In their first game of the loser’s bracket, the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns got off to a strong start offensively against James Madison. However, a late collapse cost the Cajuns dearly as the Dukes advanced in the tournament.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
James Madison got things going with a leadoff double from Ryan Dooley, who later advanced to third on a wild pitch. Dooley came into score on a single by Mike Mancini to put the Dukes ahead 1-0.
However, in the second, the regular season champs exploded for a seven-run frame, starting with back-to-back singles from John Taylor and Duncan Pastore. Caleb Stelly was hit by a pitch to load the bases before Jose Torres singled in the tying run. Then, Lee Amedee had a two-run single followed by a Luke Yuhasz double and Trey LaFleur single quickly made it a 5-1 game and forced JMU to make a pitching change. Taylor came up for his second at-bat of the inning, grounding out on a sacrifice bunt to the pitcher, but a hit-and-run situation allowed two runs to score on the play and increase the lead to 7-1.
The Dukes got a run back in the fourth when Brendan O’Donnell took the Sun Belt Pitcher of the Year LP Langevin deep for a solo homer. In the fifth, JMU added another run on a RBI double from Jason Schiavone to make it a 7-3 game.
In the sixth, the Dukes added yet another when Dooley sent O’Donnell home on a single to right field that made it 7-4. For Louisiana, Connor Higgs answered in the bottom half with a solo homer to left field to add insurance at 8-4.
To the seventh where James Madison wasn’t done. Mancini and Schiavone were both in scoring position with one out when a pitch got away from Jose Torres to score Mancini to make it 8-5 before O’Donnell reached on the fielder’s choice out, but Schiavone scored to make it a two-run game. The scoring wasn’t over for the Dukes as Kyle Langley doubled down the right field line to score another run and make it an 8-7 game with a pair of JMU baserunners in scoring position. The Dukes took the lead on a three-run home run to right field to regain the lead 10-8.
Jose Torres got a two-out single to center field in the bottom half of the seventh to score Duncan Pastore and put it back to a one-run game at 10-9.
Louisiana got Kyle DeBarge to second base but was unable to get him home as the Cajuns were eliminated from the Sun Belt Tournament.
BIG NUMBER: 2017
The last time a regular-season champion was winless in the tournament was the single elimination tournament in 2017 when Coastal Carolina lost their opening round game.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Ryan Dooley
The JMU leadoff hitter went 3-5 with a home run and four runs batted in on the day as the Dukes advance
UP NEXT: Louisiana will await their fate in the NCAA Tournament after being eliminated from the SBC Tournament. Selection Monday will begin at 11am.