Higgs powers No. 14 Louisiana past Southeastern Louisiana, 8-1

George Faust
·3 min read

LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) — Conor Higgs kept up his torrid midweek with a pair of solo home runs while Blake McGehee pitched 5.0 solid innings to lead No. 14-ranked Louisiana baseball to an 8-1 win over in-state opponent Southeastern Louisiana on Wednesday at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field at Russo Park.

Lee Amedee and freshman Connor Cuff had two hits each and drove in a pair of runs as Louisiana (30-9) won for the fifth straight contest and 24th time in the last 26 games.

“I thought it was one of our better games of the year,” Louisiana head coach Matt Deggs said. “Top to bottom, no errors, very efficient offensively and got a great start out of Blake McGehee.

“He had really good fastball command, everything was working. He was able to land his changeup tonight which was huge. He filled his position right from the jump and got us five solid innings.”

McGehee (2-1) tied a career-high with five strikeouts as he retired the first six batters he faced until Connor O’Neal’s ground-rule double. The right-hander allowed a leadoff single to Parker Coley in the fifth and walked O’Neal before getting Gray Rowlett looking at a called third strike before Jeremy Rader hit into a double play.

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Louisiana, which claimed a 15-8 win at SLU (19-19) on Tuesday, broke open a scoreless game in the fourth as Higgs belted the second pitch of the inning from Lions starter Aiden Vosberg (0-3) for an opposite-field home run.

Higgs’ homer opened a four-run inning for the Ragin’ Cajuns as Duncan Pastore and Amedee each followed with singles before scoring on Cuff’s opposite-field double. Cuff, who belted his first career home run on Tuesday, advanced to third on a throwing error and scored one batter later when Caleb Stelly lifted a sacrifice fly to right.

Higgs, who had three doubles against the Lions on Tuesday, launched his second home run of the night for Louisiana when he hit a solo blast off SLU reliever Jackson Rodriguez in the fifth for a 5-0 lead.

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Amedee added a two-run single in the seventh to drive in Kyle DeBarge and Higgs before Cuff scored from third in eighth after a two-out error.

O’Neal, who went 2-for-3 at the plate for the Lions, helped SLU avert the shutout in the eighth with his third home run of the season. Vosberg scattered five hits and allowed three earned runs for the Lions while Larson Fabre struck out a team-high three batters.

Jack Martinez pitched 2.0 hitless innings with three strikeouts for Louisiana while Murphy Brooks pitched 2.0 scoreless frames with a pair of strikeouts.

Louisiana will open the second half of its Sun Belt Conference slate beginning Friday when it travels to Conway, S.C., for a three-game series against No. 19-ranked Coastal Carolina. First pitch for Friday’s game is scheduled for 5 p.m. CT.

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