Louisiana Captures Series Win Over #20 Coastal Carolina
Ty Roman and three Louisiana relievers combined on a six-hitter as the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns defeated No. 20 Coastal Carolina, 3-2, on Saturday at M. L. "Tigue" Moore Field at Russo Park to claim the Sun Belt Conference home series finale.
The victory, coupled with results from around the league, moved Louisiana into the No. 7 seed for the upcoming Sun Belt Conference Tournament, which begins Tuesday at DABOS Park in Montgomery, Alabama.
Louisiana (34-21, 16-14 SBC) will face No. 10-seeded Marshall (23-31) in a single-elimination game on Tuesday at 3 p.m. A win by Louisiana would set up a rematch with Coastal Carolina (36-19, 21-9 SBC) on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m., with third-seeded App State and sixth-seeded Texas State filling out the remaining half of the bracket.
Roman (4-4) worked the first five innings, allowing one run on three hits with two walks and three strikeouts. Parker Smith tossed a scoreless sixth inning before freshman Hayden Pearson surrendered one run in the seventh. Tyler Papenbrock earned his third save of the season, retiring six of the final seven batters and ending the game with a called third strike to Blagen Pado in front of a crowd of 4,936.
Louisiana (34-21, 16-14 SBC) opened the scoring in the fourth inning against Coastal starter Russ Norman (6-5). Steven Spalitta singled with one out before Drew Markle doubled to put runners at second and third. Donovan LaSalle followed with a deep fly ball to left-center that was caught at the wall by Pado, allowing Spalitta to score on the sacrifice fly.
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