LAFAYETTE, La. ? Louisiana-Lafayette shortstop William Long had a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a 2-2 tie and lead the Ragin' Cajuns to a 4-2 win over New Orleans on Thursday evening at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field.
Long, who entered the game hitting just .225, hit a line drive to center field off UNO reliever Randy Verdin to help ULL (26-27, 14-14 Sun Belt Conference) clinch a spot in next week's Sun Belt Tournament.
ULL added another run on a bases-loaded walk to Brian Bowman, and Cajun closer Justin Robichaux (2-0) worked a scoreless ninth to put UNO (38-15, 18-9) into a must-win situation during the next two games to have a chance at its first Sun Belt regular season championship since 2000.
Stephen Whalen (5-4) got the loss, but the senior deserved much better. The right-hander matched ULL starter Hunter Moody for the first seven innings before hitting some bad luck in the eighth.
Chance Harst led off the deciding inning with a broken-bat single that got through the left side. Whalen did hit the next batter before striking out ULL right fielder Nolan Gisclair.
Verdin then relieved Whalen and struck out Jordan Poirrier before Long came up with the clutch hit.
“We were only going to go to Jake Henderson and Ryan O'Shea only if we had the lead, but I thought Randy pitched fine,” said UNO head coach Tom Walter. “The mistake we made was he got beat on his third-best pitch, and that should not happen in that situation.”
The Privateers, who have been ranked in the top 10 offensively all season, struggled for the second straight outing. UNO managed just seven hits, including four during a two-run fourth inning that provided all the offense on the night. The two runs tied a season low.
The inning broke a 10-inning scoreless streak for UNO, its longest of the season.
Ryan Eden went 2-for-4 for the Privateers, while Jeff Lanning and Joey Butler each provided RBI singles.
Moody, though, held UNO to just three hits in the remaining frames during his 7 2/3 innings of work. The left-hander struck out four and worked around three walks.
The loss snapped a nine-game win streak in Sun Belt play for UNO.
“Good pitching usually beats good hitting and that's what happened tonight,” Walter said. “Give all the credit to Moody and Robichaux. We had a few opportunities that we should have taken advantage of, but we didn't do it.”
The Privateers must win the next two games to win the Sun Belt title. A loss hands the crown to Louisiana-Monroe, which has completed conference play with a record of 20-10.
“We now have Justin Garcia and Bryan Cryer on the mound with a chance to win a conference championship,” Walter said. “We definitely would have taken that deal two weeks ago, and I know this team has all the confidence in the world that they can do it.”
The two teams will continue the three-game series at 6:30 p.m. on Friday.
