Cajuns Fall to Southern Miss in Finale, 15-11

Louisiana baseball coach Tony Robichaux believes games are won with pitching, defense and timely hitting.

The Cajuns had enough hitting to win Sunday, but the other two facets of the game failed in Louisiana's 15-11 loss in eleven innings in front of a paid attendance of 4,715 at M. L. "Tigue" Moore Field at Russo Park.

A two run triple by Southern Miss catcher Cole Donaldson highlighted a four run eleventh inning as the Golden Eagles (8-3) salvaged the finale of the three game series..

The Cajuns (6-4) had a chance to win it in the tenth when Kennon Fontenot led off with a single.  Hunter Kasuls sacrificed pinch runner Jam Williams to second and Williams took third on a wild pitch.  Brenn Conrad walked to put runners at the corners.  The Cajuns tried a suicide squeeze bunt on an 0-1 pitch to Ishmael Edwards, but the bunt was fouled off.  Edwards struck out and Todd Lott grounded out to end the threat.

"If you're going to play an ugly game, you have to win it when you have a chance to win it," Robichaux said.  "We didn't get the bunt down and they took advantage."

The Cajuns jumped out to a 6-0 lead after two innings, but Southern Miss got an unearned run in the fourth off starter Evan Guillory and got three consecutive two out hits in the fifth, including a two run homer by Taylor Braley to craw within 6-5.  The Cajuns got a run back on a sacrifice fly by Handsome Monica but Southern Miss answered with a run off reliever Wyatt Marks in the sixth.

The Eagles scored twice in the seventh off Chris Charpentier on a two run homer by winning pitcher Matt Wallner (2-0) to take their first lead, but the Cajuns came right back in the seventh, scoring on a two run single by Alex Pinero and a two run single by Joe Robbins.

The three run lead wouldn't hold, however as two errors, a pair of walks and a single allowed Southern Miss to score three unearned runs to tie the game, sending the game to extra innings.

Jack Burk (0-2) the sixth of eight Cajuns pitchers, took the loss, giving up two runs on one hit in 2.2 innings of relief.

Monica, Robbins and Lott led the way with three hits each as the Cajuns tallied a season high 16 hits.  Conrad and Edwards had two hits each.

Tracy Hadley had three hits, while Wallner and Storme Cooper each had two of the twelve hits for Southern Miss.

Louisiana will travel to New Orleans to take on Tulane Tuesday night in a game to be heard on NewsTalk 96.5 KPEL at 6:00 pm.