MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Louisiana coach Matt Deggs gave credit to a lot of his Ragin’ Cajun players on Friday, but he had a lot of deserving performers.
The fourth-seeded Ragin’ Cajuns rapped out 15 hits with every starter getting at least one, the Cajun defense turned three double plays and three pitchers limited South Alabama to a 1-for-13 performance with runners in scoring position as Louisiana rolled to a 9-1 win over the Jaguars in the quarterfinals of the Guardian Credit Union Sun Belt Baseball Championship presented by Troy University.
The Cajuns (34-21) took a 2-0 lead in the first inning and scored in four of their final five innings in moving into a 7 p.m. Saturday semifinal against the winner of Friday’s late Texas State-ULM game. Meanwhile, South Alabama managed only a lone run in the seventh inning despite collecting 10 hits.
“We came out ready to play, obviously,” said Louisiana coach Matt Deggs. “We had several days to think about it. I thought our speed really benefitted us. It’s hard to get 15 knocks on 33 at-bats. We were able to use our short game, we were able to leg out double play balls to keep innings alive, and we were able to take some extra bases.”
Louisiana had 13 hits in its final five offensive innings and continued to add to its early lead with two runs in the fourth inning, single runs in the sixth and seventh and three insurance runs on four hits in the eighth inning. The Cajuns only left four runners on base in the game.
The Jaguars, on the other hand, had several opportunities stymied, leaving two on base in the third, fourth and fifth innings. In all, South Alabama (31-23) was 5-for-18 with runners on base compared to Louisiana's 11-of-19 showing.
“It was one of those days,” said South Alabama coach Mark Calvi. “Our guys have been really good this year with runners in scoring position. But they (Louisiana) had a hand in that, they made some pitches, we hit a couple of balls hard. It just didn’t go our way today. We didn’t field the ball cleanly there early in the game and they put up a two-spot early.”
Cajun starter Brandon Talley scattered six hits, and he and relievers Bo Bonds (4-3) and Dylan Theut combined for nine strikeouts and only allowed one Jaguar base runner to advance past second base. That came in the seventh when Diego Altamirano and Cameron Tissue opened the inning with back-to-back doubles, before Theut came on to get a strikeout and the first of what would be double plays in consecutive innings.
“Talley gave us a rock-solid start, and I thought Bo did a good job and Theut kind of grinded for us,” Deggs said. “We did a good job stranding runners tonight. We had some silly walks, but the double play balls bailed us out, and then just making some good plays.”
Freshman shortstop Kyle DeBarge had four hits including an RBI single in the fourth that scored Tyler Robertson after his leadoff double, and an RBI double in the seventh that plated Carson Roccaforte after his leadoff walk. Heath Hood followed DeBarge’s double with his second RBI triple of the game, both of which scored DeBarge.
“We talk about winning every inning we can,” DeBarge said. “We also talk about scoring first, so when we put up a zero and got out of that first inning, and then came and scored first, that was our first goal of the game.”
South Alabama had three hits in the first but had a baserunning mistake before Louisiana's first double play ended that threat, and Louisiana got two runs on two infield hits, a hit batsman and an error in the bottom of the first off Jaguar starter Matt Boswell (6-5). The Cajuns extended the lead with two in the fourth inning on DeBarge’s second hit and a double steal that scored Hood. After Hood’s first triple in the sixth inning, Louisiana added an unearned run on two hits and an error in the seventh before the three-run eighth inning.