The third-seeded Ragin’ Cajuns baseball team is set to open the 2015 Sun Belt Conference Tournament against sixth-seeded Texas State in the first round with a 4 p.m. contest on Wednesday against the Bobcats at Riddle-Pace Field.
The winner of the Louisiana/Texas State game will face the winner of Troy/UT Arlington State at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, while the loser will face the Troy/UT Arlington loser at 12:30 p.m. the same day.
Games on Wednesday and Thursday will be broadcast live on ESPN 1420-AM with Jay Walker making the call. Any Ragin’ Cajuns contests played Friday-Sunday will air on News Talk 96.5 KPEL-FM.
All Sun Belt Tournament contests will also be streamed live throughout the week. Games Wednesday and Thursday will be broadcast on SunBeltSports.org, while games Friday-Sunday will be broadcast on ESPN3. Live stats are also available on SunBeltSports.org.
Louisiana (34-20, 18-11 Sun Belt) is coming off of a sweep of ULM over the weekend winning 10-3, 5-4 and 6-4. The Cajuns finished the regular season second in both average (.275) and ERA (3.47) and fourth in fielding (.968).
The matchup pits the top two home run hitting clubs in the league against each other with Louisiana leading the way with 51 on the year.
Junior outfielder Kyle Clement has taken over the team lead offensively hitting .345 with 13 doubles, four triples, eight home runs and 26 RBI. Infielder Stefan Trosclair is second on the squad with a .343 average and has a team-best 13 home runs and 40 RBI.
The Cajuns will tab freshman left-hander Gunner Leger to make the start against the Bobcats. Leger has a 6-4 record with a 2.90 ERA in 87.0 innings. The Lake Charles, La., native has not allowed a walk in the last 35 innings and has a team-high 70 strikeouts.
The Ragin’ Cajuns hold a 14-7 all-time series lead against the Bobcats after taking two of three contests this year in San Marcos. Louisiana won the only two postseason meetings between the two teams winning both games in the Sun Belt Tournament a year ago.
Texas State (22-30-1, 14-16 Sun Belt) comes into the tournament having won its last two contests after dropping four straight. The Bobcats took two of three games from UT Arlington last weekend dropping a tight 7-6 decision in the opening game to the Mavericks before coming back to win 4-1 and 22-8 to close out the series.
Tanner Hill paces an offense that hit .258 on the regular season with 77 doubles, eight triples and 46 home runs. Hill has a .320 average with eight doubles, nine home runs and 43 RBI. Granger Studdard leads the team with 11 home runs.
The Bobcats will counter with right-hander Lucas Humpal on the mound. Humpal is 5-6 with 5.21 ERA in 93.1 innings with 76 strikeouts.
