The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns defeated the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers 12-11 on Wednesday afternoon in the Sun Belt Baseball Championship presented by Troy University at DABOS Park in Montgomery, Alabama. The win sends the Cajuns to the winner’s bracket of the tournament and significantly boosts their chances of receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Regionals.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
With the win over Marshall yesterday, Louisiana earned their way into the double-elimination portion of the Sun Belt Tournament. Coastal opted to start Luke Jones on the mound. He had a rough first inning, hitting three straight batters and allowing a sacrifice fly by Colt Brown to give Louisiana a 1-0 lead. Jones, however, was able to limit the damage to one run.
Louisiana countered with left-hander Andrew Herrmann. He cruised through a 1-2-3 first inning, keeping the 1-0 Cajun lead in tact.
Jones would get through two innings, and then Coastal opted to go to the bullpen. The Cajuns immediately got to work. Brown and Drew Markle had RBIs early in the frame. Later, the big blow was a three-run home run by Steven Spalitta, opening things up and giving Louisiana a 6-0 lead.
The Cajuns added one more in the fourth to make it 7-0, and that lead held into the fifth. However, Coastal finally got to Herrmann in the bottom half of the fifth. Blagen Pado started things with a solo shot. Then, after two straight hit by pitches, Walker Mitchell hit a three-run home run to cut the lead down to 7-4.
In the next frame, Coastal completed the comeback. Pado went yard again, this time a three-run shot that made the game 7-7 at its’ midpoint.
Louisiana regained the lead in the seventh, scoring three runs before a rain delay slowed the tempo of this game. RBIs from Spalitta, Owen Galt, and Mark Collins made it 10-7 right as the weather delay came in.
After the delay, Brown and Donovan Lasalle got the Cajuns’ bats going again. They each tacked on RBIs in the eighth frame, extending the lead to 12-7.
Tyler Papenbrock had been steady out of the pen in this game until the ninth. He allowed the first four to reach for Coastal in the last inning, the last of which brought home a run to make it 12-8. Another RBI hit made it 12-9, and then Trace Mazon hit a two-run triple off the base of the wall that cut the lead to 12-11.
Parker Smith entered with the tying run at third and just one out. He immediately got a strikeout, and then the Cajuns’ went to Hayden Pearson to look for the final out. The freshman obliged, inducing a groundout and allowing Louisiana to hold on for a 12-11 win.
BIG NUMBER: 12
Louisiana scored double-digit runs for the second time in two days at the Sun Belt Tournament. They only scored double-digit runs three times in 30 regular season conference games.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Colt Brown
The fantastic freshman did it again in this game. He went 3-4 with a double and three RBIs, leading the way for an offense that has caught its’ stride down the stretch of the season.
UP NEXT: #7 seed Louisiana will move onto the winner’s bracket to face #6 Texas State. First pitch is set for 4:00 from DABOS Park.