No. 9 Wolf Pack run-rules SUNO Tuesday

WESTWEGO – The No. 9 Loyola Wolf Pack baseball team returned to Segnette Field on Tuesday for one non-conference game before hitting the road for another Southern States Athletic Conference weekend series. Loyola got back in the win column with a 13-3 run-rule win over Southern University at New Orleans, improving its record to 17-8 overall. 
 

With a 3-3 mark in league play, the Pack will next travel to Tennessee Southern this weekend, starting the three-game series with a doubleheader on Friday at 1 p.m.
 

Loyola scored a pair of runs in both the first and second innings to take a 4-1 lead. Jed Cambre and Jordan McKenzie both walked in the first inning, and Jovan Swasey reached on a fielder's choice that saw everyone safe to help load the bases. Then a single by Reed Duthu brought home a couple of runs. In the second, after SUNO plated an unearned run in the top half,  Jaxon Buratt walked with one out before Cambre sent a pitch 372 feet over the left-field wall to push Loyola's lead to three. 
 

The Pack added lone runs in the third and fourth as well. Drew Lee singled with one out in the third, then courtesy runner Kash Koontz eventually scored on a Buratt sacrifice fly, 5-1. In the fourth, Nathan McDonald doubled to lead things off, and he scored when Duthu reached on a fielder's choice later in the inning, 6-1. 
 

After being held off the board in the fifth inning while SUNO scored two runs, 6-3, Loyola scored two in the sixth and five in the seventh to end the game early. McKenzie started the sixth with a double, and he eventually scored on another RBI base hit by Duthu, 7-3. A sacrifice fly by Lee to plate Mike Latulas made the score 8-3 entering the seventh. Then the Wolf Pack needed just one hit to score the five runs in the next frame, as five Loyola batters earned walks. After Swasey, McDonald, and McKenzie walked to load the bases, Latulas and Lee walked with the bases loaded to push the lead to 10-3. Ben Harris was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded as well, 11-3, then Buratt ended the game with a two-RBI single, 13-3. 
 

McKenzie got his first start on the bump in a Wolf Pack uniform, and he worked the first two innings with three strikeouts. He retired SUNO 1-2-3 on just five pitches in the first, then allowed an unearned run in the second without giving up a hit. Prescott Marsh worked a clean third and fourth inning with three strikeouts, and Ryder Loup looked sharp in the sixth and seventh innings with four strikeouts. Ronin Robles entered to pitch in the fifth when the Knights scored two runs, as he cleaned up the mess with just nine pitches. 
 

Pack Facts

• Reed Duthu went 2-for-5 with four runs batted in, a game high. Duthu's 20 RBi this season are tied for the second most in that category on the team, trailing only Jordan McKenzie's 21. 

• Drew Lee reached base three times, going 2-for-3 with a walk while driving in two runs. Defensively, he caught one runner stealing, his fourth of the season. 

• Five players (McKenzie, Jed Cambre, Jovan Swasey, Nathan McDonald, and Kash Koonts) scored two runs apiece. Koontz also stole three bases 

• Koontz now has 10 stolen bases this season, joining Cambre, McDonald, and Ayden Authement with double digits in that category. 

• Loyola's pitchers totaled 11 strikeouts. Ryder Loup led the way with four, while Jordan McKenzie and Prescott Marsh each had three.