Talk about a nice recovery.

It wasn’t that long ago the UL Ragin’ Cajuns were sitting at 4-9 in Sun Belt Conference.

After Saturday’s 3-2 victory over Coastal Carolina, coach Matt Deggs’ club finished league play with a winning record with seven wins over the last three weekends.

“Wow, nobody in the league had the schedule we did coming down to the end,” Deggs said. “To beat a Top 25 ball club … I mean, it speaks to their resilience, their heart, their grit, their ability to continue to work and get better, and make adjustments, and never quit.

“That’s the biggest thing. 
You just don’t quit, and you just keep pounding that rock, pounding that rock, pounding that rock, and you don’t quit.”

The series win means the Cajuns (34-21, 16-14) won the season series over the top four teams in the Sun Belt.

Unfortunately, UL needed one of four other games to have a different result Saturday. Instead, the Cajuns were 0-4 in those games and therefore lost the two-way tie with Texas State for sixth place after getting swept in San Marcos.

As a result, the Cajuns will play Marshall at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the first game of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament in Montgomery, Alabama.

“Unfortunately we dug ourselves a little bit of a hole, but you’re still in the tournament,” Deggs said. “You just have to go out and win a ball game.

“If we can win that game and another game, there’s going to have to be some decisions made, because we have an RPI in the 30s today.”

Even more ironically, if the Cajuns beat Marshall on Tuesday, they would then face No. 2-seeded Coastal Carolina (36-19, 21-9) at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

“That was a great series,” Deggs said. “Our defense was phenomenal today, especially in the outfield.”

Similar to Friday’s games, it took a while before the scoring commenced.

The Cajuns scratched across a single tally in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Steven Spalitta singled and Drew Markle doubled to set the stage.

Donovan LaSalle hit a towering fly ball to left that looked an awful like a three-run homer, but Coastal’s leftfielder Bladen Pado made a leaping catch at the top of the wall for a sacrifice fly.

Unfortunately for the Cajuns, that slim lead didn’t last very long.

UL starter Ty Roman seemed headed for an economical inning with two quick outs, but then he walked the 9-hole hitter Ty Barranga, who promptly stole second base.

Dean Mihos then singled to leftcenter to knot the score at 1-1.

UL’s offense didn’t stop, though, with a pair of runs in the fifth.

Owen Galt and Blaze Rodriguez singled and the Noah Lewis bunt turned into a base hit to load the bases with no outs.

Lee Amedee got a bloop to drop for a run-scoring single to regain the lead. After a foul out, Spalitta’s fielder’s choice grounder to the left side chased home another run for a 3-1 lead.

Galt, who is now playing second base for Rigoberto Hernandez, was 2-for-3 on the day with a double.

“I’m just working my tail off all season to act like I’m playing every day, and when I get my opportunity, just make the most of it,” Galt said. “I’m playing my best for my teammates, and just be the most energetic, have the most energy, positive guy in the dugout, just do whatever I can to try and help the team.

“Even though I wasn’t doing it at the very beginning, but I’m here now.”

Roman certainly did his job with five solid innings, allowing one run on three hits, two walks and three strikeouts to get the win.

“I gave it my all, and everybody else gave it their all, especially the outfield,” Roman said. “They saved me a lot, so it was just awesome. 
Great win all around.

“The plan today was just commanding the fastball really well, up in the zone, especially, and then being able to hit with off speed.”

Parker Smith got past a one-out hit by pitch to strand a runner at third.

The 9-hole hitter torched the Cajuns again in the seventh with a single up the middle after two quick outs, and again Mihos took advantage. This time it was an RBI triple to leftcenter to cut UL’s lead to 3-2 off Hayden Pearson.

Tyler Papenbrock made sure that didn’t matter with two shutout innings – giving up just one run with one strikeout for his third save of the season.

“Pappy did exactly what we wanted him to,” Deggs said. “I thought he did a tremendous job.”