BATON ROUGE, La. – The Jackson State baseball team’s first NCAA Regional experience came to an end Saturday evening as the Tigers were eliminated from the Baton Rouge Regional by the Louisiana Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns at Alex Box Stadium. JSU fell 15-1 to ULL.
For the game ULL scored its 15 runs on 19 hits and had 15 RBI. JSU scored its run on nine hits and had one RBI.
“We should have taken advantage of some situation that we didn’t,” said JSU head coach Omar Johnson.
Through the first four innings the game was a pitcher’s duel between Desmond Russell and ULL’s Austin Robichaux. Russell gave up only one hit, while Robichaux allowed one run and four hits. JSU scored its only run of the game in the third inning.
The ULL bats came to life in the fifth inning when the Cajuns scored four runs on five hits. ULL added a run in the seventh to increase its lead to 5-1. The Cajuns scored 10 runs in the final two innings (four in the eighth and six in the ninth).
Russell pitched 7.2 innings to suffer the loss. He allowed nine runs on 12 hits and had five strikeouts. Robichaux pitched eight innings for the win. He gave up nine hits and one run.
Stephen Curtis, Charles Tillery and Gary Thomas each finished with two hits for JSU. Thomas scored JSU’s run.
“The more you experience you have the better you are at this. Getting to this point means a lot. It was a special opportunity to some of our guys especially the seniors. We have had some real good teams in the past. But, getting to this stage makes you want to work a little harder to get back and have more success.”
The Tigers finished the season with a 34-22 record.
Courtesy: Jackson State Sports Information
