Baseball: DeBarge, Cajuns Earn Series Win Over USM, 13-7
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No late-game heroics were needed this time from Louisiana's Kyle DeBarge in Sunday's Sun Belt Conference series finale against Southern Miss. For the junior shortstop and the No. 17th-ranked Ragin' Cajuns, it was just another day at The Office.
DeBarge opened a three-hit day at the plate with a two-run home run in the first inning and No. 17-ranked Louisiana used a six-run third to pull away and claim a 13-7 win over its SBC rivals to earn a series victory at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field at Russo Park.
John Taylor added three hits while Luke Yuhasz's grand slam in the third put the game away as Louisiana (33-13, 17-4 SBC) maintained a three-game lead in the SBC standings while recording a season-high 18 hits. Maddox Mandino, Bryan Broussard, Jr., Caleb Stelly and Jose Torres each collected two hits each for the Ragin' Cajuns, who evened the all-time series, 32-32, against USM (27-17, 12-9 SBC).
"We bounced back today, and I always tell them that hitting comes around and goes around," Louisiana head coach Matt Deggs said. "You got to stay the course, and you have to keep working and preparing and you have to have a great approach.
"We needed grown men on the field on the field today and that's what we got."
With Mandino and Broussard, Jr., filling the top two spots in the lineup for the first time this season, Louisiana got a leadoff bunt single from Mandino before DeBarge responded two batters later with a home run off USM starter Kros Sivley (2-5) – his second homer in as many at-bats against the southpaw who was making his second start of the season.
"I thought the two guys at the top did a good job of pushing today and setting the table for D-Bo," Deggs said about his 1-2 hitters in the Sunday lineup. "He (DeBarge) had just a huge weekend for us. Can't say enough about how he played.
"It gets tough, and that's why I go through cardstock like I'm working at Dunder Mifflin ... I'd like to have five or six of them going right now, and maybe they will. But we've got to figure it out and whatever it takes, and that is the mentality of this team ... whatever it takes to win."
Louisiana sent 10 men to the plate in the third after USM tied the game in the second on RBI singles by Matthew Russo and Lawson Odom. The Golden Eagles threatened in the third after a two-out walk by Davis Gillespie and single up the middle by Carson Paetow, but reliever Blake McGehee would get Nick Monistere to ground out to end the inning.
Broussard would begin the six-run outburst in the third when he singled to left field to chase Sivley before DeBarge greeted USM reliever JB Middleton with an RBI double down the right-field line for a 3-2 lead.
Stelly would later give Louisiana a 4-2 lead when he drove in Duncan Pastore with a two-out RBI single to right before Taylor reached on catcher's interference to load the bases and Yuhasz followed with his first career grand slam.
Torres added two more runs for the Ragin' Cajuns with single to right to drive in Stelly and Taylor before Louisiana scored three more runs in the seventh. Torres added an RBI single in the ninth before scoring on Mandino's RBI single and pinch-runner Ben Robichaux scoring on Pastore's sacrifice fly.
McGehee (3-2) earned the win for Louisiana after pitching 2.0 innings of scoreless relief with a strikeout. David Christie pitched the final 3.2 innings for the Ragin' Cajuns to earn his third save.
Sivley, who surrendered DeBarge's game-winning home run in the bottom of the eighth innings in Friday's 3-2 Louisiana victory, allowed three runs and five hits in 2.1 innings for USM. Russo led the Golden Eagles at the plate going 3-for-5 with a pair of RBI with Dalton McIntyre, Ozzie Pratt, Paetow and Seth Smith getting two hits each.
Louisiana will take off for final exams before resuming Sun Belt Conference play on Friday with a three-game series at second-place Troy (31-14, 14-7 SBC). The three-game showdown begins on Friday at 6 p.m.
