Cajuns Fall Short in Extras Against Sam Houston State

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On Friday the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns welcomed in the Sam Houston State Bearkats for a three-game series and unfortunately, it didn't get off to a great start. The Cajuns fought hard but ultimately fell in 11 innings by the score of 5-4.

Both Friday starters were pretty solid but not lights out as Conor Angel went for the Cajuns and Tyler Davis threw for the Bearkats.

Louisiana struck first in this one as Brennan Breaux, who was back in the starting lineup after missing more than a week due to a hamstring injury, collected an RBI double to score Hayden Cantrelle.

They then plated three more runs when Ben Fitzgerald connected on a three-run double down the right-field line and UL led 4-0 after four innings.

Give credit to the Bearkats as they responded well in the top of the fifth putting together a rally of a couple of hits to the outfield, a couple of infield hits and one throwing error that led to two unearned runs. The error was when Cantrelle dove to his right, gloved a ball on his backhand and threw a little low to Julian Brock at first base who's a catcher by trade and couldn't come up with the short-hop pick.

So, we remained tied at four until the 11th inning. Both teams used just one relief pitcher as the Cajuns rolled with sophomore Connor Cooke and the Bearkats went with Lance Lusk. The two relievers matched zeros until that 11th inning when Sam Houston loaded the bases and scored on a passed ball. Catcher Sebastian Toro couldn't round off his body back towards home plate on a Cooke slider and it bounced far enough away to allow the go-ahead run to score.

Toro then lead off the UL 11th with a single but it didn't blossom as Spears struck out hitting for Connor Dupuy, Cantrelle flew out deep to left and Fitzgerald popped up.

Cooke was saddled with the tough-luck loss (0-1) and Lusk (2-0) grabbed the win. Altogether, Cooke was brilliant throwing six innings of two-hit ball, allowing just the one run, walked three and struck out nine.

On the other side, Lusk was incredible as well. He threw 5.1 allowing just four hits, one walk, eight strikeouts, and no runs.

On the evening, the Cajuns struck out 15 times while the Bearkats k'ed 18 times. I'm sure both teams will be looking to clean that up as the series continues on Saturday.

With the loss, Louisiana falls to 2-8 and will take on Sam Houston again Saturday at 2 p.m. The senior right-hander Brandon Young will be starting for UL.

Click here to see the entire boxscore.