It took 17 innings, but the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns finally figured out Cory Geisler.

Shackled by the Texas State left-hander in a 2-1 loss earlier in the season, the Cajuns rallied for three runs in the eighth inning Saturday for a 4-2 win over the host Bobcats Friday afternoon.

Nick Lee (7-1) worked seven strong innings, allowing two runs on five hits.  He walked one and struck out three in a 92 pitch performance.  Dylan Moore stranded a base runner in both the eighth and ninth innings for his twelfth save.

"We needed to make some plays to keep it close, otherwise he (Geisler) could have finished us.  But Nick kept us in the game so when we made our push, it was relevant."

The push began with a Hunter Kasuls base hit, only the fourth on the day for the Cajuns.  Brian Mills dumped a single to right to put the tying runs on base.  Joe Robbins then sacrificed and reached base when Geisler threw wildly to first base, scoring Kasuls and moving Mills to third.  After Kyle Clement struck out, Robbins stole second and Stefan Trosclair's bunt single scored Mills and moved Robbins to third.  Brenn Conrad's safety squeeze bunt capped the three run inning.

The Cajuns added a run in the ninth when Pasquale Mazzacolli uncorked a pair of wild pitches, scoring Nick Thurman.

Lee kept the Cajuns (39-18) in the game, allowing a run in the third inning on a pair of doubles by Derek Scheible and Nick Perez.  The Bobcats (31-27) made it 2-0 in the fifth when Luke Sherley was hit by a pitch and went to third on a Perez single.  Jonathan Ortega then hit a looper to right that Mills couldn't catch, but the Cajuns' right fielder alertly threw to second to get Perez.  Lee then got Mickey Scott to hit into a double play to end the inning.

Louisiana threatened only twice against Geisler (4-3). Mills was hit by a pitch in the first inning and Robbins bunted for a base hit.  But Clement hit into a force play and Trosclair flied to shallow right.  Conrad walked to load the bases, but Kennon Fontenot's hot smash was handled by Sherley, who threw to second for the force play.

Geisler then proceeded to retire sixteen straight Cajuns before Trosclair lef off the seventh with a base hit.  Fontenot singled him to second with one out.  Alex Pinero then hit a blast to left that was caught at the wall by Granger Studdard.

Geisler took the hard luck loss, giving up six hits and three runs, two earned, in 7.2 innings.  He walked one and struck out five, throwing 120 pitches.

The Cajuns will now take on the winner of Texas State and Arkansas State, with that team having to win twice to deny the Cajuns a fourth straight trip to the championship game.  The 12:30 contest will be heard on KPEL-FM.

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