Cardiac Cajuns battle past Golden Eagles, 3-2

Herrmann, DeBarge fuel dramatic win in series opener; series resumes on Saturday at 2 p.m.

LAFAYETTE – Kyle DeBarge belted a three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning and No. 17-ranked Louisiana rallied for its sixth come-from-behind victory of the season with a 3-2 win over Sun Belt Conference rival Southern Miss on Friday at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field at Russo Park.

Andrew Herrmann (5-2) overcame a pair of early hits, including a two-run homer in the first inning, before allowing one hit over his final seven innings as part of a three-hit performance while matching USM starter Billy Oldham pitch-for-pitch in a Friday night duel.

The win helped Louisiana (32-12, 16-3 SBC) claim its seventh one-run victory of the season and sixth overall when trailing after seven innings.

“These kids have prided themselves over the last couple of years of outlasting people and you saw the evidence of that right there,” Louisiana head coach Matt Deggs said. “(Billy) Oldham pitched his butt off and just grinded, grinded, grinded and found a way to get guys back on.”

Herrmann gave up a leadoff single to Drew McIntyre in the first inning before Slade Wilks connected on an inside change-up for his 10th home run of the season as USM (26-16, 11-8 SBC) took a 2-0 lead.

The southpaw, who notched his third quality start of the season, matched a season-high with 8.0 innings on the mound with seven strikeouts. After Wilks’ homer, Herrmann would allow a leadoff walk to Nick Monistere in the second inning before retiring his next 12 batters and not allowing a hit until Gabe Broadus’ one-out single up the middle in the eighth.

“He proved he doesn’t have a glass jaw,” Deggs said. “He took a pretty good wallop there in the first and he settled in, caught a wave and rode it to the finish line. I was so proud of him.

“He was really good tonight. He had three, four pitches going and he was throwing a ton of strikes. He had a great tempo. It was a Friday night game and he’s a Friday night guy for a reason.”

Louisiana managed three hits over the first four innings against Oldham, who struck out a career-high 10 batters while scattering five hits in 7.0 innings. Lee Amedee led off the second with a single to right before Oldham induced a double play and popup to get out of an early jam.

Oldham wiggled out of trouble in the third after Louisiana loaded the bases with a Jose Torres single, a walk to John Taylor and Maddox Mandino reaching when he was hit by a pitch. The right-hander would get DeBarge to pop up to shallow left field to keep the Cajuns off the board.

Pastore had a pair of hits for Louisiana, including a leadoff double in the seventh inning, but Oldham got out the jam with three straight strikeouts.

Louisiana would get to Oldham in the eighth as pinch-hitter Jackson Halter was hit by a pitch and Taylor reached on a squibbed single to beat the USM defensive shift. After Caleb Stelly moved both runners into scoring position, DeBarge belted his 14th homer of the season off USM reliever Kros Sivley (2-4) to left field to give Louisiana its first lead of the game.

LP Langevin pitched a scoreless ninth for Louisiana to earn his sixth save of the year, getting a pair of strikeouts against USM’s middle of the order.

Amedee had two hits for Louisiana, which finished with seven in the game and evened its all-time record against the Golden Eagles to 31-31.

The series will resume on Saturday in a 2 p.m. contest. Chase Morgan (4-1, 2.70 ERA) will start on the mound for Louisiana with USM countering with right-hander Niko Massa (6-3, 4.82 ERA). The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with fans able to listen to the game in the Lafayette area on KPEL-FM (96.5) and worldwide on the Varsity Network app.

Prior to the game, Louisiana will welcome back and recognize its 2014 Baseball team which recorded a school-record 58 wins on the season, was ranked a consensus No. 1 team for much of the season and hosted both NCAA Regionals and Super Regionals.

Single-game tickets are available by visiting the Louisiana Athletics Box Office at the Cajundome or purchasing by visiting Account Manager. For more information call the Louisiana Athletics Box Office at the Cajundome at (337) 265-2104.

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