MONTGOMERY, Al – Thursday night’s pitching efforts and a late-inning grand slam guided Louisiana to victory as the Ragin’ Cajuns beat Appalachian State, 7-2, at Riverwalk Stadium.

Ben Fitzgerald put the exclamation point on the game by hitting the decisive grand slam deep into the night sky, giving Louisiana the five-run lead in the bottom of the eight.

Drake Osborn also went yard in the contest, hitting his third home run of the season to leadoff the game for Louisiana.

The Ragin’ Cajuns then plated two runs in the third inning off a Tyler Robertson double and a Brennan Breaux sac fly, extending their advantage to 3-0.

App State cut the lead to 3-2 after the fifth inning, scoring two runs on a two-out single from Luke Drumheller. The scoring situation was set up by Connor Cooke tossing away a ball he did not want to use while the game was still in play.

Cooke was still electric in his start, touching 95 MPH at times en route to tossing 4.2 innings and giving up one earned run.

Louisiana also saw great pitching performances from Brandon Talley and Spencer Arrighetti as they held the Mountaineers scoreless over the last five innings of the game.

App State left its starting pitcher, Tyler Tuthill, in the game and Fitzgerald took advantage of the opportunity, blasting the home run in the eighth to secure the win.

Louisiana will play Georgia Southern on Saturday at Riverwalk Stadium.