Baseball

Louisiana Looks for Outright Regular-Season Title, Others Jockey for Postseason Positioning in Final Sun Belt Baseball Weekend Series

WEEK 10 CONFERENCE NOTES

NEW ORLEANS – While No. 21 Louisiana needs just one win to clinch the outright Sun Belt regular-season title, significant jockeying for position behind the conference-leading Ragin’ Cajuns continues on the final weekend of the Sun Belt baseball regular season. 
 
Just three games continue to separate the fifth-place and 11th-place teams—with three games left to play and the Top 10 programs qualifying for next week’s Guardian Credit Union Sun Belt Baseball Championship presented by Troy University. 
 
All 21 Sun Belt games this weekend will be broadcast nationwide on ESPN+.
 
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
  • ROLLING DEEP – With less than two weeks remaining before the NCAA Baseball Selection Show, the Sun Belt is poised for a third-straight season with multiple NCAA berths. The conference boasts five Top 50 RPI programs—No. 29 Southern Miss, No. 36 Coastal Carolina, No. 38 Louisiana, No. 47 James Madison and No. 49 Troy. Five others—No. 62 App State, No. 70 South Alabama, No. 73 Georgia Southern and No. 77 Old Dominion and No. 98 Georgia State—rank among the Top 100 nationally. The final Sun Belt regular-season weekend features four Top 100 RPI meetings—Georgia Southern (No. 73) at App State (No. 62), Old Dominion (No. 77) at Georgia State (No. 98), South Alabama (No. 70) at Louisiana (No. 38) and James Madison (No. 47) at Troy (No. 49). 
  • ALONE ON TOP – No. 21 Louisiana—winners of five-straight, including a conference series sweep of Georgia Southern a week ago—needs just one victory in a three-game home set against Top 100 RPI foe South Alabama to secure the Sun Belt regular-season championship outright. The Ragin’ Cajuns opened conference play 14-1 and have maintained a perch atop the Sun Belt standings throughout the 2024 campaign. Louisiana also has a recent history of success in the Guardian Credit Union Sun Belt Baseball Championship presented by Troy University, having reached the championship game in each of the past two seasons—clinching the conference’s automatic bid with a victory in 2022 and falling to Southern Miss in 2023. 
  • WHERE WE STAND – The fifth-place through 11th-place teams in the Sun Belt standings are separated by just three games entering the final weekend of conference play—with one to be left home from next week’s 10-team Guardian Credit Union Sun Belt Baseball Championship presented by Troy University. Georgia State and Texas State are currently tied for the all-important final tournament qualifying position at 12-15 in conference play; Coastal Carolina, Old Dominion and South Alabama sit 13-14; and Georgia Southern and James Madison own 15-12 records. The No. 5 and No. 6 seeds will earn byes into the double-elimination portion of the championship bracket, while the No. 7 through No. 10 seeds will play in Tuesday’s single-elimination first round games. 
  • STATE YOUR CASE – Two Top 50 RPI programs that have been listed in projected NCAA tournament fields in recent weeks will meet when James Madison travels to Troy to close out the Sun Belt regular season. The Trojans are fresh off clinching back-to-back 35-win seasons for the first time since 2010-11, while the Dukes secured back-to-back 30-win campaigns for the first time since 2010-11 with a victory over Marshall last weekend. With the eyes of the nation on newly-renovated Riddle-Pace Field, Troy and James Madison alike will attempt to state their case for the NCAA tournament ahead of next week’s highly competitive Guardian Credit Union Sun Belt Sun Belt Baseball Championship presented by Troy University.  
  • TEXAS STATEMENT – Texas State—which bolstered its chances to qualify for the Guardian Credit Union Sun Belt Baseball Championship presented by Troy University a week ago with a series win over then-nationally-ranked Troy—will look to make another Texas-sized statement when it visits No. 25 Southern Miss to close out Sun Belt regular-season play. The Bobcats won the series a year ago in San Marcos in the first-ever meeting between the two programs. The Golden Eagles enter the three-game weekend set on a conference-best eight-game winning streak.  
 
SUN BELT BASEBALL SERIES – WEEK 10
 
 Series  Thursday  Friday  Saturday 
 Georgia Southern at App State  1:00 p.m.
 4:30 p.m.		  8:00 a.m.
 Old Dominion at Georgia State   5:00 p.m.  5:00 p.m.  12:00 p.m.
 South Alabama at No. 21 Louisiana  6:00 p.m.  6:00 p.m.  2:00 p.m.
 Arkansas State at ULM  4:00 p.m.  6:00 p.m.  1:00 p.m.
 Coastal Carolina at Marshall  5:00 p.m.  5:00 p.m.  12:00 p.m.
 Texas State at No. 25 Southern Miss  6:00 p.m.  6:00 p.m.  1:00 p.m.
 James Madison at Troy  6:00 p.m.  6:00 p.m.  3:33 p.m.
 
All Times CT