Baseball: Mills Grand Slam Lifts Cajuns Baseball To Series Victory Over Georgia Southern

STATESBORO, Ga. – Senior Brian Mills‘ grand slam in the eighth inning lifted the 26th-ranked Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns baseball team to a 13-9 win over Georgia Southern to clinch the series on Sunday at J.I. Clements Stadium.
 
Mills had two home runs in the contest and became the first Ragin’ Cajuns hitter to drive in six runs in a game since Jace Conrad accomplished the feat on June 1, 2014 against Jackson State.
 
With the victory, the Cajuns improve to 21-11 on the season and 10-5 in Sun Belt play, while the Eagles fall to 18-14 overall and 7-8 in league action. Louisiana has now won six series on the season and four of five in conference play with three of the four coming on the road. Louisiana has also won nine of its last 11 contests with the victory.
 
"You don’t want to always get in firefights, but its nice when your hitters can backup your pitchers and defense when they aren’t at their best," head coach Tony Robichaux said. We said ‘so what’ and kept fighting when things weren’t going our way. We didn’t let one thing turn us, and didn’t quit fighting. I thought Brian did a good job of staying back on a changeup and took the ball down the line where the ball really carries."
 
Offensively, Louisiana pounded out 12 hits in the contest led by Kyle Clement who was 3-for-5 and scored a run. Brad Antchak drew three walks on the day scoring three times for the Cajuns.
 
Dylan Moore (4-1) earned his fourth victory of the season tossing 3.2 scoreless innings to close out the game. Moore allowed just one hit in the outing with a career-high six strikeouts.
 
Starter Nick Lee was chased in the fourth inning after giving up five runs (one earned) on four hits with two walks and a strikeout in 3.2 innings of work.
 
Georgia Southern starter Brian Eichhorn was also run from the game early as he gave up six runs (five earned) on seven hits in 2.1 innings. Reliever Byron Yelverton was handed the loss after giving up four runs on three hits in two innings.
 
The Cajuns jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first loading the bases with no outs. Stefan Trosclair brought home the first run of the inning on a sacrifice fly to deep left field. In the next at bat, Steven Sensley gave Louisiana a two-run edge on an RBI ground out to second base.
 
Georgia Southern cut into the lead in the bottom half of the first as Cal Baker doubled to left field and then scored on an Alex Pinero error with two outs to make the score 2-1.
 
Mills gave the Ragin’ Cajuns a three-run edge in the top of the second as he hammered a 2-1 pitch from Eichhorn over the fence in left for a two-out, two-run homer.
 
Louisiana tacked on two more runs in the top of the third on a ball hit to second by Antchak that was misplayed by Eric Furphy to increase the advantage to 6-1.
 
In the bottom half of the third, the Eagles picked up a run on a ball hit to third base by Baker to cut the Louisiana lead to 6-2.
 
Georgia Southern pulled within a run in the bottom of the fourth plating three runs on two hits and an error to make the score 6-5. An RBI triple by Jordan Wren highlighted the scoring in the inning.
 
The Cajuns got a run back in the top of the sixth on an RBI ground out by Nick Thurman to take a two-run edge.
 
The Eagles took the lead in the bottom half of the sixth scoring four runs on two hits, an error and four free passes. Ryan Cleveland tied the game at 7-all on a two-run single to left field. After an intentional walk to Will Hudgins, Hunter Thomas singled home two more runs to put Georgia Southern up 9-7.
 
Mills gave the Ragin’ Cajuns the lead back in the top of the eighth driving an 0-1 pitch from Yelverton down the left field line for his first career grand slam and second home run of the game.
 
Brenn Conrad added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the ninth doubling home Trosclair and Antchak to make the score 13-9.
 
Louisiana returns to action with a five-game week including two midweek games as the Cajuns host Tulane on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field before face New Orleans on the road Wednesday.
 
For updates and info on Ragin’ Cajuns baseball, follow the squad on twitter @CajunsBaseball or check RaginCajuns.com