Baseball: Louisiana Stunned By Georgia Southern At Sun Belt Tournament In Extra Innings

STATESBORO, Ga. – The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns baseball team saw its run of consecutive Sun Belt Tournament championships come to an end Friday night as the Cajuns were stunned by host Georgia Southern 7-6 in 11 innings at J.I. Clement Stadium.
 
The Eagles (37-20) outhit the Ragin’ Cajuns (35-21-1) 13-8 in the contest with Logan Baldwin posting a game-high three hits with a home run and four RBI.
 
Zach LaFleur, Kennon Fontenot and Handsome Monica each had two hits for Louisiana in the game. LaFleur reached base in five of his six at bats, while junior Steven Sensley extended his on base streak to 26 games.
 
Junior Gunner Leger was strong on the mound limiting Georgia Southern to one run in seven innings on six hits with seven strikeouts and no free passes in a no decision. The outing was the 11th quality start for Leger on the season.
 
Reliever Evan Guillory (4-3) took the loss after giving up one run on two hits and three walks in 2.0 innings. Junior Wyatt Marks reached 100 strikeouts in the game after tossing a scoreless eighth inning with three strikeouts.
 
Seth Shuman (8-0) notched the victory for the Eagles with two scoreless frames to close out the contest.
 
The Cajuns jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first when Fontenot drove a two-out single to right center to plate Steven Sensley and make the score 1-0.
 
Handsome Monica extended the lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the second inning sending his fourth home run of the season over the fence in left center for a two-run homer.
 
The Eagles got on the board in the top of the fourth on a leadoff solo home run to centerfield by Tyler Martin to cut the lead to 3-1.
 
Louisiana got the run back in the bottom of the sixth on a solo homer to left center by Brad Antchak to increase the Cajuns advantage to 4-1. The home run was the second of the year for Antchak. Later in the inning, Brenn Conrad lined a two-out single to right field to plate Monica and make the score 5-1.
 
The Ragin’ Cajuns held Georgia Southern scoreless until the ninth inning when Evan McDonald sent a bases-loaded, RBI single through the left side of the infield to cut the lead to 5-2. After Steven Curry struck out for the first out of the inning, Baldwin drove a 0-1 pitch off of Colten Schmidt over the wall down the right field line for a grand slam to put the Eagles up 6-5.
 
The Cajuns answered in the bottom half of the ninth as Joe Robbins came home to score on an error by McDonald at shortstop with two outs to even the contest. Pinch runner Jam Williams was thrown out at the plate on the play to end the inning and send the game into extra innings.
 
After a scoreless tenth inning, Georgia Southern regained the lead in the top of the 11th on an RBI double to right center by Jordan Wren to make the score 7-6. Shuman retired the in the bottom half of the 11th getting pinch hitter Tyler Stover to strike out to end the game.
 
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