No. 14 Loyola run-rules SUNO

WESTWEGO – The Loyola University New Orleans baseball handled its business Tuesday night, taking care of Southern University at New Orleans in seven innings, 19-3, for the team's 30th win of the season. Loyola (30-9) has now won 30 games four years in a row, which is every year coach Jeremy Kennedy has been at the helm beside the COVID-shorten 2020 season. 
 

The 14th-ranked Wolf Pack will now head to Brewton-Parker this weekend for a three-game series starting with a doubleheader on Friday at 3 p.m. CDT. With nine SSAC games left on the schedule, Loyola (15-6) is tied with William Carey in second place, as both teams are a game behind first-place Faulkner. 
 

Loyola put a four-spot on the board in the first inning to set the tone. The Wolf Pack needed just one hit to score those runs, as two SUNO pitchers combined for five walks, two wild pitches and a hit batter. Brandon Mooney started the inning with the lone hit, then he later scored on a wild pitch, 1-0. Jaxon Buratt came home on a wild pitch, too, and Tyler Durland walked in the third run. Finally, Aaron Davis was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to give the Pack a 4-0 lead heading to the second. 
 

Landon Manson made it a 5-1 lead in the second inning with a solo homer to left field, then five more runs were pushed across in the third inning to blow the game open, 10-1. This time Loyola used four hits, three walks, an error, a wild pitch and a passed ball to plate those runs. Davis scored first on a wild pitch, Jake Mills came home on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Buratt, Collin Zeringue singled home Mooney, and Durland picked up an RBI on a single to right to plate Landon Trosclair. 
 

Loyola kept scoring with a six-run fourth to bring the run-rule into play. Manson scored Jonathon Hammer on a fielder's choice, 11-1, then Mooney came home on a passed ball during the next at-bat, 12-1. Zeringue picked up another RBI to score Buratt, Trosclair scored on another passed ball, and back-to-back groundouts by Tucker Ganley and Marcus Steen pushed two more runs across, 16-1. 
 

Manson put an exclamation point on the game in the fifth inning with his second home run of the game, this time a two-run long ball to put Loyola up 18-1. After the Knights pushed two across in the top of the sixth, Loyola added another run in the bottom half for good measure, 19-3.  
 

Carter Holstein earned his second win of the season with an inning of relief work, facing the minimum with a strikeout on just 10 pitches. Andrew Riedell and Luca Tosca had equally efficient outings with two strikeouts each, and Chris King saw his first collegiate action with three strikeouts in his inning. 
 

Pack Facts

• This was Loyola's seventh run-rule victory of the season. 

• The Wolf Pack's 16-run margin of victory marks the biggest win of the season. 

• The team's 13-hit performance ties for the fourth-most hits in a game this season.

• Nine different players recorded a hit, with 11 different players getting on base. 

• Landon Manson led the team with four RBI in the game after hitting his first two home runs in a Wolf Pack uniform. 

• Brandon Mooney went 3-for-5 at the plate, and he crossed home plate four times, scoring more runs than SUNO himself.

• Mooney, Collin Zeringue, and Aaron Davis each stole two bases on the night.

• Loyola now has four different players with at least 20 stolen bases after Zeringue collected his 20th of the season. Davis leads the team with 25 on the season, with Mooney (23) and Landon Trosclair (22) not far behind. 

• Mooney is now in the top 10 in career stolen bases with 45. 

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