COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Solo home runs from Lee Amedee and Trey LaFleur gave No. 22 Louisiana an early lead against Texas, but a three-run, fourth inning allowed the Longhorns to take the lead before a seven-run fifth to pull away and claim a 12-5 win in the nightcap of the NCAA Bryan-College Station Regional on Friday at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.
Louisiana (40-19) will face Grambling (26-27) in an elimination game on Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with fans able to listen to the game in the Lafayette area on KPEL-FM (96.5) and worldwide on the Varsity Network app.
After stranding a pair of runners on base in the second, Louisiana broke a scoreless contest when Amedee smashed a solo homer to right off Texas starter Max Grubbs for an early 1-0 lead. An inning later, LaFleur hit his 12th of the season – a mammoth blast which cleared the right-field bleachers – for a 2-0 advantage.
Louisiana starter Carson Fluno (4-1) allowed a pair of hits over the first 3.1 innings before Texas (36-22) reeled off five straight hits and sent nine men to the plate to take a 3-2 lead. A double by Kimble Schuessler and infield single by Porter Brown put runners on the corners before Rylan Galvin’s RBI double cut the deficit to 2-1.
Will Gasparino added an infield single to load the bases before Dee Kennedy’s two-run single through the left side gave the Longhorns a 3-2 lead.
Louisiana missed a chance to knot the contest in the bottom half of the fourth after Kyle DeBarge led off with a double to left, tying him with Jonathan Lucroy (2007) for the most total bases in a single season (174) in program history.
John Taylor would follow with a walk to put runners on first and second before DeBarge was thrown out at third on Duncan Pastore’s fielder’s choice before Grubbs got an inning-ending, double play to halt the rally.
The Longhorns sent 10 men to the plate in the fifth to put the game away after recording four hits and taking advantage of a pair of walks and an infield error. Texas escaped a potential double play when Kennedy’s grounder was bobbled by DeBarge before an RBI single by Jared Thomas and grand slam by Jalin Flores built a 10-2 advantage.
Louisiana got as close as 10-4 in the fifth as Conor Higgs was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded before DeBarge drove in Bryan Broussard, Jr., with a sacrifice fly to right.
LaFleur, who went 2-for-4 to lead Louisiana’s eight-hit attack, added an RBI single in the seventh. Jose Torres was 1-for-2 with a walk and two runs scored for Louisiana with Broussard reaching on fifth-inning single and Luke Yuhasz recording a pinch-hit single in the ninth.
Grubbs (6-4) scattered five hits and struck out four in 5.0 innings for Texas with Cade O’Hara and Andre Duplantier II allowing three hits over the final 4.0 innings. Schuessler went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles for Texas, which will face arch-rival Texas A&M (45-13) in a winner’s bracket game at 8 p.m.
------------------------------------------------------------
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere.
To reach the newsroom or report a typo/correction, click HERE.
Sign up for newsletters emailed to your inbox. Select from these options: Breaking News, Evening News Headlines, Latest COVID-19 Headlines, Morning News Headlines, Special Offers