LAFAYETTE — Mike Young’s eighth-inning home run, his third hit of the game, lifted South Alabama to a 3-2 victory over Louisiana before 4,205 fans at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field at Russo Park on Friday night in the Sun Belt Conference opener for both teams.
Young connected on a 2-2 fastball from Parker Smith (0-1) that just cleared the fence in left-center field, breaking a 2-2 tie after Louisiana (13-5, 0-1 SBC) had evened the game in the bottom of the seventh.
Young accounted for three of South Alabama’s six hits in the contest, with each of his hits factoring into the Jaguars’ scoring.
The South Alabama right fielder tripled in the second inning and later scored on a wild throw to give the Jaguars (13-5, 1-0 SBC) a 1-0 lead. He added a two-out RBI single in the sixth that plated Brennan Wright and pushed South Alabama ahead, 2-1, before delivering the go-ahead homer with two outs in the eighth. Five of the Jaguars’ six hits went for extra bases.
Jackson Shineflew (2-0) earned the win in relief, striking out four and allowing one hit over 2.2 innings. Starter Mitchell Heer allowed two runs on five hits with two walks and five strikeouts over 6.1 innings before exiting with one out in the seventh.
Freshman Sawyer Pruitt turned in a strong outing in his first Friday-night start for Louisiana, allowing two runs on five hits in 6.2 innings. He walked one and struck out four before Smith entered to record the final out of the seventh.
Trailing 1-0, Louisiana missed a scoring opportunity in the third inning when Donovan LaSalle reached on an error by third baseman Stewart Pickett and advanced to third on Drew Markle’s bunt single with no outs. Heer recovered to strike out Lee Amedee, retire Rigoberto Hernandez on a foul popup and get Colt Brown to line out to left to end the threat.
Louisiana tied the game in the fourth inning when Steven Spalitta worked a nine-pitch leadoff walk. After Spalitta stole second, Blaze Rodriguez’s infield single put runners at the corners, and Maddox Mandino followed with an RBI fielder’s choice to bring home the tying run.
South Alabama regained the lead in the sixth on Young’s two-out RBI single, but the Cajuns answered in the seventh. Freshman Noah Lewis doubled down the right-field line with one out and stole third. Shineflew entered in relief and, after recording a strikeout, Lewis broke for home and slid in just under the tag of catcher Duncan Mathews to tie the game at 2-2 and set up Young’s eventual game-winner.
Rodriguez finished with two hits for Louisiana, while Markle added two bunt singles. Freshman catcher Colt Brown extended his hitting streak to nine games with a leadoff single in the sixth inning.
Louisiana will send senior left-hander Andrew Herrmann (2-0, 2.84 ERA) to the mound on Saturday as the Cajuns look to even the series. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with fans able to listen locally on KPEL-FM (96.5) and worldwide on the Varsity Network app.
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