In one inning the game got away from Louisiana and Rice used it to their advantage to post a 9-1 win Sunday afternoon in an elimination game at the Austin Regional held at Disch-Falk Field.
The Owls, shutout by Zach Osborne in Friday's regional opener, finally broke through on the Cajuns pitching staff in the fourth inning sending 12 hitters to the plate and pushing across seven runs.
It started with back-to-back, one-out singles from Michael Fuda and Steven Sultzbaugh. Then with both runners going on contact, Jimmy Comerota singled through the left side to score the first Owls' run off Cajuns pitching in 12 1/3 innings.
An RBI double by Chad Mozingo and sacrifice fly from Rick Hague stretched the Rice lead to 3-0.
The big blow came three at bats later with the bases loaded when Diego Seastrunk ripped a bases-clearing double upping the lead to 6-0.
Ojala held the Cajuns off balance, allowing only one-out singles in each of the first three innings and retiring the side in order in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. He finished with a complete game victory and nine strikeouts.
The loss eliminated the Ragin' Cajuns (38-22) from the Austin Regional and ended the team's season. The Owls (40-22) advanced to meet host-Texas in the regional championship game at 6:30 p.m.
"We got away from our pitching system," said head coach Tony Robichaux. "(Taylor) Hubbell got us off to a good start. Their guy (Rice RHP Mike Ojala) did an exceptional job today going wire-to-wire, especially keeping us out of their bullpen for tonight's game.
"We gave up four runs off two hits," Robichaux added. "That is what really did us in."
The careers of seniors Kyle Bostick, Chad Keefer, Kyle Olasin, Zach Osborne and Justin Robichaux - who were on the postseason travel roster - came to an end.
Greg Fontenot led Louisiana with two base hits and posted five assists to up his season total to 184 which is tied for second-most in program history.
Rice received multiple-hit games from Mozingo, Jeremy Rathjen, Seastrunk and Fuda. Seastrunk was the only player with multiple RBI.
Hubbell escaped a pair of jams in the first three innings. In the first inning, back-to-back one out hits gave the Owls a pair of baserunners then Hubbell induced a fly out and ground out to retire the side.
A one-out single from Mozingo was followed by a walk to Hague in the third inning. Hubbell struck out Rathjen and after pitching around Anthony Rendon induced a pop out to shallow right off the bat of Seastrunk to strand the bases loaded.
The Owls rally in the fourth inning caused the game to get away from Hubbell and the Ragin' Cajuns.
UL scored a run off of Ojala in the seventh inning. Chad Keefer was hit by a pitch and Alex Fuselier followed with a double to center field moving Keefer to third. Tyler Frederick followed with a groundout to shortstop to allow Keefer to cross home plate for the final time in his collegiate career.


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