UL - William Long’s two-out RBI single in the eighth inning gave the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns a 4-2 victory over the 22nd-ranked New Orleans Privateers Thursday night at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field.

Aided by a 10-3 FIU loss earlier in the evening, Louisiana (26-27, 14-14 Sun Belt) clinched one of the final spots in next week’s Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship in Lafayette. The two-run loss dropped the Privateers (38-15, 18-9) into a first-place tie with ULM with each holding a .667 winning percentage in league play.

Although denied a victory on his final regular-season start of his career, senior Hunter Moody orchestrated a masterful 7.2-inning performance. Moody allowed two runs on seven hits with four strikeouts on 118 total pitches. Justin Robichaux earned his second win of the season in relief Thursday night. Robichaux (2-0) retired all four batters he faced in 1 1/3 innings of relief.

New Orleans’ Stephen Whalen (5-4) was touched for four runs on seven hits with five strikeouts through 7 1/3 innings.

Seven different Cajuns were responsible for the team’s eight total hits. Chance Harst was the lone multi-hit representative, finishing 2-for-4. Brian Bowman (Lafayette, La.), Matt Goulas (New Iberia, La.) and Long each added a RBI hit.

Louisiana wasted no time in taking an early lead in the series opener. With one out, Goulas blasted Whalen’s 2-0 offering for a towering solo home run to left field and a 1-0 Cajuns lead.

In the third, New Orleans broke a 10-inning scoreless streak that dated back to Tuesday’s 15-inning marathon against LSU with two runs for a 2-1 lead. Joey Butler’s RBI single to right field plated UNO’s first run of the game to knot the score at 1-1. Three batters later, Jeff Lanning laced a bases-loaded RBI single through the left side for the 2-1 advantage.

The Cajuns pulled even with the Privateers in the bottom of the third. Bowman led off with a double to left-center and later moved to third on a Scott Hawkins (Collierville, Tenn.) ground out. Then, head coach Tony Robichaux pulled into his bag of tricks, calling for a hit-and-run with Bowman at third. On a 2-1 delivery, Bowman broke for home and slid in safely to tie the game at two apiece.

Louisiana went up for good in the eighth thanks to Long’s RBI single. Bowman later drew a bases-loaded walk to drive in the Cajuns’ fourth and final run. In the ninth, Robichaux shut the door for the 4-2 victory.

Louisiana and New Orleans will continue their pivotal three-game Sun Belt Conference series Friday with game two beginning at 6:30 p.m.

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Chris Yandle