Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns pounded out 19 hits and took advantage of an uncharacteristic five errors by the Troy defense to take a 15-4 win over the Trojans in the first game of their three game Sun Belt Conference series at Riddle-Pace Field.

With the win, Louisiana (28-3. 9-1 Sun Belt) remained undefeated on the road for the 2014 season (11-0).

Carson Baranik (7-0) pitches 6.1 innings for the win, allowing four runs on seven hits.  He walked two and struck out seven.  Ben Carter pitched the final 2.2 innings, allowing just one hit and striking out four.  Baranik got his first Friday start after Austin Robichaux was scratched for the weekend because of tendonitis.

The Cajuns got on the board in the first inning when outfielders Ali Knowles and Clay Holcomb collided on a fly ball by Harrison, who went all the way around the bases on the play.  Knowles was charged with an error on the play.

It all came unraveled for Troy (16-14, 4-5) in the second inning as the normally reliable Trojans' defense committed two more errors which led to six runs, five unearned.  Caleb Adams led off the inning with a single, which stretched his consecutive reached base streak to 25 games.  He moved to second on Jace Conrad's sacrifice and scoed on Dylan Butler's single through the left side.   After Chase Compton grounded out, Michael Strentz' grounder was booted by third baseman Nick Masonia to keep the inning alive.  Blake Trahan walked.  Butler scored on a wild pitch by losing pitcher Tanner Hicks (2-5) and Leonards doubled to score Strentz.  Harrison singled home two runs and capped the six run inning by scoring on a single by Tyler Girouard and an error on right fielder Jo-El Bennett.

The Cajuns got another run in the fourth on a Harrison sacrifice fly, two in the fifth on RBI by Butler and Strentz and two more in the sixth on a long homer to right by Caleb Adams, his fifth of the season.  Louisiana completed its scoring in the ninth on Evan Powell's second pinch hit homer of the week and a two run single by Nick Thurman.

As usual, it was a team effort as eleven different players got hits in the game, nine scored and seven drove in at least one run.  Leonards, Adams and Compton had three hits apiece, while Harrison drove in three.

Garrett Pitts was the only player for Troy to get two hits.  Hicks was charged with ten runs, four earned, in 4.1 innings.  Austin Sullivan gave up two unearned runs in 1.2 innings, while Jesse Nelson gave up the three runs in the ninth.

Because of impending weather, the two teams have scheduled a doubleheader tomorrow at 3:05.  Ryan Wilson and Cody Boutte are scheduled to get the starts for Louisiana.

 

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