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UL - One night after Louisiana sealed its postseason tournament fate, the Ragin’ Cajuns ended New Orleans’ hopes of a regular-season conference title behind Matt Goulas’ career-high seven-RBI with an 11-8 win Friday night.
The win bumped Louisiana (27-27, 15-14 Sun Belt) into a three-way tie for fifth place with Western Kentucky and South Alabama in the Sun Belt standings. Because of the tiebreaker, Louisiana currently sits as the No. 6 seed for next week’s Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship. New Orleans (38-16, 18-10 Sun Belt) assured itself as the No. 2 seed in the tournament followed by Troy at No. 3.
Buddy Glass earned his fourth victory of the season, allowing three runs on four hits in four innings. Glass (4-3) struck out one batter and walked three. Danny Farquhar (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) nailed down his first save of the season and the 11th of his career.
Cajun starter Michael Cook didn’t factor into the decision. Cook allowed five runs on five hits with two strikeouts in three innings.
Goulas finished 2-for-4 with two home runs and a career-high seven RBI, including his first career grand slam. Goulas, who entered the series with three home runs, has now doubled his season total. The bottom five in the Cajuns order finished 11-for-19 – William Long was 3-for-4 with two RBI, while Scott Hawkins (Collierville, Tenn.), Jordan Poirrier and Josh Long each added two hits.
Justin Garcia suffered his first blemish of the season as he was tagged for 10 runs on 10 hits in three innings. Garcia (6-1) struck out five batters on 78 pitches.
UNO marched out to an early 4-0 lead through the first two-and-a-half innings. The Privateers hung a three-spot in the second, 3-0, thanks to Jeff Lanning’s two-RBI double to right-center, while Mark McGonigle added a RBI single to right-center for the three-run count.
In the third, Nick Schwaner’s RBI single up the middle put the Privateers in command 4-0. However, three straight hits to open the home half of the third finally put the Cajuns on the scoreboard. Poirrier and Long each reached on a pair of singles before Logan pushed across Louisiana’s first run with a RBI double down the left field line.
Two batters later, Goulas cleared the bases with a three-run home run to left to pull the Cajuns even with the Privateers, 4-4.
New Orleans bolted back to a three-run lead, 7-4, after scoring three runs in the fourth. Lanning opened the inning with a solo home run to left to break the tie, 5-4. After Glass relieved Cook, the Privateers scored on Johnny Giavotella’s RBI single and a wild pitch for the three-run lead.
In the bottom of the fourth, Louisiana crushed New Orleans’ dreams of a regular-season conference title crushing six runs to take a 10-7 lead. The Cajuns hit four consecutive singles to lead off the fourth and capped it off on Long’s two-RBI single. Three batters later, Goulas put the Cajuns up for good with a high-arching grand slam that skirted just inside the fair pole in left field for a 10-7 Cajuns lead.
The Cajuns increased their lead to four runs, 11-7, in the sixth. With the bases juiced, Dillon Guillory (Scott, La.) drove in the Cajuns’ 11th run after being hit by Jake Henderson’s first offering. UNO pulled back to within three in the seventh, 11-8, on Joey Butler’s solo home run to right-center.
Louisiana and New Orleans will conclude their season-ending three-game Sun Belt Conference series Saturday at 2:05 p.m. on my KLAF-TV (Cox Channel 13). Saturday’s regular-season finale is also Senior Day – each of the Cajuns’ eight seniors (Nolan Gisclair, Buddy Glass, Kolin Hatfield, Josh Logan, Hunter Moody, Brent Solich, John Zorich and student assistant Jessica Landry) will be honored during pre-game festivities at “The Tigue”.
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Chris Yandle
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