Late homers lift UL Lafayette past LSU in Pontiff Classic

METAIRIE, La. – Back-to-back home runs in the top of the eighth inning lifted the UL-Lafayette baseball team to a 6-5 win over the No. 10 LSU baseball team Tuesday night in The Shrine on Airline.

With the win, UL-Lafayette improves to 20-20 while LSU drops to 24-14.

LSU will return to action in a three-game series against Florida beginning Thursday at 6 p.m. CT in Alex Box Stadium. Games 1 and 2 will be televised on the SEC Network, and Game 3 will be broadcast on ESPN2. Fans can listen to all three games on the LSU Sports Radio Network, including 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge. Live audio can also be found online at LSUsports.net/live.

Jacob Schultz (4-1) earned the win for the Cajuns. He threw three shutout innings. The right-hander gave up one hit and struck out two. Starter Logan Savoy and Connor Cooke combined for five innings and allowed five runs—three earned—on seven hits, walked one and struck out two.

Vietmeier (2-1) was charged with the loss after tossing two innings. The sophomore gave up three runs on four hits and struck out two.

“Trent Vietmeier has done a great job all year, and he at least made them earn it,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “I’m more disappointed with the early part of the game. We gave them three runs on walks to lead off innings.

“We were limited tonight with our pitching staff and available position players due to injuries, and the very short turnaround with the Florida series starting on Thursday. We nearly overcame those obstacles tonight, but now our attention needs to completely shift to Thursday night’s game.”

In the top of the second inning with second baseman Hunter Kasuls and left fielder Daniel Lahare on first and second after consecutive walks, right fielder Orynn Veillon singled up the middle to bring in Kasuls. After Veillon stole second to put runners in scoring position, first baseman Handsome Monica hit a sac fly to center field, which plated Lahare to give the Cajuns the 2-0 lead.

Cajun center fielder Brennan Breaux led off the top of the third with a walk and moved all the way to third on a single to right-center by Kasuls before scoring on a double steal to put UL-Lafayette up 3-0.

With one swing of the bat in the bottom of the fourth inning, the Tigers tied the game 3-3. Freshman first baseman Cade Beloso belted a three-run blast off of the right field foul pole for his fifth home run of the season, scoring center fielder Antoine Duplantis and left fielder Daniel Cabrera, who reached earlier on a walk and a single up the middle, respectively.

Beloso tied his career high in RBIs with four in the contest, which he also did against Southern on February 27 at The Box.

Back-to-back home runs by the Cajuns in the top of the eighth inning gave UL-Lafayette the one run lead, 6-5. Veillon hit a two-run blast to left field with one out to bring in Kasuls, who reached on a leadoff single, and Monica followed with a shot to left field.

Todd Peterson started the game for the Tigers and blanked the Cajuns in his one inning. Clay Moffitt and Aaron George shut out the Cajuns over two innings and walked one. Freshman Riggs Threadgill made his first appearance since March 13 and threw one inning, struck out one and gave up one hit.

Chase Costello and Will Ripoll combined for three innings and allowed three runs on two hits, walked four and struck out one.