Arkansas State's quick start did nothing to slow down the efforts of Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday afternoon.
The No. 1 seed Ragin' Cajuns overcame a six-run deficit to post a 17-10 victory over the No. 8 seed Red Wolves in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament in San Marcos, Texas.
Nick Thurman and Alex Pinero, the bottom two batters in the ULL lineup, combined for six hits and nine RBI as the Ragin' Cajuns (40-19) advanced to today's championship round. Arkansas State (29-29) was eliminated.
ULL, which will be making its fourth consecutive appearance in the Sun Belt championship game, will play Georgia Southern (36-23) at 1 p.m.
ULL starter Evan Guillory failed to retire any of the five batters he faced. Arkansas State struck for six runs in the first inning, getting a run-scoring triple from designated hitter Joe Schrimpf and a pair of two-run doubles from Tanner Ring and Tony Ortiz.
But ASU could not make the good start hold up. ULL scored five runs in the third, took the lead for good in the fourth with four runs and added another four runs in the fifth for 13-7 advantage.
Leadoff batter Ty White and second baseman Jeremy Brown each went 3 for 5 for Arkansas State, which finished with 15 hits. Ortiz and center fielder Garrett Rucker each collected two hits, both doubles. White, Rucker, Burgess and Ortiz each drove in two runs for the Red Wolves.
White drove in a run with a single in the third inning. Rucker drove in two with a double in the fifth. White's infield single in the sixth brought home Arkansas State's final run and brought the Red Wolves to within 13-10.
ULL banged out 17 hits, including a home run from right fielder Steven Sensley.
Jevin Huval (3-1), the third of four ULL pitchers, earned the victory. He worked 21/3 innings, allowed 3 hits and runs, struck out 3, walked 1 and hit a batter. Eric Carter tossed four innings to pick up his fourth save. Carter struck out 5, walked 1 and gave up only 3 hits.
Arkansas State's Coulton Lee (5-8) took the loss, despite allowing only one earned run in his one inning of work. All six of the Red Wolves' pitchers gave up at least one run.
Sports on 05/29/2016