After staying alive on Thursday against the Eagles of Georgia Southern, the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns once again met with the Marshall Thundering Herd, the team that put the Cajuns in the losers’ bracket on Wednesday night. Louisiana jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Marshall scored 11 straight to jump out to a big lead, but the Cajuns didn’t go away as they scored six straight in the later innings. However, Marshall found late insurance from their star of the night, Maika Niu, in a 17-13 victory for the Thundering Herd.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Cajuns got on the scoreboard almost immediately in this one, putting up three runs in the top of the first thanks to a RBI single from Luke Yuhasz that scored Drew Markle, then Yuhasz stole home later in the inning before Lee Amedee hit a double to score Connor Higgs and give Louisiana the 3-0 advantage.
From there, it was all Marshall. Maika Niu got the Herd on the board with a solo homer off of Andrew Hermann to cut into the Cajuns’ lead. In the second inning, former Cajuns player Jackson Halter hit a RBI single to right center, scoring Ethan Murdoch. Later in the inning, with the bases loaded, Eddie Leon blew the game open for Marshall with a grand slam that made it 6-3 Herd.
Marshall continued to add runs in the third inning with a sacrifice fly RBI from Tyler Kamerer before Halter got a second RBI single against his former team that made it 8-3. Before the inning was over, Niu had his second homer of the night, this time a two-run blast to make it 10-3.
With Louisiana on their fourth pitcher in the fourth inning and time running out on their season, the Herd added insult to injury as Cam Harthan got a bases-loaded groundout to score Nolan Wilson and make it 11-3.
The Cajuns were able to stop the bleeding in the fifth inning as Brooks Wright got on base, which led to Yuhasz hitting a two-run homer to left field, cutting the lead to 11-5. Later in the frame, Connor Cuff got a double to score a pair more, but was thrown out trying to stretch it to third. Nonetheless, Louisiana put up four in the frame and made it a game once again at 11-7.
Kamerer added to the Marshall lead with a two-run single to center field with the bases loaded and nobody out to make it 13-7 Herd with two runners on and still nobody out. Later, Halter added to his impressive night with an RBI double to right field to make it 14-7. Niu also added to his legendary night with a two-run triple to extend the lead to 16-7.
In the seventh, Louisiana loaded the bases with nobody out after a single from Yuhasz, a double from Higgs, and a walk from Caleb Stelly. Amedee then brought in a run with a seven-pitch at bat that resulted in a walk to make it 16-8 and leave the bases loaded with no outs. On the ground ball from Owen Galt, a run came in to score, but Marshall turned a double play to get two needed outs. Cuff then singled to left field to keep the inning alive and score Stelly in the process, and make it a 16-10 game. Drew Markle then kept the inning going with a single to right field that scored Cuff and made it 16-11.
As the game hit the eighth inning, Louisiana once again had life as Yuhasz reached before another double from Higgs put runners at 2nd and 3rd with nobody out for Stelly, who grounded it to Niu, but the ball was missed and Yuhasz came into score without a play to make it 16-12. Amedee drew a full-count walk to bring the tying run to the plate in Galt. The Cajuns added another run on a wild pitch to score Higgs and make it a three-run game with one out, but Marshall was able to get out of the jam and hold on to a three-run lead.
Marshall got some insurance as Niu launched his third home run of the contest to right field to make it 17-13 in the bottom of the eighth.
In the top of the ninth, Marshall was able to finish off the Cajuns, winning the elimination game 17-13.
BIG NUMBER: 30
There were 30 runs scored on 33 base hits between these two teams tonight, which set up for a classic college baseball game in Montgomery.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Maika Niu
Niu became just the third player in SBC Tournament history to have three home runs in a single game as the shortstop had six runs batted in on his three home runs and a triple.