Ragin Cajuns edge No. 11 Bobcats to reach Sun Belt title game

LAFAYETTE – With a berth in the Sun Belt Conference Championship Game on the list, senior right-hander Jacob Schultz had no intention of coming out when his team needed it most. And junior third baseman Tyler Robertson had no intention of seeing his season end in his hometown for a second consecutive year.

The duo was part of a gritty effort which led the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Baseball team to a 3-2 win over top-seeded and No. 11-ranked Texas State in the semifinals of the 2022 Guardian Credit Union Sun Belt Baseball Championship Saturday night at Riverwalk Stadium.

The win catapulted fourth-seeded Louisiana (35-21) into the SBC Championship Game for the first time since 2016 when it faces No. 2-seeded Georgia Southern (40-17) on Sunday at 1 p.m. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with fans in the Lafayette area able to listen to the game on KPEL-FM (96.5), the Varsity Network and the #GeauxCajuns app.

“It’s all about these kids, that’s who it’s about, they went out and made pitches and made plays and had great at-bats and fought and worked,” Louisiana head coach Matt Deggs said. “They’ve done that for us since August, they’ve been the same group literally every single day, never wavered. It’s about those guys going out and playing their hearts out against a really good ball club.”

With a Ragin’ Cajuns program that has historically seen its share of gutsy performances on the mound, Schultz (4-3) might have turned in the gutsiest of them all. The senior right-hander overcame a slow start as he allowed a pair of runs in the first two innings before finishing with a career-high 12 batters while shutting down the Sun Belt’s top offense the rest of the night.

Schultz retired the final 11 batters he faced in a 142-pitch performance after Peyton Lewis hit a one-out single in the sixth two batters after John Wuthrich led off the inning with a single up the middle. With the go-ahead runners in scoring position, Schultz would fan Cameron Gibbons for the second out before getting Ben McClain to hit a hard-liner to second baseman Warnner Rincones to end the threat.

But he almost didn’t finish the second after Texas State (45-12), which swept Louisiana in a three-game series two weeks ago in San Marcos, recorded four hits and scored a run in each of the first two frames to take a 2-0 lead.

A one-out double by Jose Gonzalez gave Texas State a 1-0 lead in the first inning before McClain ripped an RBI double down the right-field line to drive in Daylan Pena. He retired eight straight batters after issuing an intentional walk to Gonzalez in the second and kept the Bobcats without a hit until Wuthrich’s leadoff single in the sixth.

“I didn’t, but I was telling guys at the end of the dugout I wasn’t going to come out,” Schultz said on if he had to argue about staying in the game. “Usually in the sixth or seventh is when I kind of hit the afterburners and start throwing more aggressively I’d say. I kind of coast early and after that put the pedal down and go.”

Louisiana missed a chance to score runs early after loading the bases with no outs off Texas State starter Levi Wells (7-2). Walks by Kyle DeBarge and CJ Willis were sandwiched around a Heath Hood double, giving the Ragin’ Cajuns a golden opportunity to get on the board.

But Wells, who struck out eight batters in 5.2 innings, would get out of the jam after striking out Julian Brock, getting Trey LaFleur to hit an infield popup and Max Marusak to ground into an inning-ending fielder’s choice.

The Ragin’ Cajuns, though, would strike in the third.

Connor Kimple led off the inning with a scorching liner past Wells into center field before Robertson would hit a towering one-out homer to left to tie the game at 2-2. Robertson, who enjoyed a stellar prep career at Montgomery’s Saint James School, would strike again in the fifth when he lifted a 3-and-0 pitch from Wells over the left-field wall to put Louisiana ahead for good.

“It’s something I’ll never forget, but already that’s in the past. We’re here to win a championship, and that’s something everyone will remember. No one’s going to remember two home runs down the road, I want to get that championship for all of Lafayette. I’m ready for that.”

Schultz, who recorded 10 ground ball outs, was aided by a defensive effort which saw a combined seven assists from DeBarge (4), Willis (1), Rincones (1) and Carson Roccaforte (1). Schultz forced the Bobcats to hit three grounders back to the mound, including a pair in the first inning to keep Texas State to one run in the inning before getting Gibbons to ground back to the mound in the ninth.

He kept SBC Player of the Year Dalton Shuffield hitless with a pair of strikeouts in four plate appearances while holding Texas State to its lowest scoring output since a 4-2 loss at Incarnate Word on March 22.

“I’m a big stat guy, believe it or not, I think that might be the first game we’ve won this year when we’ve just scored three runs,” Deggs said. “That’s kind of an oddity. We have a really good record when we get to six (26-1), but that low water mark, that’s what we’ve needed is outings like that and defended like that. Really proud of them, they let us coaches come along for the ride, we’re happy to be here and play for a championship tomorrow.”