Over the second half of the season, the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns have hit the ball better.  And, while still not world beaters, the offense has done its part in the Cajuns 17-5 record over the last 22 games.

Friday night, Louisiana racked up a season high 16 hits as the Cajuns (29-21, 15-10 Sun Belt) defeated Texas State (23-25-1, 11-14) by a score of 7-4.

Freshman Hayden Cantrelle led the way for Louisiana, going 5-5 and tying a school record for hits in a game.  Cantrelle scored a run and drove in a pair for the Cajuns.  Daniel Lahare continued his hot hitting over the last three weeks, going 3-5 with a pair of runs scored.  Kennon Fontenot, Zach Lafleur and Tyler Stover chipped in two hits each for the Cajuns.

Colten Schmidt (7-0) worked 6.1 innings, allowing eight hits and four runs, three earned.  Logan Stoelke pitched the final 2.2 innings of shutout ball to earn his ninth save of the season.

Nicholas Fraze (5-4) took the loss for Texas State, allowing eleven hits and five earned runs over 5.1 innings of work.

The Cajuns got on the board in the third inning on an RBI groundout by Gavin Bourgeois and added three more runs in the fifth when Lahare tripled with one out, Cantrelle singled him home and went to third on Bourgeois' single.  Hunter Kasuls plated Cantrelle with an RBI groundout and Fontenot delivered a clutch two out single to score Bourgeois.

Texas State responded in its half of the fifth when Derek Scheible hit his eleventh homer of the year to get the Bobcats on the board.  Ryan Newman doubled and with two out, Dalton Shuffield singled home Newman, went to second on a passed ball and scored on Jonathan Ortega's single to get the Bobcats within a run.

The Cajuns added a run in the sixth on Stover's RBI double, but the Bobcats got the run back on Newman's sixth homer of the year off Schmidt in the seventh.

The Cajuns got a pair of insurance runs in the eighth on RBI singles by Cantrelle and Fontenot to extend the lead to three runs and Stoelke did the rest to insure the win.

The two teams will meet again Saturday at 4:00 pm.  Pre game begins at 3:30 on 96.5 KPEL-FM.

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