LAFAYETTE, LA – The Wright State baseball program grabbed its first win of the season with a 7-6 victory over Louisiana thanks to
Boston Smith's go-ahead homer in the top of the eighth inning. The Raiders and Ragin' Cajuns will battle for the series win on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. ET in the series finale.
Game 3 - Sunday, February 18 - 2:00 p.m. ET - Watch - Live Stats
After Louisiana had just tied the game in the bottom of the seventh, the Raiders and Smith were quick to react, as he connected on his pinch hit homer to right center field that proved to be the difference. The Cajuns singled to left field in the bottom of the eighth, but the Raidergang held them off and maintained the lead, with freshman
Brayden Schoetzow tallying a one-two-three bottom of the ninth to earn the first save of his collegiate career.
The Cajuns took an initial 2-0 lead with an RBI triple from Trey LaFleur and an RBI single from Luke Yuhasz in the bottom of the second before Wright State was able to gain momentum in the third thanks to a
Sammy Sass double to send
Julian Greenwell home.
Jay Luikart continued the Raider scoring with a single up the middle, allowing Sass to score and tie the game at two. The Raiders took the lead moments later as
Luke Arnold reached on a misplay in center field, allowing
Patrick Fultz and Luikart to score and give Wright State a 4-2 advantage.
Wright State continued the scoring in the fourth, with back-to-back RBI doubles by
Andrew Patrick and Greenwell, raising the Raider advantage to four before Louisiana retaliated, putting three runs on the board in the bottom of the fourth via a run scoring double from LaFleur, an RBI groundout by Yuhasz, and a Raider misplay to close the gap to 6-5. Wright State stranded a pair of runners on base in the seventh inning before the Cajuns managed to tie the game in the bottom of the frame with a two-out RBI single down the first base line and set up the late heroics from Smith.
The Raiders finished with 11 hits, led by Greenwell's three, followed by Patrick and Luikart with two each. Greenwell, Luikart, Patrick, Sass, and Smith each had one RBI on the day.
Ty Roder got the start for the Raiders, pitching the first three innings and allowing five hits on four runs, before
Wes Earles allowed just one hit over his two innings of relief. Duke Benge earned the win after 1.1 innings out of the bullpen, stranding a pair of runners in the bottom of the seventh before tossing a scoreless eighth inning, while Schoetzow closed the door in the ninth with the save.
JT Etheridge, the fifth pitcher for the Cajuns, was charged with the loss after entering in the eighth and allowing Smith's home run. Louisiana finished with eight hits and only four strikeouts on the day, led by Josh Alexander's three-hit game.
