Southern Miss
37-16, 22-8
Louisiana
36-20, 18-12
Lynch Hits Two Grand Slams in 11-9 Series-Clinching Win Saturday over Louisiana
5/20/2023 5:19:00 PM | Baseball
It was members of the senior class, though, which gave their fans a celebration by closing out the regular season with an 11-9 Sun Belt Conference series-clinching victory over the Ragin' Cajuns.
Senior Danny Lynch (Jupiter, Fla.) established a school record with two grand slams and tied another mark with eight RBI, while fellow seniors Christopher Sargent (Wilmer, Ala.) and Reece Ewing (Mobile, Ala.) delivered run-scoring singles in the win.
The Ragin' Cajuns (36-20, 18-12) jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning as they collected back-to-back homers from Max Marusak and Kyle DeBarge to open the game off of Southern Miss starter Matt Adams. After two outs, UL then registered a single before Heath Hood homered.
In the bottom half of the first, after two were out, Rodrigo Montenegro walked, Sargent singled and Ewing walked before Lynch launched one over the right field wall to tie the game after an inning.
Southern Miss took its first lead, 5-4, with a solo homer off the billboard in left field by Dustin Dickerson to open the third, giving him his fourth of the campaign.
That lead did not last long as the Cajuns hit a solo homer by Conor Higgs to open the fifth and took advantage of a Golden Eagle error as they scored a pair of runs on bunts to change the score to 8-5.
Again, though, it was Lynch who responded for the Golden Eagles in the bottom half of the stanza. After back-to-back singles by Dickerson and Montenegro to open the frame, Ewing was hit by a pitch with one out to load the bases. Lynch then hammered a 1-1 pitch over the right-center field wall to put the Golden Eagle in front for the second time in the contest, 9-8.
The Cajuns responded yet again a half inning later as Higgs collected an RBI triple with one out to tie the game, but reliever Will Armistead got a popout and a strikeout to keep the score tied at 9-9.
Southern Miss took the lead for good in the eighth. After an out, Dickerson reached on a shortstop's fielding error. After a hit by pitch, Sargent singled home Dickerson with the go-ahead run and Ewing added insurance with a run-scoring single of his own.
Justin Storm threw the final 2 1/3 innings, which included retiring the side in order in the ninth to earn the victory and improve to 3-1.
Cooper Rawls, the eighth of 10 Cajun pitchers, suffered the loss and fell to 10-1.
The Golden Eagles next play Wednesday in their opening game of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Storm, Justin (3-1)
L: Cooper Rawls (10-1)
Batting:
2B: Max Marusak 1
3B: Conor Higgs 1
HR: Max Marusak 1 ; Kyle DeBarge 1 ; Conor Higgs 1 ; Heath Hood 1
RBI: Max Marusak 1 ; Kyle DeBarge 2 ; Conor Higgs 2 ; Heath Hood 2 ; Will Veillon 1
SH: John Taylor 1 ; Will Veillon 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Max Marusak 1 ; Kyle DeBarge 2 ; Conor Higgs 1 ; Julian Brock 2 ; Heath Hood 2 ; CJ Willis 1
SB: Kyle DeBarge 1
CS: CJ Willis 1
HBP: CJ Willis 1
Batting:
2B: Sargent, Christopher 1
HR: Dickerson, Dustin 1 ; Lynch, Danny 2
RBI: Dickerson, Dustin 1 ; Sargent, Christopher 1 ; Ewing, Reece 1 ; Lynch, Danny 8
Base Running:
RUNS: Dickerson, Dustin 3 ; Montenegro, Rodrigo 2 ; Faust, Brady 1 ; Sargent, Christopher 1 ; Ewing, Reece 2 ; Lynch, Danny 2
HBP: Montenegro, Rodrigo 1 ; Ewing, Reece 1
