No. 11 Loyola back-ends series win

WESTWEGO – The Loyola Wolf Pack did something for the third time this season on Friday. After losing Thursday's series opener to Abraham Baldwin, Loyola won both games on Friday to back-end the series win. It's the third time the Pack has accomplished that feat this season, winning series over Freed-Hardeman and Tennessee Southern last month in that fashion. 
 

No. 11 Loyola is now 18-5 overall and 7-2 in Southern States Athletic Conference play with another conference series at Mobile scheduled for next weekend. But first, Loyola will host Dillard at Segnette Field on Tuesday for a 5 p.m. non-conference matchup. 
 

Game 1: #11 Loyola 11, ABAC 8 (7)

The Pack had an answer for everything the Stallions threw at them in the first game of the day. After the visitors scored three in the second, Loyola pushed five across in the third. Then when ABAC got a run in the fifth, the Wolf Pack responded with one run of their own in the bottom half of the frame. And finally, the difference in the game came in the sixth when ABAC scored four in the top half to take a two-run lead, only for the Pack to push five across and regain the lead for good. 
 

A double by Collin Zeringue in the third brought the first two Wolf Pack runners home, 3-2, then Marcus Steen tied the game with a fielder's choice ground ball to the shortstop during the next at-bat. With Steen on base, Landon Manson gave Loyola its first lead of the game with a two-run blast to left field, 5-3. 
 

After Abraham Baldwin made it a 5-4 ballgame in the fifth, Steen got another runner across the plate with another fielder's choice during Loyola's next at-bat, 6-4. In the sixth, the two teams combined for nine runs, as the Stallions grabbed an 8-6 advantage with their four-spot. The Wolf Pack started their five-run answer with a lead off single by Landon Trosclair. Brandon Mooney later brought him home, 8-7, Garrett Felix put two runners on base with another single, and Cole Romero followed that up with the team's third straight single to give Loyola a 9-8 lead. Zeringue hammered the final nail with a two-run homer over the left-field wall, 11-8. 
 

Prescott Marsh didn't qualify for the win, but he deserved it after his five-inning performance. He gave up four runs - three earned - on seven hits while striking out six. Caden Durand earned his second save of the season with a quick 1-2-3 seventh inning. 
 

Game 2: #11 Loyola 16, ABAC 5 (7)

Loyola spotted ABAC the first two runs of the game in the top of the first, but the Wolf Pack scored nine runs during their first two at-bats to jump out to a 9-2 advantage. An RBI single by Romero scored Loyola's first run in the bottom of the first, then Manson hit his second home run of the day, this time a three-run blast, to make it a 4-2 Loyola lead after the opening frame. In the second inning, Felix got the scoring started with a two-RBI double, 6-2, and back-to-back RBI singles off the bats of Romero and Steen made the score 8-2. Finally, a bases-loaded walk with Drew Lee at the plate gave the Pack a commanding 9-2 lead. 
 

The Wolf Pack offense put up five more runs in the fourth inning to push the score to 14-3. Jaxon Buratt, Mooney and Felix each had RBI base hits, as Mooney's single scored two to help make it a 13-3 score. Romero reached on an error after Felix's double, and that scored the runner to push it to an 11-run advantage. ABAC scored two in the fifth, 14-5, to try and avoid the 10-run rule, but a two-run sixth for the Wolf Pack brought that back into play. A couple of errors helped Loyola plate those two runs to end the game early. 
 

Matthew Weil got the win with 2.1 innings of relief work, striking out four while allowing one earned run off four hits. Cole Bordes finished the game with three strikeouts in the final 2.2 innings, giving up just one hit as well. 
 

Pack Facts

• Landon Manson hit his first home run of the season, a two-run shot to give the Wolf Pack the lead in the first game, and he followed it up with a three-run homer to give the Pack the lead in the first inning of the second game.  

• Manson went 3-for-3 with a walk, reaching all four times he stepped up to the plate in Game 1. 

• Collin Zeringue also had a big game in Game 1, hitting his fourth home run of the season while going 3-for-4 at the plate with four RBI. 

• Garrett Felix had two hits in each game, totaling four doubles for the series. He's now on a 10-game hitting streak. 

• Cole Romero had a hit in each game, with a total of four hits and five runs scored for the series. He's now on a team-best 18-game hitting streak. 

• After not having a hit in Thursday night's game, Brandon Mooney bounced back by going 3-for-4 in Friday's second game, hitting a double and scoring four runs. He also stole three bases. 

• As a team, Loyola stole a total of 11 bases in Friday's second game, four of which were by Landon Trosclair. 

• In the career stolen bases list in the Wolf Pack record book, Mooney moved up to fifth place with 60 career stolen bases, while Landon Trosclair is now eighth with 55 swiped bags. 

• Mooney also moved up to eighth on Loyola's career hits list, now with 198 hits since the 2023 season. Now with 10 doubles on the season and 38 at Loyola, he's also entered the top 10 for career doubles. 

• Prescott Marsh added to his team-high strikeouts total with six in Game 1, matching his season high for a game. He now has 31 strikeouts this season.

• Elvin Delic got his first win on the mound, while Caden Durand picked up his second save of the season in Game 1. 

• Cole Bordes had his longest outing with the Wolf Pack, 2.2 innings, while giving up no runs and striking out a season-high three batters to close out the run-rule win.  

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