SAN MARCOS, Texas – The top-seeded and 17th-ranked Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns baseball team is set to open the 2016 Sun Belt Conference Tournament against eighth-seeded Arkansas State in the first round with a 7:30 p.m. contest on Wednesday against the Red Wolves at Bobcat Ballpark.
The winner of the contest will face the winner of the Texas State/Troy contest at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, while the losers of both contests will meet at 12:30 p.m. in an elimination game.
All of the Cajuns (37-19, 21-9 Sun Belt) games will be broadcast live at the Sun Belt Tournament. Games on the first day of the tournament will be streamed live on SunBeltSports.org. ESPN3.com will carry all of the games at the tournament from Thursday through the championship game on Monday with Matt Stewart calling the action.
Louisiana comes into the tournament on its longest win streak of the season having won six straight contests. The Ragin’ Cajuns went 4-0 last week including a sweep of ULM at home.
The squad has returned to the rankings in all five polls coming into the week reaching as high as No. 17 in both the NCBWA and USA Today Coaches polls. Louisiana is also ranked No. 18 in the Collegiate Baseball rankings and has made a return to both the D1Baseball (20) and Baseball America (24) polls this week.
The Cajuns will look to become the first team to win the Sun Belt Conference tournament in three straight years having won the event in 2014 and 2015.
Sophomore left-hander Gunner Leger will make the start for the Cajuns boasting a 6-3 record and a 2.09 ERA in 14 starts.
Offensively, Louisiana has seen its average rise to .274 on the year with 109 doubles, 11 triples and 37 home runs while scoring 5.4 runs per game.
Senior Kyle Clement continues to pace the Ragin’ Cajuns at the plate hitting .366 with 13 doubles, two home runs and 17 RBI. Stefan Trosclair, the reigning SBC Player of the Week, has seen his average jump to .273 with 13 doubles, four triples, six home runs and 32 RBI.
The Cajuns hold a 77-39 all-time series edge over Arkansas State having won two of three from the Red Wolves this season. Louisiana is 2-4 against A-State at the Sun Belt tournament.
Arkansas State (27-27, 13-17 Sun Belt) has won seven of its last nine games including series victories over Little Rock and Texas State. The Red Wolves bounced back from a 9-4 loss to the Trojans in the series opener to win 12-10 and 15-11 to claim the series and earn the final spot in the SBC Tournament.
Right-hander Cody Jackson has been tabbed as the start for the Red Wolves. Jackson is 2-4 with a 4.71 ERA in 18 appearances including nine starts.
As a team, Arkansas State is hitting .263 with 85 doubles, 17 triples, and 29 home runs. ASU is averaging 5.6 runs per game and are led by Joe Schrimpf with a .316 average, 12 doubles, two triples, six home runs and 42 RBI.
The Cajuns and Red Wolves are joined on their side of the bracket by fourth-seeded Troy (32-24, 17-13 Sun Belt) and fifth-seeded Texas State (30-26, 16-14 Sun Belt).
Louisiana won two of three games from both the Trojans and Bobcats this season. The Ragin’ Cajuns are 29-13 all-time against Troy having won 11 of the last 13 meetings. The Cajuns are 3-0 versus the Trojans at the Sun Belt tournament.
The Ragin’ Cajuns hold an 18-9 all-time series edge over Texas State with the two teams meeting 14 times in the last three seasons. Louisiana has gone 10-4 during that span including a 4-1 record against the Bobcats at the SBC Tournament.
