Louisiana Visits SBC Leader Texas State In Key Weekend Series

GAMES 48-50 PREVIEW
Louisiana (30-17, 17-7 Sun Belt) at Texas State (38-11, 20-4 Sun Belt)

DATES/TIMES
Friday, May 13 – 6 p.m.
Saturday, May 14 – 4 p.m.
Sunday, May 15 – 1 p.m.

LOCATION/SITE
Bobcat Ballpark (2,500) | San Marcos, Texas

PITCHING MATCHUPS
Friday
Louisiana – LH Brandon Talley (3-2, 3.72 ERA)
Texas State – RH Zeke Wood (5-1, 2.92 ERA)

Saturday
Louisiana – RH Jacob Schultz (3-3, 3.92 ERA)
Texas State – Levi Wells (6-1, 2.42 ERA)

Sunday
Louisiana – RH Jeff Wilson (4-2, 3.86 ERA)
Texas State – RH Tony Robie (2-0, 4.99 ERA)

RANKINGS
Louisiana – Unranked
Texas State – #15 D1Baseball; #16 Baseball America, #12 Collegiate Baseball, #17 NCBWA, #19 USA Today

RADIO/TV/LIVE STATISTICS
Radio – KPEL-FM (96.5)
Streaming – ESPN+
Live Stats – CajunStats.com

SERIES RECORD
Louisiana leads, 24-18

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Coming off a midweek sweep at Rice, the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Baseball team closes out its 2022 regular-season road schedule beginning Friday when it battles No. 15-ranked Texas State in a three-game Sun Belt Conference series at Bobcat Ballpark.

The series will begin on Friday with a 6 p.m., contest before resuming on Saturday at 4 p.m., and concluding on Sunday at 1. All three games will be streamed live on ESPN+ and can be heard in the Lafayette area on KPEL-FM (96.5), the Varsity Network and the #GeauxCajuns app.

LEADING OFF
• Louisiana enters the weekend in San Marcos winning its last five games (tying a season-high) and 18 of its last 23 games since the beginning of April.
• The Ragin' Cajuns have won 10 of their 11 contests with seven victories coming on the road.
• With five triples in a two-game series at Rice, Louisiana moved into a first-place tie with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for the Division I national lead with 24.
• Since a three-game sweep at Troy (March 18-20), Louisiana has won eight of its last nine SBC games on the road.
• Catcher Julian Brock heads into the weekend starting 41 consecutive games for Louisiana behind the plate.
• Louisiana's 16 runs at Rice on Wednesday were the most in a game since scoring 19 against ULM in the 2019 regular-season finale.
• Carson Roccaforte has hit safely in his last 11 games to set a career-high, posting a .426 average (20-for-47) with six home runs and 15 RBI.

SCOUTING TEXAS STATE
Pacing the Bobcats at the plate is Dalton Shuffield as he leads the team in batting average (.387), runs (63), hits (75), doubles (15), triples (5) and stolen bases (12). He also has hit 10 home runs and driven in 40 runs. Jose Gonzalez comes in having driven in a team-high 46 runs while hitting .301 with 13 doubles, seven homers and swiped nine bases. Also hitting over .300 with nine stolen bases is Justin Thompson (.337).

Daylan Pena has recorded 43 RBI while batting .387. Leading the team with 12 home runs is John Wuthrich.

Tristan Stivors comes into the weekend with a team-high 12 saves. The senior sports a 6-1 record, 29.5 ERA and 61 strikeouts in 42.2 innings. Triston Dixon shares the Sun Belt lead with eight victories. He holds a 2.00 ERA to go along with 52 strikeouts. Also making 20 relief appearances has been Matthew Nicholas (1-1, 2.57 ERA).

QUALITY STARTS ON THE MOUND
After getting one quality start in the first 24 games of the season, Louisiana has picked up nine quality starts from its pitching staff since March 13.

Wilson picked up Louisiana's first quality start of the season on March 13 with a complete-game, performance against Houston where he allowed one run and fanned 10.

Wilson has a team-high five quality starts on the season to lead Louisiana. Jacob Schultz had recorded four quality starts this season with Brandon Talley recording his first career QS against ULM on April 14.

