Georgia Southern built a 3-1 lead, then exploded against the best of the Cajuns' bullpen for six runs in the eighth inning, cruising to a 9-1 win over Louisiana in the rubber game of their three game Sun Belt Conference series.

Freshman Seth Shuman (5-0) throttled the Cajuns on just four hits through 7.2 innings, allowing only a second inning home run to Brad Antchak.  He walked three and struck out five.  He recorded 14 fly ball outs in the game,eight of them going to the outfield.

Lefty Hogan Harris (3-2) took the loss, allowing two earned runs over seven innings.  He walked two and struck out nine.

"He (Harris) missed a couple of lanes early and they made him pay," head coach Tony Robichaux said.  After that, he hit his lanes and had very good command and gave us a chance to win."

The Eagles (32-16, 15-9 Sun Belt) got on the board in the first inning when Steven Curry reached on a throwing error by Antchak and scored on Ryan Cleveland's 13th homer of the season, an opposite field shot to left that gave Georgia Southern a 2-0 lead.  Third baseman Cal Baker homered in the second inning to make the score 3-0.

The Cajuns (28-19-1, 14-9-1) squandered a chance in the first inning when Zach Lafleur was hit by a pitch and Brenn Conrad singled to put runners at the corners with no outs.  But Shuman got Joe Robbins on a pop up and Steven Sensley on a double play ball to get out of the inning.

Antchak's homer, his first of the season, came in the second inning, just clearing the right field wall down the line to cut the lead to 3-1.  But the Cajuns wouldn't get more than one base runner in any inning until the eighth, and by that time Georgia Southern had broken the game open.

Even McDonald opened the eighth with a home run off Wyatt Marks.  Marks struck out the next two hitters, but allowed a home run to Tyler Martin, a ground rule double to Mason McWhorter and an inside the park home run to Jordan Wren, whose liner to center got by a diving Lafleur and went all the way to the wall.  Dylan Moore relieved Marks, but fared no better, as a double, a walk and a double steal set the stage for C. J. Brazil's two run single before Nick Lee came on to get the final out of the inning.

"We just can't let the game get away from us like that," Robichaux said.  "If we're not going to score a lot of runs, our pitchers have to hold them down and we didn't do that today."

Eight of the Eagles' starters had at least one hit, with Logan Baldwin collecting a single and a double.  Cleveland, Wren and Brazil drove in two runs each.

The Cajuns will host Louisiana Tech Tuesday night at M. L. "Tigue" Moore Field at Russo Park.  Airtime on ESPN1420 will be at 5:30pm.

 

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