HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Ragin’ Cajuns ended a three-game skid and handed the Southern Miss Golden Eagles their first loss of the season Sunday, staving off a four-run charge in the last two innings to hold on to the victory and improve to 2-5-1 on the season.
Greg Fontenot extended his hitting streak to seven games with a single in the third inning. His leadoff hit kicked off a two-run attack to give the Cajuns their first lead of the series, which found Southern Miss trailing their opponent for the first time all season.
Fontenot maintained his status as the team’s current offensive leader with a 3-for-5, one RBI, one stolen base performance. He is now hitting .481 on the season.
As a team, the Cajuns put up 11 hits, the fifth double-digit hit total in the last six games. Tyler Benzel contributed two hits with his 2-for-3 day, driving in one run and scoring one himself, while Chad Keefer went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and Thad Griffen went 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Scott Hawkins (1-4), Les Smith (0-4) and Kyle Bostick (1-4) also contributed one RBI each.
Greg Wilborn got the start and the win for the Cajuns while throwing 6 2/3 solids innings, twice pitching himself out of two-runners-on situations unscathed. He allowed just one run, earned, on four hits and six strikeouts, although he did allow six walks and hit two batters.
Justin Robichaux was the first reliever and gave up two runs, both earned, on three hits, two walks and two strikeouts in 1 1/3 innings. Greg Harmon pitched 2/3 of an inning, allowing two to score on four hits.
Blake Haagen entered the game with the tying run on second base and just one out in the bottom of the ninth, but allowed none to score to pick up the save.
Southern Miss’ Scott Copeland took the loss, dropping to 1-1 on the season.
Southern Miss scored on the Cajuns in the first inning for the third time when Corey Stevens grounded into a double play with the bases loaded and no outs to drive a run in.
The Cajuns tied the score for the first time in the series when a wild pitch allowed Chad Keefer to score from third in the top of the second.
Greg Wilborn allowed a double but notched three strikeouts in the bottom of the second.
Greg Fontenot got his streak-extending single to lead off the third inning, moving to third when Travis Whipple reached and advanced to second on a throwing error by Copeland. Scott Hawkins and Les Smith hit back-to-back RBI groundouts to score Fontenot and Whipple and give the Cajuns their first lead of the series at 3-1.
Tyler Benzel came through to pad the Cajuns’ lead in the sixth, knocking an RBI double into right field, scoring Les Smith to move to 4-for-7 from the plate on the season. The RBI was his first of the season. Thad Griffen followed immediately with an RBI single to right field before Benzel scored when Kyle Bostick grounded into a double play. The Cajuns went to the bottom of the sixth defending a 6-1 lead.
Benzel nailed a line drive down the left field line which would have scored two in the seventh, if not for a hotly contested “foul ball” ruling from the home plate umpire after the ball appeared to land fair in the shadowy left field corner.
Justin Robichaux entered the game for Wilborn with two down in the seventh and inherited two runners, but induced a groundout to third to end the inning and keep the Golden Eagles at bay.
The Cajuns added their seventh run in the top of the eighth. Fontenot continued to add to his impressive numbers of late, driving in Kyle Bostick on an infield single and then stealing his first base of 2009 and just the second of his career.
Southern Miss tagged Robichaux for two runs in the bottom of the eighth, including a leadoff home run off the bat of Joey Archer.
Greg Harmon was brought in to begin the bottom of the ninth, but allowed two runs and was replaced by Blake Haagen, who stopped the bleeding and earned the last two outs to end the game and pick up the first save of the year.
Louisiana returns to Lafayette to host Houston on Tuesday in a 6:30 p.m. game, and welcomes Texas Southern on Wednesday, also a 6:30 p.m. start time.
RaginCajuns.com
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