No. 2 Southeastern Louisiana Beats No. 7 New Orleans in Slugfest
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SUGAR LAND, Texas - The ball was flying out of Constellation Field during Wednesday's Game 2 of the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament in Sugar Land, Texas. The result was a 12-7 win by second-seeded Southeastern Louisiana over seventh-seeded New Orleans.
Despite a matchup between First-Team All-Conference pitchers Mac Sceroler from Southeastern Louisiana and New Orleans' Shawn Semple, the game featured six home runs.
"It's always important if you want to make a deep run in this tournament, you have to get that first one," said Southeastern Louisiana Head coach Matt Riser said. "I'm really proud of how our guys kept taking it pitch-by-pitch and kept battling at the plate to get us back into the game."
It was all Privateers early, as New Orleans scored two in the first inning on All-Conference catcher John Cable's home run to right field off Sceroler. It was a two-run shot that scored leadoff hitter Aaron Palmer, who had singled to start the game.
New Orleans added two more in the second. The first came on Darren Willis groundout that plated Tristan Clark who led off the inning with a triple off the center-field batter's eye. Orynn Veillon followed with solo home run, the first of his two long balls on the day.
Southeastern Louisiana got on the board in the bottom half of the third inning to make it 4-1 as Drew Avans slugged a solo home run off Semple.
Each team scored twice in the fifth inning. The Privateers did so on three hits, punctuated by Veillon's second long ball of the day. Meanwhile, the Lions matched them in the bottom half of the fifth with two runs of their own.
Southeastern Louisiana flexed its muscle again in the sixth inning when Derrick Mount and Drew Avans clubbed back-to-back home runs to tie the contest at six apiece.
The second-seeded Lions did not let up in the seventh, putting up a four spot on three hits. New Orleans countered with a single run in the top, but Southeastern put the game away in the eighth, scoring two more to make it 12-7. The Lions' Evan Hileman earned the save, working the final 1 1/3 innings.
Southeastern Louisiana now moves on to face No. 3 Sam Houston State on Thursday at 4 p.m. The Bearkats defeated Stephen F. Austin 13-1 in seven innings in the tournament's first game. Meanwhile, the Privateers will return to Constellation Field to take on the sixth-seeded Lumberjacks in a 9 a.m. elimination game on Thursday.
Every game of the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament will be carried live on ESPN3. Southland assistant commissioner Chris Mycoskie will handle play-by-play duties, while several Southland teams' radio announcers will also showcased in the ESPN3 booth during the early rounds. For the title game, Mycoskie will be matched with color analyst Greg Swindell, a former first-team All-American at the University of Texas and 17-year Major Leaguer.