Dukes edge Cajuns in losers’ bracket at SBC Tournament

Ragin’ Cajuns will wait until Selection Monday to find out destination for NCAA Regionals

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Ryan Dooley’s go-ahead, three-run homer in the top of the seventh inning helped James Madison overcome a 7-1 deficit and edge No. 21-ranked Louisiana, 10-9, in an elimination game of the 2024 Guardian Credit Union Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship on Thursday at Riverwalk Stadium.

The loss marked the first two-game exit for Louisiana (40-18) in the double-elimination format since 2010 and its earliest since 2017 when the tournament was moved to a single-elimination event due to weather. The Ragin’ Cajuns will wait to find out their destination for the NCAA Regionals on Monday at 11 a.m.

JMU (33-22) led 1-0 in the first inning on Mike Mancini’s RBI single to drive in Dooley before Louisiana would use a seven-run inning in the second to take a 7-1 lead.

Jose Torres tied the game at 1-1 when his single deep in the hole at shortstop scored John Taylor before Lee Amedee followed with a two-run single and a 3-1 lead. Luke Yuhasz then followed with an RBI double and Trey LaFleur followed with an RBI single to drive in Amedee.

After Kyle DeBarge reached on a one-out, bunt single, Taylor delivered a perfectly-executed squeeze bunt which drove in LaFleur and Bryan Broussard, Jr., for a 7-1 lead.

JMU began to chip away at the lead beginning in the fourth on Brendan O’Donnell’s solo home run to left before Jason Schivone’s two-out, RBI double in the fifth plated Fenwick Trimble to cut the lead to 7-3.

Dooley added an RBI single in the sixth to score O’Donnell to cut the deficit to 7-4 before Louisiana’s Conor Higgs belted a solo home run to left-center to give the Ragin’ Cajuns an 8-4 lead.

Back-to-back walks to start the seventh inning started the threat for the Dukes before Mancini would score from third on a wild pitch. Schiavone would score for JMU on a fielder’s choice to cut the deficit to 8-7, and after an error and RBI double by Kyle Langley, Dooley homered to right to give the Dukes their first lead of the day.

Louisiana added a run in the seventh after Duncan Pastore reached on an error and scored on Torres’ RBI single to center. DeBarge, who went 2-for-4, led off the ninth when he drew a walk from Joe Vogatsky and moved to second on Taylor’s deep fly ball to left-center but was stranded with a fly ball to right and a soft liner to first.

Hunter Entsminger (4-0) earned the victory for James Madison with Vogatsky pitching the final 3.0 innings to earn his ninth save. Louisiana knocked out starter Donovan Burke after scoring seven runs on six hits in 1.1 innings before Max Kuhle pitched 3.2 scoreless innings in relief with four strikeouts.

David Christie (2-1) was charged with the loss after allowing a pair of hits and three unearned runs in 2.2 innings for the Ragin’ Cajuns. Torres and Amedee each went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI for Louisiana, which had 11 hits in the contest but lost for the fourth time in 42 games when outhitting an opponent.

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