LAFAYETTE, La. - Hunter Kasuls drove in a Sun Belt tournament-tying record nine RBI in a 19-16 slugfest victory for the Ragin' Cajuns of Louisiana over Little Rock on Thursday morning at the Sun Belt baseball tournament.
The game, which began on Wednesday night, was halted in the fourth inning due to inclement weather on Wednesday evening, resumed on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. (CT).
The combined 35 runs between the two teams broke the Sun Belt tournament record set in 2010.
Reliever Logan Stoelke claimed the victory for the Ragin’ Cajuns (34-23) to improve to 4-0 on the year. Stoelke went 2.2 innings with four runs on four hits and two walks while posting four strikeouts. Justin Garcia was tabbed with the loss for the Trojans (28-27) after surrendering six runs (three earned) on four hits with a walk and a strikeout in 1.1 innings of work.
Kasuls had three hits in the game with two home runs including a grand slam and two walks. Junior Gavin Bourgeois had a team-best four hits with a walk, drove in a run and scored three times for the Cajuns.
Little Rock's Troy Alexander led the Trojans with four hits and five RBI and Kale Emshoff added four hits as well to go along with four runs scored and four RBI of his own.
Louisiana exploded for five runs in the top of the second to take a 7-1 advantage. A Kasuls two-out grand slam to right field highlighted the scoring in the inning. The Trojans cut the lead to 7-3 in the top of the third on a two-out, two-run double down the right field line by Riley Pittman.
Little Rock evened the contest at 7-all in the next frame scoring four runs on two hits including a three-run homer by Emshoff. The Cajuns regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth on a two-out RBI single to right field by Kasuls to make the score 8-7 before the game was put into halted status for the remainder of the evening.
Upon resuming the game, Louisiana added a run in the fifth on a Jonathan Windham squeeze bunt to take a 9-7 edge. Trojans grabbed the lead for the first time in the game in the top of the sixth on a two-out, three-run homer to right field by Alexander.
Kasuls put the Ragin’ Cajuns back in front in the bottom half of the sixth with his second home run of the day launching a three-run blast to right field to make the score 12-10. Later in the inning, Kole McKinnon added a run on an RBI single to left field to extend the lead to 13-10.
The back-and-forth affair continued in the top of the seventh when Little Rock plated six runs on four hits and three walks to give the Trojans a 16-13 edge. An Alexander two-run double highlighted the scoring in the inning.
Louisiana quickly responded in the bottom of the seventh as Lahare singled home Hayden Cantrelle to cut the Little Rock lead to 16-14. With two outs, Kennon Fontenot drove a 2-2 pitch from Garcia well over the fence in left to tie the game at 16-all.
The Cajuns tallied the winning run in the in the bottom of the eighth when Zach LaFleur came home to score on a Trojans error. Louisiana added two more runs in the inning on another Little Rock error and a base-loaded walk to Kasuls to make the final 19-16.
The Ragin' Cajuns will face No. 3 Troy in a winner's bracket game scheduled for 7:30 p.m. (CT) on Thursday. Little Rock will take on No. 6 Texas State in the second of two elimination games on Thursday.