LAFAYETTE, LA – Another night, another nightmare at Russo Park.

Louisiana’s baseball team suffered a 13-3 beatdown at the hands of Arkansas State on Friday night, their fifth consecutive loss. What started with early promise quickly devolved into one of the most uninspired performances of the Matt Deggs era, punctuated by a total collapse from the bullpen and an offense that went silent after the second inning.

The Red Wolves (26-26, 14-15 SBC) exploded for 10 runs across the second and third innings, seizing control of the game and never looking back. Louisiana (25-29, 15-14 SBC) briefly led 1-0 in the first and added two more runs in the second, but failed to cross the plate again.

Pitching Implosion

Starter Andrew Herrmann gave up three runs in two innings, but it was Blake McGehee who bore the brunt of the damage. McGehee was tagged for six runs (four earned) in just one-third of an inning, giving up three hits and a walk, hitting a batter, and failing to record any strikeouts. The dominoes fell from there as the bullpen combined for six more runs over the next four innings, with only Wil Taylor managing a clean frame in the seventh.

Deggs didn’t hold back in his postgame comments.

“I apologize to everybody that showed up here and I apologize to everybody that paid their money to get into this place and you have my word I guarantee you it will get fixed,” he said. “That’s about as non-competitive as I’ve seen since 2012. That was my first year here, and I’m standing in a dugout with Coach Robe, and we’re getting our butts kicked by ULM. And I told him, I said, it’s never gonna happen again. Well, I’ll be dang. 13 years later, here we go. And you know what? You gotta have some dogs, man. And you got my word that will happen.”

Deggs continued, “You know, you got to have fight and you got to have scrap to you. And that’s something I haven’t seen a whole lot of all year.”

Arkansas State’s Key Performers

The Red Wolves were relentless at the plate. Catcher Kaden Amundson led the charge with a three run homer and four RBIs. Right fielder Cross Jumper went 3-for-5 with an RBI, and center fielder Ashton Quiller added three RBIs of his own, including a two-run double that capped ASU’s seven-run third inning.

Cooper Garrison took over on the mound in the third and was lights-out, pitching five scoreless innings with seven strikeouts, allowing just three hits and one walk.

Louisiana’s Lone Bright Spots

The Cajuns had seven hits on the night, including RBI contributions from Connor Cuff and Mark Collins. Cuff tripled in the second inning and scored on Collins’ single to bring Louisiana within a run, but it was all downhill from there.

Collins finished 2-for-3 and was the only Cajun with multiple hits. The rest of the team looked flat and lifeless as ASU poured it on.

Looking Ahead

Despite the crushing loss, Louisiana still has something to play for. A win in Saturday’s series finale would secure the No. 4 seed in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament and avoid having to play in a first-round “play-in” game.

Deggs’ message was clear: the program won’t accept this level of performance, and change is coming. But in the short term, the Cajuns need to snap this losing skid fast — or they’ll limp into postseason play as a team in total disarray.

First pitch for Saturday’s regular season finale is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at Russo Park.