later with a two-out balk that allowed Tyler Mitchell to score from third base.
Mason Bordelon capped off the early scoring surge with another two out hit, connecting on a two-run single to bring home Obradovich and Aidan Mouton.
McCray Jacobs held off Shelton State early, giving a gutsy performance less than four days removed from a 100-plus pitch outing in the Region 23 Championship game. The sophomore southpaw held the Bucs scoreless for the first four innings before getting chased in the sixth inning.
Jacobs received a no decision in 5.1 innings of work, giving up three earned runs off six hits and one free pass. He would strike a pair of batters.
Shelton State crossed its first run of the game in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly, adding three more an inning later to tie the game 4-4 heading into the bottom of the sixth. LSUE punched right back, adding three of its own thanks to a Jake Smith sacrifice fly, Jordan Luna bunt single, and Aidan Mouton RBI single.
The see-saw game continued into the later innings with the teams trading runs in the seventh and eighth innings. Mouton executed a squeeze bunt to score Andrew Clapinski, adding a valuable insurance run to make it an 8-5 LSUE advantage.
Mouton and Mason Bordelon each had two RBIs while Bordelon was joined by Clapinski and Obradovich with multi-hit games in LSUE’s 10-hit outing.
Mouton would come into the game to deliver his third save of the game, getting the final six outs of the contest. After inducing three straight groundouts in the eighth, Mouton worked around two hits and two free passes in the ninth. A passed ball bounced right back to Clapinski behind the plate to snag the second out of the ninth on an attempted steal of home. Mouton would get a game ending strikeout on his very next pitch to seal the win and set off the Bengal Stadium celebration.
Seeding for the 10-team double elimination bracket for the 2026 NJCAA Division I World Series will be announced on Tuesday, May 19. First round action at Sam Suplizio Field in Grand Junction, Colorado will begin on Saturday, May 23 with the tournament running through Saturday, May 30.