Six outs away from a school-record losing streak, South Alabama got up off the deck for a 12-11 victory over Louisiana on a blustery Friday night at Stanky Field.

The Jaguars scored two runs in the seventh inning and four in the eighth to rally from down 11-6, winning the opener of a three-game Sun Belt Conference series. South Alabama (9-13, 1-3 Sun Belt) had lost seven consecutive games coming in, tied for the most in program history.

“I’m proud of our guys’ effort,” South Alabama coach Mark Calvi said. “I told them Wednesday ‘we’ve been close.’ We had a little meeting Wednesday, which is why I’m hoarse. But close hasn’t been good enough, close isn’t good enough. … We just haven’t been putting all three phases together, and I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think we did tonight either.

“Some guys swung the bats better, but we need to clean up the (walks) and clean up the errors. We’ve just got to dominate the routine, and the offense will come and some guys will step up on the mound.”

South Alabama pounded out 14 hits — five for extra bases — against four Louisiana pitchers, and went 10-for-18 with two outs. Cole Ketzner had a two-run homer and an RBI single, while Joseph Sullivan added a solo shot and JG Bell, Erick Orbeta, Trey Lewis and Colson Lawrence also drove in a run each.

However, it was 8-9-hole batters Micah Morgan and Mitchell Heer who were the hitting heroes for the Jaguars on Friday. Morgan went 3-for-4 with a double and a 2-run triple, which tied the game in the bottom of the eighth.

Heer went 2-for-4 with RBI singles in the seventh and eighth, both scoring Morgan and the last putting South Alabama on top to stay. Jaguars closer Grant Wood then worked around a leadoff walk in the top of the ninth to finish it off.

“I was just trying to stay where my feet are, just be in the moment,” said Morgan, a Fairhope native who transfer to South Alabama from Spring Hill College this season. “People might have counted us, but you never know what’s going to happen. Tonight, we took more good with the bad.”

Louisiana (16-7, 3-1) looked bent on dealing South Alabama its eighth straight loss for much of the night, scoring two in the sixth and three in the seventh to break a 6-6 tie. Kyle DeBarge blasted a three-run homer with two outs in the seventh, putting the Ragin’ Cajuns up 11-6.

South Alabama then went to work on the back end of Louisiana’s bullpen, with Sullivan’s leadoff homer making it 11-7. Morgan then doubled to right-center and came home on Heer’s first RBI single to pull the Jaguars within 11-8.

South Alabama reliever Jackson Boyd pitched a scoreless eighth, setting the stage for the four-run rally in the bottom of the inning. Louisiana closer Blake Marshall — who had gotten the final out of the seventh — walked Will Turner, Ketzner and Sullivan in succession to start the eighth, giving way to Brendan Moody.

Moody got Lawrence to ground into a fielder’s choice, but Turner scored on the play to make it 11-9. After Lewis flew out to shallow center, Morgan smoked a 1-2 fastball off the wall in right-center to score Ketzner and Lawrence with the tying runs.

Moments later, Heer lined an 0-1 pitch through the right side. Morgan trotted home with the eventual winning run.

“It’s huge,” Morgan said. “We’re not done, but it’s big to have that one win under our belts. This win proves how much grit we have.”

South Alabama took a 2-0 lead in the first on Ketzner’s line-drive homer off the left-field scoreboard, accounting for two of six runs the Jaguars scored in 3 2/3 innings against Louisiana starter Jake Hammond. Lewis doubled to lead off the second and scored on Orbeta’s sacrifice fly, putting the Jaguars on top 3-0.

After South Alabama starter Gehrig Conrad — making his first Friday night start of the season — set Louisiana down without a hit in the first two innings, the Ragin’ Cajuns broke through for five in the third. DeBarge, Carson Roccaforte and John Taylor all drove in runs, and two others scored on a wild pitch and a delayed double steal that included a bad throw by Ketzner at catcher.

Lewis’ RBI single in the third cut the Louisiana lead to 5-4, then RBI singles by Bell and Ketzner in the fourth put South Alabama back up 6-5. The Ragin’ Cajuns’ Julian Brock tied the game with a solo homer in the fifth, one of three runs off Jaguars reliever Matthew DeLano.

Roccaforte knocked home a run with an infield grounder in the sixth, and Brock later walked with the bases loaded to make it 8-6. South Alabama reliever Jake Bruning bobbled Max Marusak’s two-out bunt attempt in the seventh, then walked Ben Robichaux before serving up DeBarge’s 3-run shot that put the Ragin’ Cajuns up 11-6.

That would be all Louisiana scored, however, as Boyd — who came into the game with a double-digit ERA — allowed just a one-out single and Wood retired three straight after walking Will Veillon to start the ninth. Boyd (1-0) got the win, while Wood picked up his third save.

“Boyd has a career sub-3 ERA here, with a lot of appearances and 100-something innings,” Calvi said. ” … We’ve got to have Jackson Boyd. He’s got to help us, he’s been a guy for us. He had lost his change-up, kind of lost his arm slot, probably lost some confidence. But tonight, the old Boyd showed up and we needed every bit of it.”

Moody (0-3) took the loss for Louisiana, allowing a run on two hits in an inning. All four Ragin’ Cajuns pitchers allowed at least a run, with David Christie giving up two in three innings and Marshall surrendering three in one-third inning.

The win was South Alabama’s first since beating Jacksonville State 6-3 on March 10. The Jaguars lost the final two games of that road series, dropped a home game to Alabama on March 14, got swept in three games at Georgia Southern last weekend, then lost to Auburn in Montgomery this past Tuesday.

“We’ve been just trying to fight through,” said Heer, who had just five RBIs in 13 games this season before Friday. “Coach Calvi has been giving us talks, ‘don’t give up on yourself, don’t give up on this team. Be team players, and eventually it’s going to come our way.’ We had some guys hitting line drives and had some tough luck, but they fell in tonight and we showed who we could be.”

With inclement weather expected Sunday, the series concludes with a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday. Jeremy Lee — South Alabama’s Friday night starter until this week — and Heer are expected to start the two games for the Jaguars.