No. 18 Baseball completes three-game sweep of Brewton-Parker Saturday

NEW ORLEANS – The 18th-ranked Loyola Wolf Pack baseball team will make the trip back to New Orleans with another Southern States Athletic Conference series win, but this time the Wolf Pack earned a conference series sweep for the first time this season. Loyola won Game 3 of the weekend 12-4 behind 15 hits on Saturday, and its record is now 26-10 overall and 10-5 in the SSAC. 
 

Loyola has won four of its five SSAC series this season, including the last three weekends. It'll take on Dillard at 12 p.m. on Tuesday in non-conference action before hitting the road for Blue Mountain Christian later in the week. 
 

Nathan McDonald got Loyola on the board first in the opening frame with a solo home run, but the Barons answered with a two-run second inning to take the lad, 2-1. 
 

The Wolf Pack recorded a couple of hits during the next three innings after the first, but they were held off the scoreboard until the fifth. Jaxon Buratt, McDonald, Jovan Swasey and Jordan McKenzie had four consecutive singles to plate four runs and give the Pack a 5-2 lead. BPC scored in the bottom half, 5-3, but Loyola pushed more runs across in the sixth and seventh. Buratt had an RBI double in the sixth, scoring Myles Liggans and Jed Cambre, who reached on an error and walked, respectively. Then in the seventh, back-to-back doubles for Reed Duthu and JJ Garcia plated the first run, 8-3, to get the big inning started. Liggans and Buratt both collected two-RBI singles after that to put the Wolf Pack ahead by nine, 12-3. 
 

The Barons scored one in the bottom of the seventh for the game's final run. 
 

Michael Hotard earned his team-high fifth win of the season by pitching the first five innings. He allowed the three earned runs on six hits with a couple of strikeouts. Thomas Hakimian received the save after finishing out the final four innings. He struck out three while giving up one earned run on five hits.
 

Pack Facts

• Jaxon Buratt went 3-for-6 at the plate with one run scored, a double, and five RBI. He drove in at least one run on all three of his hits Saturday. 

• In four games this week Buratt compiled eight hits, four runs, two doubles, one home run, and six RBI. 

• Nathan McDonald also filled up the stat sheet Saturday, reaching base four times while going 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored, two RBI, and his team-best seventh home run of the year. 

• In his eighth start of the year, Michael Hotard picked up his fifth pitching win of the season. Thomas Hakimian also earned the save after pitching the final four innings. 

• Jed Cambre scored three different times on Saturday and now leads the team with 39 runs this season. He also stole a base to bring his team-high stolen bases total to 25 this season.