LAFAYETTE, La. ? The University of New Orleans baseball team will have to hope its second trip to Louisiana-Lafayette goes nothing like the first.
Tyler Benzel's RBI single past a drawn-in infield in the bottom of the eighth inning snapped a 5-5 tie and handed the Ragin' Cajuns a 6-5 win in a tension-filled Saturday afternoon encounter at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field.
Benzel plated catcher Blaine LaFleur, who led off the inning with a triple, as ULL (28-27, 16-14 Sun Belt Conference) swept a three-game series against the Privateers at home for the second time in the last three years.
Benzel finished 2-for-3, and Matt Goulas scored two runs for the Cajuns.
Jeff Lanning went 2-for-5 with two RBIs and Johnny Giavotella had two hits for the Privateers (38-17, 18-11), who have dropped four straight. The Privateers will return to Lafayette next week for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
UNO, seeded second in the eight-team event, will play No. 7 seed South Alabama at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The Privateers recorded their most victories in a regular season since 1996.
“I couldn't be prouder of this team for what they have done in the regular season,” said UNO head coach Tom Walter. “There is not a team in this league that I would want to coach in a conference tournament more than this team.”
The game was marred by two bench-clearing incidents and the ejection of ULL starting catcher Dillon Guillory for barreling over UNO catcher Josh Vander Hey during a play at the plate in the bottom of the third inning.
Things settled down in the late innings, though, and UNO erased a 5-2 deficit with a three-run seventh inning. Lanning tied the game with a two-run single up the middle off ULL closer Justin Robichaux (3-0), who blew just his second save in a Sun Belt game this year.
The Cajuns, though, took the lead back for good in the eighth thanks to LaFleur leading off with a line drive off the right-center field wall. After Ryan O'Shea (2-2) got Scott Hawkins to ground out to third, Benzel hit a chopper over the head of UNO shortstop Justin Edwards.
The Privateers got their first two hitters on in the ninth, but senior John Zorich -- who was brought in to close it due to the Cajuns' Senior Day ? struck out Eden and got Lanning to ground into a double play.
“Our go-to guys had some chances throughout the game and didn't come through,” Walter said. “We definitely have some holes in our lineup that we need to sew up by Wednesday. They will get a day off (Sunday), but we've got to come ready to work on Monday.”
