LAFAYETTE, La. — Evan Challenger held the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns to just two hits and one run to help the Georgia Southern Eagles take the series opener 2-1 on Friday night at “Tigue” Moore Field.
    The Eagles (18-13, 8-5) broke a 1-1 tie in the eighth inning after Dalton Busby dropped a sacrifice bunt to score Aaron Mizell.
    Georgia Southern led 1-0 in the top of the first after Hunter Thomas also laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Kody Adams, who opened the game with a single.
    Challenger (3-0) gave up a home run on the first pitch he tossed but settled in to hold Louisiana (15-12, 7-5) to two hits over seven innings. He retired 14-straight batters after the solo home run and did not allow another hit until the fifth inning when Tyler Girouard singled with two outs.
    Challenger struck out a career-high nine batters, including the side in the second and fifth innings. He also struck out a pair in the seventh inning.
    Gunner Leger struck out just one batter and allowed eight hits but limited the Eagles to two runs. Leger (3-2) stranded five runners in scoring position over his 7.2 innings of work but was tagged with the loss.
    Jason Richman tossed two scoreless innings and got a double play to end the game for his second save of the year. Richman (2) entered with a runner on base in the eighth inning and erased the runner at third base with a ground out.
    The Eagles finished with eight hits. Chase Griffin and Hunter Thomas both tallied multi-hit games. Griffin singled in his first two at-bats of the game, and Thomas tallied a pair of base hits after his sacrifice bunt.
    The series continues tomorrow with a 7 p.m. ET start on ESPN3. RHP Tripp Sheppard will take the mound for the Eagles. The Ragin’ Cajuns will counter with righthander Greg Milhorn.