No. 18 Loyola handles Xavier in non-conference action Tuesday

NEW ORLEANS – The 18th-ranked Loyola Wolf Pack baseball team completed the two-game season sweep of the Xavier Gold Rush on Tuesday, defeating their crosstown rivals, 8-4, at Skelly Rupp Stadium. 
 

Loyola (23-10, 7-5 in SSAC) will continue its eight-game road swing on Friday at Brewton-Parker Christian (11-21, 3-9). The Wolf Pack and Barons will begin the SSAC series with a doubleheader starting at 3 p.m. CDT. 
 

Both teams scored three times in the first inning, as Jed Cambre got the game started with a walk and two stolen bases. He scored when he stole third, as the XULA catcher threw the ball away to allow the run to score. Reed Duthu reached on a fielder's choice later in the inning, followed by a walk for Jovan Swasey, and the two came home off the bats of Jordan McKenzie and JJ Garcia, 3-0. The Gold Rush, however, answered with a three-run bottom half, 3-3. 
 

Loyola pulled back ahead in the third inning. Duthu led off the frame with a single up the middle, then Swasey sent a no-doubter over the left-field fence to give the Pack a 5-3 lead. The Wolf Pack added another in the fifth, 6-3, but Xavier pushed one across in the bottom half, too, 6-4. Garcia recorded the RBI single in the top half, scoring Swasey in the process. 
 

Garcia notched another RBI in the seventh inning, bringing home McKenzie on a double, then the freshman scored later in the inning to extend Loyola's lead to 8-4. The Wolf Pack added three more insurance runs in the ninth, 11-4. A Garcia triple scored pinch runner Tanner Powell, who was running for McKenzie, and Garcia came home when Ben Harris had a bunt single. Then Harris scored Loyola's final run on a groundout off the bat of Jaxon Buratt. 
 

Grant Goodbee got the win after pitching the second and third innings flawlessly. He sat down the only six batters he faced with four flyouts and two groundouts. Brian Chin pitched the next three innings and only allowed the one earned run off four hits, then Hunter Ponson, Danik Reed and Jake Clifton held the Gold Rush off the board in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings with five combined strikeouts.
 

Pack Facts

• JJ Garcia went a perfect 5-for-5 at the plate with a double, a triple, two runs scored and four RBI. 

• Garcia's five hits were the most in a game for a Loyola player since the 2023 season, when Jake Mills and Brandon Mooney both also had 5-for-5 games in March. 

• Loyola's 15 hits as a team were the second-most in a game this season. 

• Outside of Garcia, Jaxon Buratt, Reed Duthu, and Jovan Swasey also had multiple hits. 

• Swasey hit his first home run with the Wolf Pack and scored a game-high three times.