Tag Archives: Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns

Aggies claim the NCAA College Station Regional title

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The Texas A&M Aggies hit five home runs to smash through a 25-year-old record for homers in a season, building a big lead early and then rolling to a 9-4 victory over the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Sunday for the title in the NCAA College Station Regional.

A&M (47-13) swept through three games undefeated to win the regional. The Aggies will advance to Super Regional round next week against the Oregon Ducks, who won the Santa Barbara Regional.

A&M, as the No. 3 national seed, is expected to host Oregon in a best-of-three series for a berth in the College World Series.

Caden Sorrell, Braden Montgomery, Hayden Schott, Ali Camarillo and Gavin Grahovac all belted homers for the Aggies, who boosted their season total to 130 in 60 games. The previous school record was 128 in 1999.

Louisiana (42-20) battled to the end, scoring three runs in the bottom of the ninth before A&M closed it out. The Aggies beat Grambling 8-0 on Friday, downed Texas 4-2 on Saturday night and then took down Louisiana, the region’s second seed.

Earlier in the day, the Cajuns won 10-2 to eliminate the Texas Longhorns from the tournament.

Records

Louisiana 42-20
Texas A&M 47-13

Coming up

Oregon vs. Texas A&M next week in the Super Regional round.

Louisiana explodes past Texas to reach regional title round

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The Texas A&M Aggies will enter the title round of the NCAA Bryan-College Station Regional Sunday night as a prohibitive favorite against the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns.

The Aggies are seeded third nationally and first in the region and will play for the third time this weekend in front of their boisterous home fans at Blue Bell Park.

A&M has won 34 and lost only three at home all year, so the paying customers will expect the Southeastern Conference powerhouse to beat the Sun Belt regular-season champions and complete a three-for-three sweep through the regional.

The regional’s second-seeded Cajuns, however, will not go home willingly.

Showing a determined resolve in playing through the losers bracket, Louisiana erupted for seven runs in the eighth inning Sunday afternoon en route to a 10-2 victory to eliminate the third-seeded Texas Longhorns.

The Cajuns lashed six hits during the outburst, including three-run homers by Jose Torres and Bryan Broussard.

Louisiana took a circuitous route to the regional finals. In Friday’s opener, the Longhorns beat the Cajuns 12-5. But on Saturday afternoon, they started their way back, knocking off the Grambling State (La.) Tigers, 12-5.

With the victory, they earned a rematch with the Longhorns, and they didn’t waste it. Louisiana produced 15 hits, including four for extra bases. When they needed a hit, they got it, driving in all 10 runs in two-out situations.

For the Longhorns, starting pitcher Ace Whitehead worked 6 and 2/3 innings and allowed only two runs. Texas had 10 hits, including two each by Will Gasparino, Rylan Galvan, Casey Borba and Max Schuessler.

But after losing 4-2 Saturday night to the Aggies, the Longhorns’ failed to generate much momentum against the Cajuns. Winners of 15 of their last 20 games, Texas couldn’t produce when it mattered, going 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position.

Records

Texas A&M 46-13
Louisiana 42-19
x-Texas 36-24
x-Grambling 26-28

Coming up

Louisiana at Texas A&M, Sunday, 7 p.m., in the regional title round. If Louisiana wins, a winner-take-all game between the two would be played on Monday. A Monday game time hasn’t been announced.

Flores grand slam paces Texas, sets up Longhorns-Aggies NCAA tournament game

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Trailing early and feeling some pressure, the Texas Longhorns erupted for three runs in the fourth inning and seven in the fifth on Friday night en route to a 12-5 NCAA tournament victory over the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns at Olsen Field.

Kimble Schuessler had three hits and Jalin Flores from San Antonio Brandeis High School smashed a grand slam, advancing the Longhorns in the winners bracket of the Bryan-College Station Regional to play their longtime rivals, the Texas A&M Aggies, on Saturday night.

In the beginning, the regional’s third-seeded Longhorns looked a bit sluggish. The second-seeded Cajuns were taking it to them. Lee Amedee ripped a solo home run in the second. Trey LaFleur added a long solo shot in the third, staking Louisiana to a 2-0 lead.

At that point, some in the crowd at A&M’s home field started to join in with the Louisiana fans to cheer the Cajuns. There might have been a jeer or two for the Longhorns, as well. In response, UT answered with fourth-inning outburst to take charge of the game.

During the rally, they strung together five straight hits. Rylan Galvan had an RBI double and Dee Kennedy added a two-run single, lifting the Longhorns into a 3-2 lead.

In the bottom of the fourth, Flores made two nice plays in the field to choke off a Louisiana rally. On the first one, the Cajuns had runners at first and second base, and he fielded a ground ball in the hole.

Flores flipped a short throw to third for the first out, keeping a base runner out of prime scoring position.

