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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Needing a victory to move one win closer to a spot in the conference tournament, Louisiana was denied for the second time in two days by Western Kentucky following a 13-4 loss to the Hilltoppers Sunday afternoon.
Louisiana’s (25-27, 13-14 Sun Belt) magic number to clinch a berth in the Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship remains at two after FIU’s 7-4 win over South Alabama. The Cajuns remain one-half game ahead of Middle Tennessee (12-14) for seventh place in the league standings. Western Kentucky (27-23, 14-13 Sun Belt), however, still needs one more win or FIU loss to clinch a spot in the tournament.
Ragin’ Cajuns pitchers were responsible for Western’s 18 hits. Brent Solich’s (Lakewood Ranch, Fla.) return to the Sunday starting role was a frustrating one for the senior, allowing six runs on six hits with four strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings. Neither Solich (2-5) nor Buddy Glass (Clermont, Fla.) fared well against WKU hitters. Glass was shelled for five ground ball singles, but only charged for two runs in two-thirds of an inning.
WKU’s Bart Carter (5-4) earned the victory, allowing four runs on four hits with five strikeouts in five innings.
All nine WKU hitters in the lineup recorded at least one hit, while three players finishing with three hits – Terrence Dayleg, Wade Gaynor and Jeremy Coleman.
Carter fell behind all but one Cajun in the first inning as Louisiana took an early 1-0 lead. Brian Bowman (Lafayette, La.) opened the game with a lead-off double into the left-center gap. After a Josh Logan (Magee, Miss.) walk, the runners moved to second and third following Matt Goulas’ (New Iberia, La.) sacrifice bunt.
Scott Hawkins (Collierville, Tenn.) then plated the go-ahead run with a RBI sacrifice fly to center that scored Bowman for a 1-0 lead.
WKU left the bases loaded at the end of the first inning but not before the Toppers did enough damage to take a 2-1 lead. Solich struck out the first batter he faced, but walked Matt Hightower and gave up a one-out double to Dayleg. Two batters later, a RBI bunt single by Gaynor scored the tying run. A wild pitch by Solich allowed the go-ahead run to score to give WKU a 2-1 lead.
Solich walked two more batters in the first inning, but were left stranded after Matt Payton grounded out to end the frame.
The Cajuns weren’t down for long, responding with a two-run second inning to take a 3-2 lead. William Long’s (Valrico, Fla.) one-out RBI double scored Matt Hicks (Houston, Texas) to equal the score at 2-2. Two batters later, Logan ripped an infield RBI single scored the go-ahead run in Blaine LaFleur (Opelousas, La.) for a 3-2 Cajuns lead.
Not satisfied with two runs in the second inning, the double-steal was on as the Cajuns were looking to put a comfortable separation between them and WKU. However, the double-steal attempt was not successful when Long was tagged out at home to end the inning.
WKU evened the score in the second, 3-3. Dayleg drilled his second double in as many at bats – this time a RBI double that fell in the right-center gap to plate the tying run.
A pair of acrobatic catches by Goulas in right field while fighting the swirling winds aided Solich in keeping Western Kentucky off the scoreboard in the third and preserved the Cajuns’ 4-3 lead.
At the end of three innings, each team recorded four hits. WKU would then out-hit the Cajuns 14-2 in the final five-plus innings.
Four runs scored by Western Kentucky in the fourth gave the Toppers their largest lead of the day, 7-4. Solich got the hook midway through the WKU fourth inning after surrendering the tying run. Solich was charged with two more runs following his departure on a Glass wild pitch and successive RBI single.
Coleman’s RBI single to left field capped off the Toppers’ four-run frame which gave WKU a 7-4 lead. After Glass loaded the bases without an out, Danny Farquhar (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) came in to do damage control in the fifth. Farquhar retired all three batters he faced, but the Toppers still came away with a run for an 8-4 lead after five innings.
WKU added insurance runs in both the sixth and eighth innings for the final 13-4 count.
Louisiana enters the final stretch of the regular season this week when the Ragin’ Cajuns host the New Orleans Privateers for Senior Weekend at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field. The series will begin on Thursday, May 15 at 6:30 p.m.
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Chris Yandle
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