UL Baseball Defeats Texas Southern, 5-4

The seventh-ranked Louisiana Ragin' Cajun baseball team picked up another win on Friday night, defeating the Texas Southern Tigers, 5-4, in the opening game of a three-game, weekend, non-conference series, at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field.

Jace Conrad delivered a bases loaded sacrifice fly, scoring Seth Harrison in the bottom half of the ninth inning, to propel Louisiana to the win.

The Cajuns scored first, when Tyler Girouard led off the bottom of the second inning with a double, and later scored on a one-out single of the bat of Conrad, making it 1-0.

The Tigers were able to generate three runs on four base hits in the top of the third, to take a 3-1 lead.

Louisiana tied it in the bottom half of the third, when Chase Compton doubled to lead off the frame, before Nick Thurman walked. After a sacrifice bunt by Ryan Wilson moved the runners to second and third, Blake Trahan doubled home two runs, to even the game, 3-3.

The Cajuns took the lead in the bottom of the sixth, when Caleb Adams walked, and later scored on a two-out infield single by Thurman, making it 4-3.

Texas Southern scored an unearned run it the ninth, to tie the game, 4-4, before Louisiana loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, and won it on the scarifice fly by Conrad, which scored Harrison.

Harrison, Girouard, and Compton collected two hits apiece for UL, while Conrad drove home two runs, including the game-winner, to pace the Cajuns, who out-hit the Tigers, 9-5.

Both starting pitchers, who had no-decisions, were outstanding.

Louisiana starter Austin Robichaux, who retired the last 15 hitters he faced, allowed five hits, three runs, and no walks, while striking out ten, while Texas Southern Starter Michael Starkey scattered six hits over 5.2 innings.

Matt Hicks (2-0) picked up the win in relief for the Cajuns, while Felix Gomez (0-3) suffered the loss for the Tigers

With the win, Louisiana improved to 11-2 on the season, while Texas Southern fell to 5-10.

The two teams will play the middle game of their three-game set on Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock.

You can hear all the play-by-play action on Sports Radio ESPN 1420 & espn1420.com, as well as News Talk 96.5 KPEL-FM & kpel965.com, beginning wit the pre-game show at 1:30 pm.

View the game box score.