Cajuns’ Comeback Downs Troy, 7-6

Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns spotted Troy a five run lead, then roared back to take a 7-6 win over the Trojans before 2,253 at M. L, "Tigue" Moore Field.

Louisiana (21-8, 5-5 Sun Belt) trailed 5-1 entering the bottom of the sixth, but struck for five runs on six hits to take a 6-5 lead and never relinquished the lead.

The Trojans (20-8, 6-4) struck for four runs in the second inning off Cajuns' starter Ryan Wilson (3-1), when Brandon Brown hit a three run homer, his first of the season.  Tyler Vaughn followed with a double and Logan Pierce singled him home and the Trojans had a 4-0 lead.  It was Brown's first homer of the season and followed a leadoff double to Matthew Howard and a two out walk to Ali Knowles.  Troy increased its lead to 5-0 in the third on Trae Santos' sixth homer of the season.

The Cajuns got a run back in the third on an rbi infield single by Tyler Girouard, who increased his hitting streak to 14 games.  But the Cajuns left the bases loaded when Troy starter Tanner Hicks (3-2) got Michael Strentz to hit into a force play and struck out Chase Compton.

Wilson settled down after the Santos himer and allowed only one hit through the next three innings, giving the Cajuns a chance to get back in the game.

Louisiana finally struck in the bottom of the sixth when Seth Harrison led off with a double in the gap.  Jace Conrad singled him to third and Blake Trahan's single got the first run of the inning on the board.  Dex Kjerstad then got the third of his three hits on the night to load the bases, and Ryan Leonards followed with a two run single to cut the margin to 5-4.  Reliever Nate Hill struck out Girouard and got Adams to hit back to the pitcher, allowing the runners to move up.  Michael Strentz then got his third hit of the night on a 3-0 pitch to plate Kjerstad and Leonards and give the Cajuns the lead.

Louisiana added an important run in the seventh when Harrison walked with one out and Conrad was hit by a pitch.  After a double steal, Trahan laid down a suicide squeeze bunt to give the Cajuns a two run margin.

Santos hit his second homer of the game off reliever Seth Harrison to bring the Trojans within a run.  Howard doubled, but was out at third after oversliding the bag on a sacrifice attempt by Josh McDorman.  Harrison then induced Garret Pitts to ground into a double play to end any further threat, and then retired the Trojans in order in the ninth for his third save in as many attempts.

The two teams will meet in game two of the series tomorrow night at 6 pm.