Louisiana Baseball Swept by Troy Following 8-3 Game Three Loss

The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns were swept by the Troy Trojans this weekend after they lost game three of the series 8-3.

With the loss, the Cajuns are now 9-10 overall. They have started Sun Belt Conference play with an 0-3 record. Head coach Matt Deggs talked about the weekend series.

"We didn't play good," Deggs said. "We just got beat all the way around. But here's the thing about it. It's not a three-game conference season, it's 30. We'll regroup and get better from it."

Louisiana had at least one batter reach base in each of the first three innings, but they weren't able to score early on. Troy broke through first against starting pitcher Jeff Wilson with a big three-run second inning. A clutch two-out single combined with a throwing error prevented Wilson from escaping a bases loaded situation with one run allowed. Instead, Troy took a commanding 3-0 lead.

Kyle DeBarge walked to start the top of the fourth inning, and he stole second base. This allowed him to score on a line-out and a RBI groundout by Heath Hood. Louisiana cut into the lead, but Troy instantly answered with another big inning.

A single and RBI-double to start the bottom of the fourth erased the progress the Cajuns had made. After a strikeout, the third hit of the inning scored another run, and Wilson was replaced by Dylan Theut.

Theut was excellent out of the bullpen for Louisiana. A sac-fly scored another run, but he stranded two in scoring position to keep the score at 6-1. Theut went on to pitch three hitless innings in the contest for the Cajuns.

In the fifth, a leadoff single was followed by a double-play. After the Cajuns got a two-out single, a groundout ended the inning.

A pair of walks came around to score in the sixth inning thanks to a two-out RBI-triple by Connor Kimple. The hit cut the Trojans lead to 6-3, but a groundout stranded Kimple at third base. Theut erased a leadoff hit-by-pitch by using a pop-up and a double-play to end the frame.

Following Kimple's triple, the next 10 Louisiana batters that came to the plate were retired. They couldn't get anything going offensively to attempt to claw back into the game late.

Jake Hammond entered the game for Theut in the seventh, and the Trojans rallied in the eighth inning against him. The Cajun reliever got two quick outs, but a walk and error on a fly ball scored an insurance run for Troy. They got two straight hits following the error, scoring another run to balloon their lead to 8-3. The Cajuns did nothing in the ninth and left Troy, Alabama without a win to start conference play.

Up next, Louisiana will look to end their losing streak when they travel to face Nicholls State on Tuesday, March 22 at 6:30 p.m.