Things were frustrating but still manageable for the UL Ragin’ Cajuns heading into the bottom of the fourth inning of Friday’s 12-2 loss to No. 2-seeded Cincinnati at the Starkville Regional.

The Cajuns had gotten three runners thrown out on the bases to spoil two prime scoring opportunities, but the score was knotted 1-1.

Then the Bearcats figured out UL starter Cody Brasch like no one had done all season long, and the game got away from the No. 3-seeded Cajuns quickly.

Then the Bearcats figured out UL starter Cody Brasch like no one had done so all season long and the game was quickly over.

“Yeah, that was just a good old fashioned country butt whooping right there,” UL coach Matt Deggs said. ” You know, sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug. Tonight, we were the bug.”

In four-plus innings, the right-hander allowed seven runs on eight hits, no walks and struck out five.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to tip your cap, though,” Deggs said. “I haven’t seen anybody do that to Cody.”

 

Cincinnati pounded Brasch for five runs in the fourth to seize a 6-1 lead. First, Enzo Infelise hit a two-run homer, followed by a Christian Mitchell run-scoring triple and then a two-run bomb from 9-hole hitter Charlie Niehaus.

Jack Natili had another homered off Brasch with one out in the second inning and then Ryan Tyranski led off the fifth with a solo homer to force Brasch’s exit from the game.

 

In 21 previous outings this season, Brasch had only five up more than two runs twice – five against Missouri State in the season opener as a closer and then four against Troy in Sun Belt play.

The No. 3 Cajuns fell to 39-24 on the season and will now play No. 4-seeded Lipscomb at 3 p.m. Saturday in an elimination game. Top-seeded Mississippi State defeated Lipscomb 10-1 in Friday’s first game.

Cincinnati (38-20) will play the host Bulldogs at 8 p.m. Saturday in the winner’s bracket contest.

Also, Brasch had only allowed five home runs all season and gave up four bombs in this contest. Overall, the six home runs allowed Friday were the second most UL’s staff had allowed all season – behind eight at Texas State on March 22.

“Well, in the first three innings, we were beating them on pretty much exclusively fastballs and we were locating in,” Deggs said. “And with two outs there and the fourth, we started missing and they attacked it. They didn’t miss it. Then that energized them, and it gave them a ton of momentum, and I just started snowballing.”

The Bearcats entered the regional with 84 homers and UL’s pitching had allowed 79 homers entering the game.

In his first three at-bats, Natili was 4-for-5 with a double, three homers and five RBIs.

“The catcher who played like a big league all-star tonight for them, super impressed,” Deggs said of Natili.

The Cajuns actually led 1-0 in the first inning. Noah Lewis walked with one out and then scored when Lee Amedee’s RBI single was misplayed in right field to chase Lewis around.

But that’s actually when the bad things started for the Cajuns. Colt Brown’s ground ball got Amedee caught in a rundown to prevent a two-run inning.

Then in the top of the fourth, Brown and Markle both walked, but Donovan LaSalle’s deep fly ball to rightcenter resulted in a double play at second base to again strand a runner in scoring position.

“At the end of the day, it is pretty frustrating, but I mean, you can’t control it sometimes,” Amedee said. “So we’ve got to try our best to just stay off the results. 
Like if we’re having a good at-bat, hitting the ball hard, there’s nothing really we can do. All you can do is just try to beat the pitcher and then wherever you hit it, you hit it.”

Cincinnati’s powerful bats, though, soon overshadowed that issue when the Bearcats’ power display began in the bottom of the fourth.

“Credit those guys,” Deggs said. “They were a force tonight. They didn’t miss any mistakes. after the third inning.”

The pitches looked to be mounting pretty quickly on Cincinnati starting pitcher Nathan Taylor early on, but it didn’t matter in the big picture. The 6-foot-5 right-hander had thrown 82 pitches after four innings, but finished giving up just one unearned run on two hits, four walks and three strikeouts in six innings to improve to 7-3 on the season.

The win enabled Taylor to break the school’s all-time win record.

Maddox Mandino greeted Bearcats’ reliever Dominic Mauro with a pinch-hit RBI single in the seventh to make it 10-2.

JR Tollett closed out the game for UL, giving up three runs on five hits, one walk and five strikeouts in 3.1 innings.

Deggs said because of how much Andrew Herrmann pitched last week in Alabama, Ty Roman will get the ball against Lipscomb on Saturday in a do-or-die game.

“In my first two years, same situation,” Amedee said. “It’s just how long you want to keep playing together, you know? 
At the end of the day, we got to play better. I’s really just that simple. I think when we’re playing good and swinging it well, we can beat anybody. 
So it’s just going to come down how long we want to we want to play together.”