Cajuns Take Game One From Bobcats, 5-1

When you face a good pitcher, sometimes it's all about the timely hit.

And, sometimes, it's a youngster who gets it.

Freshman Dylon Poncho's three run double in the fourth inning proved to be the big hit as the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns defeated Lucas Humpal and the Texas State Bobcats, 5-1 in the first game of their three game series Friday night at M. L. "Tigue" Moore Field.

With the win, Cajuns' head coach Tony Robichaux notched his 800th career win as the Cajuns' head coach in his 22nd season as the Cajuns' skipper.

The win was the third straight for the Cajuns, who have now won 14 of their last 17 games.  The Cajuns improved their record to 26-12 on the season, 11-5 in Sun Belt play, while the Bobcats lost their sixth straight game and fell to 21-18, 9-7 in the league.

Gunner Leger allowed just four hits and one run through 6.2 innings to win his fifth game of the year against two losses.  He walked only one and tied his career high in strikeouts with nine.  Eric Carter and Dylan Moore combined to allow just one hit over the final 2.1 frames.

"When Gunner has his good changeup he's really tough to hit," head coach Tony Robichaux said.  "He was able to throw it as a swing and miss pitch and that was big."

Humpal (5-3) allowed a season high five runs on nine hits over seven innings in taking the loss.

Texas State got on the board in the second inning when Jaylen Hubbard hit a pitch over the left field wall for his first homer of the season, but the Cajuns got the run right back in the bottom of the inning when Steven Sensley hit a ball off the scoreboard in left-center field for his third homer of the year to tie it.

In the fourth, Kyle Clement singled with one out and Stefan Trosclair had an infield hit.  Sensley was hit by a pitch and that brought up Poncho, who laced a pitch up the gap to score all three runners to make the score 4-1.

"We pecked away at him (Humpal) and then a freshman stepped up and got a big lick and that was huge for us," Robichaux said.

The Cajuns added an insurance run in the fifth on a double by Brad Antchak and a single by Brenn Conrad  for the final run of the night.

After giving up the home run, Leger retired twelve straight hitters before giving up a leadoff double to Jacob Almandarez in the sixth.  But the lefty god a ground ball and pop up and after issuing a walk, struck out Theodore Hoffman to end the inning.  Leger gave up another leadoff double in the seventh but got the next two hitters on ground balls before giving way to Carter, who struck out pinch hitter Ryan Newman to end the inning.

Clement, Trosclair, Nick Thurman and Antchak each had a pair of hits to lead the Cajuns' eleven hit attack, while Hubbard had two hits for the Bobcats.

The Cajuns will go for the series win tomorrow night at the "Tigue" with Wyatt Marks facing Texas State right hander Jeremy Hallonquist.  First pitch is scheduled for 6:05, with airtime at 5:35pm on KPEL 96.5 FM.