A Sun Belt Conference Tournament Record for combined runs in a game.

A Ragin' Cajuns record for runs in a Sun Belt Tournament game.

Louisiana scored three runs in the seventh to tie and three more in the eighth and finally solved the top of the Little Rock batting order, defeating the Trojans 19-16 in a 4 hour, 41 minute marathon played over two days.

Hunter Kasuls tied a school record with nine runs batted in, Gavin Bourgeois had four hits and Hayden Cantrelle and Daniel Lahare scored four runs apiece in the win.

The top four hitters for Little Rock were 12-21 in the game with eleven runs scored and 12 rbi.

But the undoing for the Trojans was their defense.  Little Rock committed six errors, resulting in five unearned runs, including the deciding three runs in the eighth inning.

The Cajuns (34-23) trailed 16-13 after Little Rock scored six runs off Dylan Moore and Logan Stoelke in the seventh.  Marcus Ragan, T. J. Alexander and Nick Perez each had two-rbi hits in the inning.

But Louisiana roared back against Little Rock All-Conference closer Justin Garcia in the bottom of the inning.  Cantrelle walked and moved to second on a ground ball by Bourgeois.  Lahare singled Cantrelle home, extending his hitting streak to 18 games and two batters later, Kennon Fontenot hit a mammoth homer off Garcia to tie the game.

Then in the eighth, Zach Lafleur led off with a bunt single and went to second on Garcia's throwing error  Kole McKinnon bunted and reached when Perez threw wildly to first, alloing Lafleur to score.  Windham bunted to get McKinnon to second.  A  wild pitch moved him to third and he scored on Cantrelle's grounder when Kyle Emshoff dropped the throw to the plate.  Bourgeois then got his fourth hit of the day, Lahare walked for the fourth time and Kasuls walked for his ninth RBI of the game.

Stoelke (4-0), who was charged with four runs on four hits in the big seventh inning, retired the side in order in the eighth and got the first two batters in the ninth before Emshoff singled.  Stoelke then got T. J. Alexander to ground out to end it.

Alexander and Emshoff each had four hits for Little Rock (28-27), with Alexander driving home five runs, while Emshoff drove in four.  Each had a three run homer in the game.

After Alexander hit his three run homer off Moore in the sixth, Kasuls responded with his second homer of the day, a three run shot after hitting a grand slam last night.  The nine RBI tied a Cajun record for RBI in the game.  Kolin Hatfield hit three homers en route to a nine RBI game back in 2007.

Louisiana advances in the winner's bracket whee they are scheduled to meet Troy later tonight.  Hogan Harris will get the start for the Cajuns.  Little Rock meets Texas State in an elimination game this afternoon.

LITTLE ROCK   102 403 600--16-16-6

LOUISIANA        250 114 33X--19-15-0

 

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