— By David Walsh
Marshall put its hitting shoes back on Friday night — and good thing it did. The Thundering Herd slugged its way to a wild victory, 17-13, over Louisiana, which also had a big night at the plate, in an elimination game in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery, Ala.
The Thundering Herd, which beat the Ragin’ Cajuns, 9-5, on Wednesday, stays alive in its first SBC postseason appearance and now faces a tall order if it hopes to win the event. Marshall takes on No. 1 seed and No. 11 Coastal Carolina at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
The Herd must win twice to stay alive, while the Chanticleers, which won the regular-season title, need just one win. They are 46-11 and have won 16 in a row, the most recent of which was a 4-2 decision over Marshall on Thursday. A Herd win would force a second game Saturday night.
Louisiana, 6-0 all-time against Marshall before the tournament, struck for three runs on four hits in the top of the first against Herd start Clint Moak to excite the visiting team’s fans. After that, it was all Marshall (33-25) which piled up 16 hits against seven pitchers used by the Ragin’ Cajuns. Louisiana finished with 17 hits.
Once down 16-7, the Ragin’ Cajuns saw the Herd get within a run of a run-rule victory, then staged their comeback. It took Herd closer Nicholas Weyrich to get the final five outs to get an unexpected save, his seventh. The game finished as the clock passed midnight into Saturday morning.
“We were on the verge of putting them away a couple of times,” Herd coach Greg Beals said. “They kept fighting back. Our guys did, too. Put together great at-bats up and down the lineup the whole night. On the mound, they gave us trouble. Ultimately it was get Nich Weyrich time. He sealed the deal for the Herd. We earned the opportunity to play tomorrow. We played them already and we look forward to get back at them. This team is a lot of fun to coach. They’ve learned how to manage expectations.”
Maika Niu led the Herd attack with four hits, One went for a triple and the other three left the park for homers to give him six RBI on the night. Eddie Leon delivered one of many clutch hits with a grand slam in the second to put the Herd ahead to stay at 6-3. Jackson Halter, playing against his former team a second time, added three hits and drove in three.
Niu has 16 homers on the season with 11 coming in his last 12 games.
Conor Higgs went 5-for-6 and Luke Yuhasz 4-for-6 with a homer and three RBI to lead the Ragin’ Cajuns.
Clint Moak started for the Herd, gave up three runs in the first, but went five innings to get the win. He is 3-2.
Eddie Leon delivered the big hit in the second with the grand slam. Niu belted his second homer in the third.
In the fifth, Louisiana scored four runs on four hits to get within 11-7.
In the sixth, the Herd pushed across five runs on four hits to get close to a run-rule decision. Niu had a 2-run triple in the inning. Halter laced an RBI double to extend his on-base streak to 27 games.
Louisiana (27-31) wouldn’t go quietly as it scored four runs on four hits in the seventh to get within 16-11.
In the eighth, the Ragin’ Cajuns scored twice to cut the deficit to 16-13 and later in the inning saw the potential go-ahead run at the plate as they loaded the bases with one out. Relievers Tim Baird, Blaine Albright and Charlie Krebs couldn’t contain the visitors, so the Herd called on Weyrich and he delivered. The righthander forced successive Louisiana batters to ground to him and he flipped the ball to catcher Nolan Wilson for the inning-ending outs. In the ninth, he struck out the side.
Niu set the score with a solo homer to right in the bottom of the eighth.
“Tip of the cap to Marshall. They’re much-improve over what we played in the past. They put an outstanding product on the field,” Louisiana coach Matt Deggs said. “We’re a run away from the 10-run rule and we scrap and claw and find our way back. Just not enough pitching. The year was not up to our standards and expectations. We’ve got deficiencies to address.”
In the other bracket, No. 3 Troy defeated No. 6 Old Dominion 9-4 in Friday’s first game to reach the championship round in that bracket. The Trojans will face No. 2 Southern Miss next. The Eagles are 2-0 in the event and need just one win to make Sunday’s title game. Troy would have to beat Southern Miss twice to advance.
Troy atoned for a 4-2 loss against ODU in Wednesday’s first game. Troy came back to defeat Texas State and then the Monarchs in the second rematch. Southern Miss has wins over Texas State and Old Dominion. Troy and Southern Miss take the field first Saturday at 10 a.m. A second game, if needed, would start at 5 p.m.
The tournament champion gets the league’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid. Four SBC teams reached the NCAA Tournament a year ago.