Cajuns now in top three of SBC after sweeping James Madison 

The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns were back at the Teague this past weekend to take on the JMU Dukes. The Cajuns would continue their good form in conference play, winning their second straight series against the Dukes. Their wins would take them into the upper crust of the Sun Belt, just a win off of Troy and Southern Miss. 

The series got off to a great start, winning Friday’s game 5–2. The Louisiana faithful got to see the Cajun’s ace, Chase Morgan, take the mound at home for the first time since his start against UC-Irvine on Feb. 28. 

Morgan pitched an absolute beauty back at home, pitching seven innings and only allowing five hits and two runs. He struck out four batters and only gave up one base on balls. The Cajuns were down 2–1 when he came off at the end of the seventh. 

Tate Hess would come in at the top of the eighth, finishing the game by only allowing one hit and striking out two in two innings pitched. He would be credited with the win, bringing his record to 2–2. 

It took most of the game for the Cajuns’ bats to come alive. Louisiana took an early 1–0 lead off the mistakes of the JMU pitcher, Jackson Logar, who would hit Brooks Wright, getting the leadoff man on base. 

Wright would advance to second off a bad pickoff from Logar, and would then allow Wright to advance to third with a wild pitch. From there, all it took was Mark Collins to hit a fly out to right field for Wright to tag up at third and make it home. 

Logar would settle down following these earlier mistakes and give the Cajuns a problem. He would walk three total batters but would only allow one hit in the seven innings he was on the mound. 

Luckily for the Cajuns, Logar was forced to come off the mound after the seventh due to throwing 107 pitches. 

The new JMU pitcher struck out the first two batters he faced, but the top of the lineup would not go down. Wright would bunt to get on base, and Collins would be walked right after, putting runners on first and second. 

Immediately after a JMU mound visit, Higgs would hit the first pitch into right field for a triple, driving in both Wright and Collins to give the Cajuns the lead. Caleb Stelly would then reach base on a fielding error, and Higgs would score. 

Lee Amedee would then get walked, once again putting Cajuns on first and second. A new pitcher would take the mound for JMU, and Stelly would immediately steal third. Owen Galt would seal it with a single, bringing Stelly home and giving the Cajuns their fourth run of the inning. 

The inning would end with a fielder’s choice, giving the Dukes a chance to come back at the top of the ninth. Hess would not even let a runner on base as he retired the JMU side in order. 

The lineup as a whole struggled for most of the game, but they managed to strike once the Dukes changed pitchers. 

The best batter in terms of contact was Galt who went two for three at the plate with an RBI, reaching first another time with a walk. Higgs though might have been the most clutch batter, striking at the chance presented with two runners on base with his two RBI triple. 

Game two would be one of the crazier games of all time, being delayed until 8:30 p.m. due to rain. The game would be further delayed during the top of the ninth when the field lights in the Teague went out. The game would finally end before 1:00am on Sunday, Mar. 30, with an 8–7 win for the Cajuns, giving them the series. 

Unlike Friday’s game, this one saw the Cajuns dig into their bullpen as they went through six pitchers to get the win, while JMU never had a pitcher out longer than three innings. 

The start went to Andrew Herrmann who would pitch for 3.2 innings and perform really well, only allowing five hits. He would have to be pulled off in the top of the fourth after the Louisiana fielders allowed four runs on errors. 

Blake McGehee would come on to finish the inning before pitching the entire fifth, pitching well, other than giving up a solo shot home run. 

Sophomore Riley Marcotte would take over at the top of the sixth and would be part of some movement of the fielders as Coach Deggs made some changes on defense. 

Marcotte did well getting through the sixth without letting up a hit, though putting a man on base with a walk. He would be pulled at the top of the seventh after he allowed a single. 

Matthew Holzhammer would then come in, performing much better as a reliever than a starter, only allowing a single hit and walking a batter. 

Replacing Holzhammer at the top of the eight would be the tall, southpaw Matt Gaither. Gaither would get two outs but would be pulled after allowing runners on the corners. 

Freshman Wil Taylor would come on and finish the game, giving up two hits and a run while striking out two, including the strikeout that ended the game. His performance is equally impressive when taking into account the twenty-minute delay due to the field lights getting cut off due to how late the game had gone. 

While the Louisiana bullpen did well holding down the JMU lineup for the most part, it was the Cajuns’ bats that won the game. Everyone seemed to get a hit as the team finished the game with 11 hits in the eight innings they played. 

The most clutch batter for the Cajuns was catcher Jose Torres, batting third, who went two for five at the plate, both hits driving in four RBIs, including a two RBI single at the bottom of the second. 

Conor Higgs and Griffin Hebert both went two for three, with Higgs getting on base an additional time, thanks to a walk, allowing him to score all three times he got to base. 

It was all and all a great night for the Cajun bats, and they helped lift Louisiana to their second straight conference series win. 

Sunday would start early, with the first pitch coming at 11:30 a.m. The Cajuns would get their third win 3–0, sweeping the Dukes. 

The win can be attributed to JR Tollet who pitched all nine innings. He threw 116 pitches, only allowing four hits and striking out 11 batters. A career-best outing for the sophomore. 

The runs came off the bats of Caleb Stelly and Conor Higgs, who both had solo home runs during the game. 

With this sweep of a conference opponent the Cajuns now move to a 6–3 record in conference, being just behind Troy and Southern Miss. They play at home again this weekend against a struggling Texas State team.