• Box Score

LAFAYETTE – Seth Harrison’s production at the plate and the complete game effort from Austin Robichaux led the Ragin’ Cajuns baseball team to a 9-2 victory over Troy here Saturday evening at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field that clinched the series victory for Louisiana.

Harrison piled up six RBI with the bulk of them coming on a fifth inning grand slam that put the Trojans away. Robichaux held the Sun Belt’s top hitting squad to five hits in tossing the first nine inning complete game of his career.

As a result, Louisiana (22-8, 6-5 Sun Belt) extended its home field win streak to 11 games and collected a series victory for the sixth time in eight weekends in 2013.

The Ragin’ Cajuns and Trojans (20-9, 6-5 Sun Belt) conclude their three-game Sun Belt Conference series on Sunday in a 1 p.m. contest. It will be a matchup of lefties as Louisiana starts Cody Boutte (5-1, 4.87 ERA) and Troy sends Shane McCain (5-0, 3.46 ERA) to the mound.

Harrison was one of three Cajuns with three base hits as the squad piled up 14 off of Trojans pitching. Ryan Leonards and Caleb Adams also had three-hit efforts.

Robichaux began the game retiring seven straight Trojans hitters and totaled six hitless frames throughout the game. After Troy plated two runs in the third inning to cut the Cajuns lead to 3-2, Robichaux held the visitors hitless for the next four innings.

Harrison tied Dylan Butler for the Cajuns season individual game high with six RBI and launched the program’s first grand slam since Butler’s slam vs. Southern on March 13, 2012.

Louisiana ended a string of consecutive Sun Belt series losses (MT and WKU) and claimed a SBC series from Troy for the sixth time in eight tries.

The Cajuns gave Robichaux an early lead scoring twice in the first inning with runs crossing home plate on a Tyler Girouard grounder and Michael Strentz double.

Harrison’s first home run of the evening led off the bottom of the second inning and increased the UL lead to 3-0.

The Trojans got their only runs of the contest and cut the Cajuns lead to one run when Logan Pierce lifted a two-run double into center field in the third inning.

After Troy had two runners on with no outs in the fourth inning, Robichaux turned away the Trojans attempt to manufacture a run with small ball by fielding a second straight bunt attempt and firing a strike to third base to force out the lead runner. On the very next play, Dex Kjerstad fielded a shallow fly ball to right field and was able to force out the Trojans’ lead runner for the second out.

Robichaux would induce a grounder to Chase Compton at first base for the final out of what proved to be Troy’s final threat of the night. The Trojans would get only single hits in the eighth and ninth inning down the stretch.

Harrison’s game-changing swing in the fifth inning was set up with two outs as Caleb Adams doubled, Strentz was hit by a pitch and Compton worked the count full to draw a walk. The third offering from Will Starling was driven by Harrison over the left center field wall and the Cajuns lead surged to 7-2.

Single runs were added on RBI singles from Harrison and Leonards in the seventh and eighth inning, respectively, to close out the scoring.

The game ended with the Ragin’ Cajuns’ second outfield assist as Ryan Leonards connected with Strentz to throw out Josh McDorman attempting to score from second base on a bloop single by Jake Harrell with two outs in the ninth inning.

BASES NOTED: Austin Robichaux pitched the second complete of his career (seven inning complete game at Middle Tennessee on May 12, 2012) and bested his previous long outing of 8 2/3 innings against Southeastern Louisiana back on April 3, 2012…Seth Harrison, who picked up the save on Friday night, entered the contest with one home run on the season…Harrison joined Caleb Adams (three home runs vs. Sacred Heart on March 2) as Cajuns this season with multi-home run games…Austin Robichaux’s complete game was the second by a Cajuns pitcher in Sun Belt play this season (Ryan Wilson vs. ULM on March 15)…The Ragin’ Cajuns raised their season batting average to .310, while Troy’s average fell to .305 giving Louisiana the Sun Belt lead in team batting average…Louisiana’s pitching staff lowered its ERA at “The Tigue” to 3.35 which is nearly a full three runs lower than the road ERA (6.13)…In five starts at “The Tigue” in 2013, Austin Robichaux has limited opponents to 23 hits in 31 2/3 innings and is 3-0 with a 1.99 ERA…Tyler Girouard did not pick up a hit in four at bats and saw his career-best hitting streak snapped at 14 games…Girouard also saw his consecutive games reach base streak halted at 22 games…A night after Troy posted nine extra base hits to their one, the Cajuns flipped the script and cranked out eight extra base hits while the Trojans picked up just one…The eight extra base hits marked a season-high for the Ragin’ Cajuns…Louisiana upped its all-time series lead over Troy to 20-11 (15-8 in Sun Belt regular season games)…The win was the 393^rd at “The Tigue’” under the direction of Tony Robichaux (393-150-1) moving UL within seven wins of 400 at home under Robichaux…The crowd of 2,219 marked the 10^th crowd of 2,000-plus for Louisiana at “The Tigue” in 2013.

LINE SCORE

Louisiana 9, Troy 2 (Apr 06, 2013 at Lafayette, La.)

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Troy……………. 002 000 000 – 2 5 0 (20-9, 6-5 SUN BELT)

Louisiana……….. 210 040 11X – 9 14 0 (22-8, 6-5 SUN BELT)

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Pitchers: Troy – Starling, Will; Teal, William (6); McGowan, Jeremy (8). Louisiana – Robichaux, Austin

Win-Robichaux, Austin (4-2) Loss-Starling, Will (4-3) T-2:31 A-2219

HR UL – Harrison, Seth 2 (3)

Weather: 66, fair, S @ 7 MPH

— Ragin’ Cajuns —