Baseball: UL wins Sun Belt tourney; awaits NCAA Regional locale

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, May 29, 2016

SAN MARCOS, Texas – UL won its third straight Sun Belt Conference Tournament title Sunday, beating No. 6 seed Georgia Southern 5-0 at Texas State’s Bobcat Ballpark here.

The top-seeded and No. 17-ranked Ragin’ Cajuns, now 41-19 with 10 straight wins, did it largely behind the masterful pitching of St. Thomas More High product Wyatt Marks, who threw a four-hit shutout out 7.0 innings.

From the last two outs of the third inning through the first two of the sixth, Marks retired 10 in a row.

Closer Dylan Moore pitched the final 2.0 innings for UL, which will now go to its fourth straight NCAA Regional.

The 64-team NCAA Tournament field will be announced at 11 a.m. Monday on ESPNU.

UL, which left the bases loaded in the fourth, went scoreless with Georgia Southern for four-and-a-half innings.

The Cajuns maximized opportunity in the fifth, however.

After catcher Nick Thurman struck out but reached on a wild pitch, then moved to second on Hunter Kasuls’ sacrifice bunt, Brian Mills broke the tie with a double that scored Thurman.

The run marked the first time in the tournament Georgia Southern, which shut out its prior to opponents, had trailed.

But UL wasn’t done, as Joe Robbins drove in Mills to make it 2-0.

Georgia Southern stranded two men in the first and didn’t really threaten again until the seventh, when the Cajuns escaped a first-and-third situation.

Marks got the first out, making a heady play with the throw to first when he realized he didn’t have a chance to get the lead runner.

With runners on the corners, CJ Ballard was caught trying to steal as catcher Thurman made the throw to second baseman Stefan Trosclair and Trosclair made the tag in a rundown without the runner from third being able to score.

Marks then struck out Kent Rollins to end the half-inning with UL’s lead intact at 2-0.

The Cajuns tacked on one more run in the bottom of the seventh, when Kyle Clement’s bases-loaded sac fly scored Hunter Kasuls, and another two in the eighth, when pinch-runner Jam Williams scored on a wild pitch after Brenn Conrad originally reached with a single and Thurman added a solo homer.

UL advanced to Sunday’s title game by beating No. 8 seed Arkansas State on Wednesday night, host No. 5 seed on Friday and Arkansas State again on Saturday.