Box Score The 12th-ranked Wolf Pack made it back-to-back wins on Tuesday, taking down LSU Alexandria in non-conference play
WESTWEGO – The No. 12 Loyola Wolf Pack welcomed in-state, non-conference foe LSU Alexandria to Segnette Field on Tuesday, and the Pack earned their third straight win over the Generals with a 6-3 victory. Loyola is now 12-11 overall this season and it'll host William Carey this weekend for a Southern States Athletic Conference three-game series starting Friday at 6 p.m.
The Wolf Pack pushed the first run across in the opening inning, using a solo home run by Allen Dennis to take a 1-0 lead early. LSU Alexandria, though, got at least one hit in the first three innings, scoring the tying run in the third to make it a 1-1 ballgame. After the Generals took their first lead, 2-1, in the fourth, Dennis notched his second home run of the game in the next half inning to tie the game again, 2-2.
LSUA made it three straight innings with a run, plating one more run in the fifth to regain the lead, 4-3. Wes Anderson, however, entered to pitch the sixth inning and recorded the first 1-2-3 inning for a Wolf Pack pitcher, sitting down the LSUA batters down with three strikeouts. That momentum carried over into the next half inning, as the Pack put a four-spot on the scoreboard with five hits.
The rally started immediately for Loyola, with Luke Clement leading off the frame with a double down the left-field line. Kason Cullins was hit by a pitch and Cameron Trosclair singled during the next two at-bats to load the bases with no outs, but the next couple of batters got out to quickly give the defense two down. Garrett Beadle stepped in to pinch-hit, and the freshman delivered with a single up the middle to score two runs to give the Pack a 4-3 advantage. Jake Mills and Payton Alexander followed that up with consecutive singles to push two more runs across, putting Loyola up 6-3 entering the seventh inning.
Anderson earned the win by pitching the sixth, but Matthew Champagne picked up right where Anderson left off with clean innings in the seventh and eighth. The Lulling, Louisiana, native recorded two strikeouts in his first inning, then fanned the three LSUA batters he faced in the eighth before earning the save with a low-stress ninth inning. Champagne totaled six strikeouts during his three innings of work, adding to Anderson's three, Brett Fisackerly's five and two each from Reid Perkins and Christian Mejia to bring the team total to 18.
Wolf Pack head coach Jeremy Kennedy
Thoughts from the game:
"I thought the pitchers did a really good job of throwing a bunch of strikes. We've been struggling with that and have addressed it, but that doesn't always mean that'll turn around. But it did today. I think the amount of strikeouts is proof of that. They were just pounding the zone and executing their pitches over and over. Brett (Fisackerly) did it right out of the gate, then it was a little sketchy there for a little bit, but Wes (Anderson) came in and just really pounded the strike zone the best he's done all year. Then (Matthew) Champagne was really good for three innings."
On Wes Anderson and Matthew Champagne's pitching:
"Pitching gives you confidence, or you just have no confidence because your pitching is bad. Good teams, that's what they have. They know they can stop the other team, so you always have confidence that you're in every game. The feel, when a guy is just pounding the strike zone, the whole team feels it, but versus when you're not, the whole team feels it in the other direction. We've just had so much of that this year where the feel has been terrible because the pitchers aren't doing their job. Tonight was a perfect example of being in a 6-3 ballgame and feeling in control the majority of the game because the pitchers were doing their job and doing it with confidence."
On Garrett Beadle's go-ahead two-RBI pinch-hit:
"He's been doing a lot of swing work and he's been doing better. I was looking for a spot to get him in tonight, and the spot came up. He had a good at-bat and really squared it up in the big situation, so that was good to see. He's been putting in the work and he's been getting better. He got that result out of it tonight."
Pack Facts
Allen Dennis hit his seventh and eighth home runs of the season. Loyola's all-time home runs leader is now up to 40 for his career.
Payton Alexander recorded a hit for the fourth-straight game. He's now up to 190 career hits, which is eighth in the Loyola record book all-time.
Alexander holds the longest active on-base streak on the team, as he's reached base in 11-straight contests.
Loyola pitchers combined to throw 18 strikeouts, which is the most since the start of the Dakstats era.
Three different players had multi-hit games for the Wolf Pack on Tuesday: Dennis, Jake Mills, and Cameron Trosclair.
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