Baseball: Cajuns Win UT-Arlington Series With Mercy Rule, 19-6

ARLINGTON, Texas – The 14th-ranked Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns baseball team posted a season-high hits and runs on Sunday as the Cajuns defeated UT Arlington 19-6 in a run-rule shortened contest to claim the series at Clay Gould Ballpark.
 
The series victory is the ninth of the season for the Ragin’ Cajuns (29-16, 14-7 Sun Belt) and the sixth consecutive. Louisiana has won all four of its conference road series this year.
 
"When you think you can hit, you can hit," head coach Tony Robichaux said. "It’s just a matter of loosening them up and stepping away from things for a minute. I’m really proud of the team to bounce back from that opening loss to put together two really good games. Even though we didn’t get a win in the first game, we hit well all weekend."
 
Seniors Brian Mills and Stefan Trosclair both went 4-for-5 in the contest as the Cajuns had seven players post multi-hit performances on the afternoon. Mills had a game-high five RBI in the game with a home run, while Trosclair became the third player in program history to hit for the cycle and drove in three runs. Trosclair joins Kyle Clement and Tommy Bates as the only players to hit for the cycle. Clement increased his hit streak to 10 games with his single in the top of the third inning.
 
"Brian had a super weekend at the plate," Robichaux said. "Even his outs were hard and he came up with big hits when we needed them."
 
On the weekend, Mills hit .600 (9-for-15) with five RBI and scored five runs. Louisiana had 45 hits in the series scoring 26 runs.
 
Freshman Hogan Harris (1-0) earned his first victory of the year tossing a scoreless inning in relief. Starter Nick Lee was chased in the fifth inning after giving up five runs on seven hits.
 
UTA starter Jake Wilcox (3-4) was roughed up for six runs on seven hits in 2.2 innings of work.
 
The Cajuns exploded for six runs in the third inning to jump out to a 6-0 advantage. Derek Herrington got the scoring going in the inning with an RBI double to right center. Later in the inning, Mills crushed the first pitch he saw from Wilcox over the fence in left for a three-run homer to give Louisiana a four-run lead. Following a Kyle Clement single, Trosclair launched a two-run blast to straight away center to make the score 6-0.
 
UT Arlington (23-22, 9-12 Sun Belt) got on the board in the bottom half of the third on an RBI ground out by R.J. Williams to cut the Ragin’ Cajuns lead to 6-1.
 
Louisiana added four more runs in the top of the fourth to take a commanding 10-1 lead. Trosclair singled home the first run of the inning scoring Mills with two outs. Brenn Conrad brought home two runs on a double down the left field line to increase the lead to eight runs. Conrad then scored on a throwing error by the Mavs shortstop Josh Minjarez to cap the scoring in the inning.
 
The Mavericks pulled themselves back into the ballgame in the bottom of the fifth scoring four runs on a bases loaded walk, a wild pitch and a Colton Turner RBI groundout to cut the Cajuns lead to 10-5.
 
That was as close as UTA would get though, as the Ragin’ Cajuns posted another six-run inning in the top of the sixth to put the game out of reach. A two-run double by Joe Robbins and a two-run single by Mills highlighted the scoring in the inning.
 
Louisiana added its final three runs of the game in the top of the seventh on an RBI single by Conrad and a two-run single by Hunter Kasuls.
 
The Cajuns will take the midweek off for finals before hosting Appalachian State in a three-game series next weekend at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field starting Friday at 6 p.m.
 
For updates and info on Ragin’ Cajuns baseball, follow the squad on twitter @CajunsBaseball or check RaginCajuns.com.