Press Release
ATLANTA – Junior Daniel Lahare‘s two-run homer in the ninth inning lifted the Louisiana baseball team to a 9-7 victory over Georgia State in the rubber game on Sunday at the GSU Baseball Complex.
The win gave the Ragin’ Cajuns (26-20, 12-9 SBC) their fourth consecutive series win, all coming in conference play. The Cajuns finish the weekend half a game out of first place in the Sun Belt West Division behind Little Rock. Louisiana is now 14-4 since starting the second half of the season.
Senior right-hander Dylan Moore notched his second win of the week and third of the season tossing 2.0 innings with a run on two hits and a strikeout.
Trey Horton took the loss for the Panthers (21-22, 7-13 SBC) after giving up two runs on one hit with three strikeouts in 3.0 innings of work.
The Ragin’ Cajuns were outhit 13-6 in the game as senior Kennon Fontenot saw his team-best 25-game on base streak come to an end.
LEADING THE CAJUNS
Junior Kole McKinnon reached base four times in the game going 1-for-2 with a walk, was hit by a pitch, drove in a run and scored three times. Both Lahare and Gavin Bourgeois had a game-high three RBI with a home run.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Georgia State jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning on a pair of solo home runs to left field by Will Kilgore and Ryan Glass.
Louisiana cut the lead to 2-1 in the top of the third when Lahare brought home McKinnon on a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield.
The Panthers got a run back in the bottom half of the third as Kendall Ford scored on a ground ball hit to second by Nick Gatewood to make the score 3-1.
The Ragin’ Cajuns exploded for five runs on two hits and three errors to take a 6-3 advantage in the fifth inning. McKinnon brought home the first run of the inning on a ground ball to second base. After McKinnon scored on a Ford error, Bourgeois drove a 2-1 pitch from Lee over the fence in left field for a three-run homer.
The Cajuns increased the lead to 7-3 in the top of the sixth on an RBI single to right field by Jonathan Windham with two outs.
The lead would be erased in the bottom of the eighth as Georgia State scored four runs on five hits to tie the game at 7-all. A two-run double to right center by pinch hitter Kalen Puckett highlighted the scoring in the inning.
In the top of the ninth, Lahare drove a 3-2 pitch from Horton over the fence in right for a two-out, two-run homer to give Louisiana the 9-7 victory. The home run was the fourth of the year for Lahare.
UP NEXT
The Ragin’ Cajuns will take the midweek off for finals next week before hosting No. 16 Coastal Carolina in a three-game series starting Friday, May 4 at 6:30 p.m. at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field at Russo Park.
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