Next, he figured into an inning-ending double play. On the play, Kennedy fielded a ground ball on the right side and threw to the bag at second, where Flores came across to touch for the second out. He promptly rifled a throw to first that beat Amedee by a half step to end the inning.

But with the Longhorns coming to bat in the top of the fifth and leading by only a run, they needed another rally and some more runs for breathing room against the Sun Belt Conference champions. A rally is what they got.

UT had the first four batters reach base, with Galvan drawing a walk to drive in a run. After Will Gasparino struck out, disaster struck for Louisiana when Cajuns shortstop Kalen DeBarge failed to field cleanly a ground ball that could have been a double play.

Instead, a run scored and everyone was safe, loading the bases again.

From there, Jared Thomas delivered with an RBI single to make it 6-2. With the bases still jammed, Flores stepped up and cranked his third grand slam and his 18th homer of the season, a blast that landed well behind the left field fence.

Suddenly, UT was leading 10-2 and cruising. For Flores, a first-team All Big 12 performer, it was his second grand slam in NCAA tournament play. He also hit one in last year’s NCAA tournament to help the Longhorns win the Coral Gables Regional.

Records

Louisiana 40-19
Texas 36-22

Coming up

Bryan-College Station Regional

Saturday — Losers bracket game between Grambling and Louisiana at 2 p.m. Winners bracket game between Texas and regional top seed Texas A&M at 8 p.m. A&M is seeded third overall in the NCAA tournament.

Texas State beats Louisiana to clinch Sun Belt tournament berth

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Trailing by four runs early, the Texas State Bobcats rallied to beat Louisiana 8-6 Sunday afternoon on ‘Senior Day,’ clinching both the series and a berth in the Sun Belt Conference tournament.

Texas State fell behind 4-0 in the top of the first, but did not back down.

By the end of the second innning, the Bobcats had pulled within one. In the fourth, they scored twice to take a 6-5 lead and never trailed again.

Louisiana won the first game of the series, 7-4, on Friday. Texas State bounced back to win 6-5 on Saturday.

By Sunday, they had won again, earning their second series victory over the Ragin’ Cajuns and their first since 2004.

Records

Texas State 25-25, 13-14
Louisiana 29-23, 15-12

Highlights

Senior Luke Sherley bashed three hits, including his fifth home run of the season, and scored three runs. Jacob Almendarez also had three hits and one RBI. Freshman Dalton Shuffield (from Johnson High School) went two for six.

Wes Engle started on the mound but was removed after failing to record an out. He did not concede a hit, but all three batters he faced reached base and scored, prompting coaches to call on Zachary Leigh (2-3).

The sophomore pitched well in earning the victory, giving up two runs on five hits in seven innings. Sherley got the save by pitching the ninth, his first appearance as a pitcher since high school.

Coming up

The Bobcats play a non-conference game at Texas on Tuesday. They finish with three on the road in the Sun Belt against UT-Arlington. The Sun Belt tournament is set for May 22-27 in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi edges UIW, 5-4, in 11 innings

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Jackson Owens blooped a two-out hit down the right field line to drive in the winning run, as the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders defeated visiting Incarnate Word 5-4 in 11 innings Friday night in Southland Conference baseball.

With runners at second and third and UIW pitcher Luke Taggart trying to send the game to the 12th, Owens popped a ball into short right right.

When nobody from UIW could catch it before it hit the ground, Thomas Jeffries crossed home plate for the walk-off victory, keeping the Islanders’ SLC postseason hopes alive.

With the loss, UIW dropped into seventh place in the SLC standings, two games in the loss column out of eighth. A&M-Corpus Christi moved into a tie for 10th.

Eight teams qualify for the SLC tournament. UIW plays again in Corpus Christi on Saturday at 4 p.m. and on Sunday at 1 p.m.

The Cardinals complete their regular-season conference schedule with three games at home next week against the first-place Sam Houston State Bearkats.

Records

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi — 25-26, 9-16
Incarnate Word — 29-21, 13-12

Hayden Cantrelle stroked five hits Friday night, and the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns defeated Texas State 7-4 in the Sun Belt Conference at San Marcos.

The teams play again Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Bobcats’ final home series this season.

Louisiana scored one run in the second inning and three in the fifth for a 4-0 lead.

In response, Texas State scored three times in the bottom of the fifth to pull within 4-3.

But the Bobcats could never gain the lead and ended up falling to 1-6 in their last seven games.

Texas State’s Nicholas Fraze (5-4) took the loss after exiting in the sixth inning trailing 5-3. He gave up 11 hits in five and 1/3.

Louisiana’s Colton Schmidt (7-0) pitched into the seventh inning for the victory.

Records

Louisiana — 29-21, 15-10
Texas State — 23-25-1, 11-14