Late rally gives Arkansas State upset of No. 3 Louisiana-Lafayette

JONESBORO, Ark. -- Stuart Levy delivered the biggest hit of the series and Tyler Zuber tossed three innings of near perfect baseball to lead Arkansas State to a 6-4 victory against No. 3 Louisiana-Lafayette on Sunday.

The Red Wolves rallied from a 4-2 deficit in the seventh inning. A-State (27-21, 15-9 Sun Belt Conference) loaded the bases with one out in the inning and ULL reliever Matt Plitt walked Matt Burgess to pull Arkansas State within a run.

Stuart Levy doubled down the left field line in the next at-bat to score Tanner Ring and Austin Baker for the Red Wolves’ first lead of the series at 5-4.

Levy went 2-for-4 on the afternoon with three RBI. He drove in A-State’s first run of the afternoon in the fourth inning with a single and came around to score on a bases loaded walk by Lucas Feddersen.

Zuber (2-0) entered the game in the seventh inning and worked around a one-out walk to keep the Ragin’ Cajuns (43-7, 20-4) off the scoreboard in the inning. In the eighth he struck out the first batter he faced but then gave up back-to-back singles to put the tying run on second base, but got Ryan Leonards to ground into an inning-ending double play to on the threat.

The Red Wolves added an insurance run in the home half of the inning when Zach Maggio scored from third on a wild pitch to make it a 6-4 game.

In the ninth, Zuber issued a leadoff walk to Jace Conrad but then got back-to-back fly outs for the first two outs of the inning. Caleb Adams walked drew a walk and a wild pitch moved the runner to second and third, but Zuber battled back and got Chase Compton to ground out back to the mound and Zuber threw him out at first for the game’s final out.

The right-hander lowered his ERA to 2.36 on the year and struck out two and scattered three hits in three innings.

The No. 3 Ragin’ Cajuns were the highest ranked that the Red Wolves have defeated since the squad defeated No. 2 Ole Miss in 2008 in Oxford.

ULL took an early lead without a hit in the first four innings. Seth Harrison scored a run in the third inning on a wild pitch by A-State starter Tanner Gaines and then the Ragin’ Cajuns scored two runs on two Red Wolves’ errors in the fourth inning.

Ryan Wilson grounded out back to Gaines, but the junior right-hander over threw Burgess at first base and Compton scored easily on the play. Blake Trahan drove in another a fielder’s choice, sacrifice bunt to give ULL 3-run lead.

Gaines went 3.1 and gave up three runs on no hits before giving way to Chandler Hawkins who gave up one run on three hits in 2.2 innings.

Burgess and Feddersen each drove in a run for Arkansas State, while Maggio had two hits.