Baseball: Mills Late Game Heroics Lifts Cajuns Baseball To 6-5 Win Over No. 22 Houston

LAFAYETTE, La. – Junior outfield Brian Mills delivered a walk-off RBI double as the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns baseball team scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth to defeat No. 22 Houston 6-5 Tuesday night at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field.
 
Junior Kyle Clement got the rally started in the ninth with a one-out single as the Cajuns trailed 5-3 going into the inning. After Brenn Conrad drew a walk from left-hander Aaron Fletcher, Evan Powell delivered an RBI single through the left side of the infield off of reliever Aaron Garza to cut the Cougars lead to one run. In the next at bat, pinch runner Jam Williams came home to score on an errant throw by Garza on a safety squeeze attempt by Blake Trahan to even the game at 5-all.
 
With runners on second and third and one out, Mills drove a ball down the right field line off of Houston reliever Kyle Dowdy over the head of outfielder Kyle Survance to double in Powell to win the game.
 
"We swung the bats with some aggressiveness right there and hit the ball hard in the ninth inning," head coach Tony Robichaux said. "They won’t go away and that’s a good sign. I’d rather take that kind of team every day of the week. We were ugly in the first half of the season, but now we are 2-0 in the second half."
 
With the victory, the Cajuns improve to 17-13 on the season and are 3-2 against ranked opponents, while Houston falls to 22-12 on the year.
 
The Ragin’ Cajuns outhit the Cougars 12-10 in the contest led by Trahan who was 3-for-5 and scored a run while also extending his hit streak to 21 games. Tyler Girouard, Greg Davis and Clement each had a pair of hits in the game.
 
Junior Stefan Trosclar saw his 12-game hit streak come to an end going 0-for-4 in the contest.
 
Survance led the way offensively for Houston going 3-for-5 with a pair of infield singles and scored twice.
 
Reliever Wyatt Marks picked up his second win of the season limiting the Cougars to one run on three hits in two innings of work with a strikeout and a walk.
 
Garza got the loss for Houston falling to 0-2 on the year after giving up the game-winning run without recording an out.
 
The Cougars jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the top of the first on an RBI single by Chris Iriart and a two-run single by Ian Rice.
 
Girouard cut into the Houston lead in the bottom half of the first doubling in Trahan who had led off the inning with a single to make the score 3-1.
 
Houston looked to tack on another run in the top of the fourth with a runner on third and two outs, but Rice was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a Colton Lee wild pitch that ricocheted back to catcher Nick Thurman who made a good throw to Lee at the plate for the third out.
 
Davis evened the contest at 3-all in the bottom of the fourth with a two-run blast over the left field fence for his third home run of the season.
 
In the top of the sixth, the Josh Vidales scored on a Chris Charpentier wild pitch with the bases loaded to put the Cougars back in front 4-3. Charpentier would walk Robert Grilli to reload the bases but then struck out Ashford Fulmer on three straight pitches to end the threat.
 
After two scoreless innings, Houston extended its lead to 5-3 in the top of the ninth on a sac fly to center by Jacob Campbell with runners on the corners and one out.
 
Louisiana rallied for three runs on three hits and a Cougars error in the ninth to complete the come from behind win.
 
The Cajuns return to action tomorrow at 6 p.m. as they face in-state foe Southern at Lee-Hines Field. The game will be broadcast live on Cox Sports Television (CST) with Lyn Rollins calling the action and Ronnie Rantz adding color.
 
For updates and info on Ragin’ Cajuns baseball, follow the squad on twitter @CajunsBaseball or check RaginCajuns.com.