The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns used a seventh inning rally to win their weekend series by beating the South Alabama Jaguars 6-3.

With the win, Louisiana improved to 11-12 overall and 2-4 in Sun Belt play. It was a great bounce-back weekend for the Cajuns in their first conference series at home. Head coach Matt Deggs credited his team's toughness for the series victory.

"I know we have a good team," Deggs said. We were able to pull them into our type of game three times and win the series. We're tough and we're resilient."

Deggs also gave respect to South Alabama coach Mark Calvi and their program after the win.

 

"We like to play good competition where you know what you're going to get," Deggs said. "Mark Calvi does a good job over there and you know what you're going to get out of them. We will take a series win."

South Alabama's offense scored in the first inning for the third straight time against the Cajuns. A leadoff double and one-out home run gave them two quick runs on starting pitcher Jeff Wilson. However, Wilson settled down and had a quality start for Louisiana.

The Cajuns bats answered with a two-run home run of their own in the bottom half of the frame. Tyler Robertson hit a double, and Carson Roccaforte hit his third home run in two days to tie the game at 2-2 through one.

After Wilson put up three straight scoreless frames, the Cajuns took their first lead in the fourth inning. Will Veillon singled and stole second base. With two outs, Connor Kimple came up with the RBI-single to give Louisiana a 3-2 lead.

Wilson worked around two one-out base runners to throw another clean inning. He exited with two outs in the sixth for Dylan Theut. The Cajun reliever struck out a batter to strand the tying run at third base.

Louisiana came close to breaking the game open in the bottom half of the sixth inning. With two outs, two batters were hit by a pitch, and a single had the bases loaded. However, a fly-out prevented the rally from plating any runs.

Theut got the first two outs of the seventh, but a walk sparked a two-out rally that tied the game. A hit-by-pitch and double scored the third run and had two runners in scoring position, but Theut prevented further damage with a fly-out.

The bottom of the seventh inning won the game and series for Louisiana. Bobby Lada got things started with a leadoff single before being bunted to second base by Max Marusak. Robertson hit a single to put runners at the corners, and a RBI-groundout by Kyle DeBarge scored the eventual game-winning run. However, the Cajuns weren't done yet.

The Jaguars decided to intentionally walk Roccaforte, but a balk set up two runners in scoring position with two outs. This time, Veillon hit a ground ball which the second baseman snagged, but Veillon beat out the throw to first base. Roccaforte ran the whole time and scored from second base along with Robertson on the play to give the Cajuns a huge 6-3 lead late.

Chipper Menard relieved Jake Hammond with two runners on and two outs in the eighth inning, but he slammed the door shut on the scoring opportunity with a big strikeout. Menard came back out for the ninth and retired the side to secure the win and his first save of the season. He sat down all four batters he faced in relief.

Up next, Louisiana travels for a two-game midweek road trip. First, they play Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday, March 29 at 6:00 p.m.

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