UL - A nine-game home winning streak came screeching to a halt as the South Alabama Jaguars took down Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns by a final score of 9-5 Friday night at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field. The Cajuns fall to 18-17-1 overall and 8-10 in the Sun Belt with the loss.

South Alabama, in ninth place in the Sun Belt Conference, improved to 6-10 in league action and 16-20 overall on the strength of 16 hits and with the help of two Cajuns errors. Louisiana meanwhile lost their fifth in the last six games coming off a seven-game win streak.

Cajuns starter Alex Fuselier succumbed to the Jaguars’ bats, allowing 10 hits to score six runs, five earned, while giving away two walks and striking just two out in 4 1/3 innings of work. Reliever Zach Osborne was an improvement, going 4 2/3 innings and allowing just one earned run, but an error allowed two more to score. Osborne gave up six hits with one walk and two strikeouts.

The damage could have been worse had South Alabama not stranded 11 runners on base in the game.

The Cajuns lineup struggled to put hits together, totaling just eight in the game. The Cajuns struck out nine times and walked only twice.

The eight hits were split up between five different players, including two each for Greg Fontenot, Kyle Bostick and Matt Goulas, the latter plating one run. Les Smith drove in three RBIs to lead the team on one hit in four at bats. Chad Keefer was the only other Cajun to register a hit, going 1-for-4 on the evening.

The Cajuns’ streaks of 21 straight games with at least one double and 22 straight with at least one extra base hit both ended along with the home winning streak.

South Alabama converted scoring opportunities of one run in the first, two runs in the fourth, three runs in the fifth and three again in the ninth. Louisiana put up four runs in the third inning and was quiet again until the eighth with one run.

The South Alabama series continues with Game 2 Saturday at 2 p.m. The radio broadcast moves to NewsRadio 105.1 KPEL FM and 1051KPEL.com. Check live statistics and a live video stream on RaginCajuns.com, or catch the game on television in the Acadiana area on MyKLAF-TV, Cox channel 13.

UL Press