Cajuns Baseball Falls Short in 5-3 Loss to Coastal Carolina

The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns baseball team had plenty of opportunities in game two of their series against the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, but they struggled with clutch hitting and walking batters in their 5-3 loss.

The Cajuns outhit the Chanticleers 9-7, but they left 12 runners on base in the game. They were 4-18 with runners on base and 1-11 as a team with runners in scoring position.

Coastal Carolina opened the scoring in the game with three singles in the second inning off of Cajuns starter Carter Robinson, taking an early 1-0 lead.

Those were the only hits Robinson allowed in an otherwise stellar start. He threw four innings, only giving up those three hits and one earned run.

Louisiana tied the game up in the bottom of the third inning with back-to-back doubles by Ben Fitzgerald and Tyler Robertson.

However, Coastal did not wait long to retake the lead. A leadoff walk turned into a two-run home run for the Chanticleers in the fifth, and they jumped back out to a 3-1 lead. The Cajuns had a chance to answer in the bottom half of the fifth, but they stranded two runners in the inning.

The Chanticleers cracked their second home run of the game with a solo shot in the sixth to make it 4-1, but the Cajuns answered with a two-out rally. A double and two hit batters had the Cajuns set up with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth, but they were only able to score one run on an error. They left the bases loaded in the inning.

Coastal got another leadoff walk in the seventh and used a double to bring the run home and wipe out the work the Cajuns had done in the sixth.

In the eighth inning, Louisiana got the first two runners on, but a double-play and groundout kept the frame scoreless, and they went into the last inning of regulation down 5-2

The Cajuns loaded the bases with one out in the final inning, but, once again, could not get the big clutch hit and settled for a sacrifice fly-out and strikeout to end the game at 5-3.

Louisiana head coach Matt Deggs was happy with his team's performance in the game two loss.

"That was a whale of a ball game right there," Deggs said. "If we play every game like that, we will like our chances."

Deggs emphasized the multiple chances the Cajuns had to take the lead, but appreciated his team's aggressiveness at the plate.

"We've got to eliminate silly walks, but we never stopped coming at them," Deggs said. "We had a couple chances to get the big hit and just couldn't come through. I like the way our kids played today."

With the loss, Louisiana is now 12-11 on the season and 1-1 in Sun Belt Conference play. Next up, the Cajuns play game three against the Chanticleers tomorrow at 3:00 p.m.