LAFAYETTE, La. – The No. 5/6 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers scored first and last on Friday night, but it wasn't enough as the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns defeated the visiting Chanticleers 11-9 in the Sun Belt Conference series opener in Lafayette, La.
 
The loss dropped Coastal to 26-14 overall and 13-6 in Sun Belt play on the season, while Louisiana improved to 21-7 at home on the season, 29-15 overall on the year, and 11-8 in league play with the win.
 
The loss marks the first time this season that the Chanticleers have dropped more than two games in a row, with the skid now at three consecutive games.
 
Coastal's offense had five players with two hits apiece for the game, led by super senior Nick Lucky (2-for-4, HR, 3B, BB, RBI, 2 runs) with a home run and a triple in his 200th career game as a Chanticleer.
 
Fellow senior Zack Beach (2-for-3, HR, BB, HBP, 4 RBIs, run) hit his 12th home run of the season and drove in a team-high four RBIs, while both Caden Bodine (2-for-5, 2B, RBI, 2 runs) and Derek Bender (2-for-5, 2B, RBI) recorded an RBI double in the loss.
 
Louisiana's offense had a season-high 16 base hits and scored nine of their 11 runs with two outs, including four unanswered runs in the bottom of the first inning to get the offense going.
 
Outfielder Will Veillon (2-for-4, 2 2B, RBI, 2 runs, SB) led the LA offense with two doubles, while second baseman John Taylor (3-for-4, 2B, 3 RBIs, run) drove in a team-high three RBIs. Fellow infielder Carson Roccaforte (3-for-3, 2B, BB, RBI, 2 runs) matched Taylor with a game-high three base hits, while six Ragin' Cajuns had two hits or more in the win.
 
Taking the loss for the Chants was sophomore hurler Matthew Potok (3-3), as the starter was not helped defensively in his 3.0-complete innings, allowing nine runs, five of which were earned, on nine hits, one hit batter, and four walks. All nine runs that he allowed came with two outs.
 
The Coastal bullpen struck out 10 hitters and held the Cajuns to just two runs on seven hits over the final 5.0 innings, but the damage had been done with the nine runs over the first two innings of play.
 
While the Chants' offense drove Louisiana's starting pitcher Cooper Rawls out of the game in the third inning, left-handed reliever Dylan Theut (2-0) was dominant out of the bullpen for the Cajuns as he gave up just one hit, walked one, and struck out two Chanticleer hitters over 5.0-scoreless innings to pick up the win.
 
Both teams were swinging hot bats to start the contest, as the visiting Chanticleers got on the scoreboard first in the top of the first inning on an RBI double down the first-base line from Bodine and a two-out RBI single off the bat of Beach to take a 2-0 lead one at-bat into the contest.
 
However, the offense carried over into the bottom half of the inning, as the Ragin' Cajuns took advantage of a two-out base hit, hit-by-pitch, and a Coastal throwing error to plate four unearned runs in the inning capped on a two-run double from Taylor to put the home team in front 4-2 after just one inning of play.
 
After both teams went three-up and three-down in the second frame, the Chants scored two more runs in the top of the third inning on a Bender RBI double and a Chad Born sacrifice fly to tie the game up at 4-4.
 
Just like in the first inning, the Ragin' Cajuns answered the Chants' scoring with runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning, again coming with two outs, as the home team strung together six consecutive two-out base hits to score five runs and run out in front at 9-4 heading into the fourth inning on a two-out RBI single from Max Marusak.
 
The Cajuns added another run in the bottom of the fourth with back-to-back singles and a double steal to go up 10-4, while the Chants' offense was only able to get a triple in the fifth frame before a Lucky solo home run over the wall in right field in the top of the eighth put the visitors down 10-5 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning.
 
Louisiana used small ball in the bottom half of the eighth inning to add another insurance run to the lead, as a double, sacrifice bunt, walk, and a safety squeeze play drove in one more Cajun run to push the lead out to six at 11-5 with one inning left in the contest.
 
Refusing to go down without a fight, the Chanticleers picked up a lead-off double from Payton Eeles to start the ninth inning before Graham Brown hit a missile off the wall in left field for an RBI single to put the score at 11-6.
 
After back-to-back strikeouts put the Men in Teal down to their last out, Lucky drew an unintentional-intentional four-pitch walk to put runners on first and second with two outs for Beach, who blasted a ball 25 feet up the light pole in left field for a three-run shot to trim the Cajuns' lead to 11-9.
 
However, the Cajuns' Blake Marshall got the next Coastal hitter to strike out swinging to end the comeback bid and give the home team the 11-9 series-opening win.
 
The Chants (26-14, 13-6 Sun Belt) and Ragin' Cajuns (29-15, 11-8 Sun Belt) will play game two of the three-game Sun Belt Conference series tomorrow at 5 p.m. ET.

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