The No. 19-ranked Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Baseball team closes out a season-long, nine-game homestand beginning Friday when it plays host to Marshall in a three-game Sun Belt Conference series at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field at Russo Park. First pitch for Friday’s opener is scheduled for 6 p.m. The series will continue on Saturday with a 2 p.m. contest before the series finale on Sunday at 1. All three games in the weekend series will be streamed live on ESPN+.
Louisiana (25-9, 11-1 SBC) enters the three-game series on an 11-game win streak in conference play after posting sweeps of Old Dominion, Texas State and ULM over the last three weekends. The Ragin’ Cajuns split in a pair of midweek games, capped by a 7-2 loss to in-state rival Louisiana Tech on Wednesday which snapped the nation’s longest win streak at 16 games. The Ragin’ Cajuns will meet Marshall (16-19, 5-7 SBC) for the second consecutive year after earning a three-game road sweep over the Thundering Herd in last year’s inaugural series between the schools.
Junior left-hander Andrew Herrmann (3-1, 1.99 ERA), second in the SBC in earned run average, will start in Friday’s opener for Louisiana with freshman southpaw Chase Morgan (3-1, 2.34 ERA), third in the SBC in ERA scheduled for start on Saturday. Senior right-hander Carson Fluno (1-0, 2.81 ERA) will start in Sunday’s finale for Louisiana, which leads the league in team ERA (3.62) and is second in strikeouts (336). Kyle DeBarge leads Louisiana at the plate with a .338 average, 12 home runs and 37 RBI. The junior shortstop has hit at a .386 clip in league games with four home runs and 16 RBI. Josh Alexander (.310-2-18), Duncan Pastore (.308-2-22), Jose Torres (.308-1-19) and John Taylor (.306-4-20) are next in hitting for the Ragin’ Cajuns.
Marshall took two out of three games last week against visiting Texas State and earned a 3-2 walk-off win over in-state rival West Virginia on Wednesday. The Thundering Herd are led at plate by Cam Harthan with a .343 average. Owen Ayers (.291-6-18) and Elijah Vogelsong (.229-6-21) share the team lead in home runs for the Thundering Herd with Ayers producing 13 doubles on the season. Harthan and Gio Ferraro (.220-1-12) each lead the team with nine stolen bases. Right-hander Drew Harlow (5-3, 4.86 ERA) will earn the start in Friday’s opener for Marshall with left-hander Bryce Blevins (2-0, 1.68 ERA), the SBC leader in ERA slated to pitch on Saturday. Right-hander Carter Lyles (0-2, 4.68 ERA) is expected to start in Sunday’s finale.