EXTRAS! EXTRAS!
Louisiana's 11-inning, 6-5 win over UT Arlington on Sunday was its fourth of the season. Trey LaFleur's RBI single helped the Ragin' Cajuns improve to 4-0 in extra-inning games this season, with three games coming in Sun Belt Conference play.

Since Matt Deggs took over the program beginning in the 2020 season, Louisiana is 7-6 overall in extra-inning games.

Date – Opponent, (Inn.) Score
2/22 – vs. Southeastern Louisiana, (10) 6-5
3/25 – vs. South Alabama, (11) 5-4
4/10 – at Arkansas State, (10) 7-4
5/8 – vs. UT Arlington, (11) 6-5

ONE-RUN GAMES
Louisiana's three-game sweep against UT Arlington last weekend marked the first time since joining the Sun Belt Conference in 1992 that all three wins came by a single run.

The 4-3, 4-3, 6-5 wins over the Mavs were the first time the Ragin' Cajuns claimed a three-game series by one run each since defeating Siena in the 2011 season (Feb. 25-27) by scores of 4-3, 5-4, 1-0.

The three, one-run victories helped Louisiana improve its record to 6-4 on the season and 14-14 in the Matt Deggs era.

SERIES TAKERS
Louisiana's series win over UT Arlington last weekend at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field at Russo Park was its seventh straight series victory, equaling a mark last set in 2016.

The 2016 team won eight straight series beginning with a March 24-26 weekend against Georgia State and concluding with the regular-season finale against ULM.

SPEED ON THE BASEPATHS
With a solid nucleus of players at the top of the lineup, Louisiana paces the Sun Belt Conference and is ranked as one of the top programs in stolen bases in 2022.

Carson Roccaforte and Max Marusak have stolen a team-high 19 bases on the season with Tyler Robertson swiping 18 bags.

As a team, Louisiana is ranked seventh among Division I programs with 111 stolen bases - the seventh-most in a season in school history and the most since a school-record tying 145 swipes in 2002.

Below is the single-season record for most stolen bases in a season:
# Season – Total/Attempts
T1. 2002 – 145/201
T1. 1991 – 145/184
3. 1990 – 126/164
4. 2000 – 125/181
5. 1988 – 124/148
6. 1978 – 113/
7. 2022 – 111/142
8. 1999 – 110/156
9. 2014 – 109/152
10. 1988 – 108/
11. 2010 – 101/126

GOTTA SCORE AT LEAST SIX
With Louisiana on pace to produce its best offensive year in the Matt Deggs era, the Ragin' Cajuns have sported a perfect record with scoring six or more runs in a game.

When the Ragin' Cajuns hit the half-dozen mark on the scoreboard, they are 22-0 on the season.

KEEP IT TO FIVE OR UNDER ON THE VISITOR SIDE
While Louisiana is unbeaten in 20 games when scoring six or more runs, the Ragin' Cajuns are 5-12 when allowing six or more runs in a game.

However, with the Sun Belt's best team ERA (4.13), Louisiana is 25-5 overall when holding opponents below six runs in a game.

THE THREE-BAG LIFE
Louisiana's 24 triples during the 2022 season are the most since the 2014 squad had 31 three-base hits.

With a team-high five triples, Connor Kimple ranks 11th nationally and is the first Louisiana player with five triples since Ishmael Edwards in 2017.

DEBARGE STARTS A NEW STREAK
Freshman Kyle DeBarge has been the one constant in the lineup during the 2022 season, starting in every game this season at shortstop.

The converted catcher on a Class 5A state championship team at Barbe High School had a string of 21 consecutive errorless games snapped in last Friday's SBC series opener against UT Arlington.

The freshman went the entire month of April without an error, successfully handling 68 chances from the field as Louisiana posted a .987 fielding percentage for the month.

ON DECK
Louisiana wraps up its regular season when it returns home to "The Tigue" for the final four games of the regular-season beginning on Tuesday (May 17) against in-state foe Nicholls.

The Ragin' Cajuns will close out the regular season with the final Sun Belt Conference series against Little Rock (May 19-21).

May 17 – Nicholls, 6 p.m. (ESPN+)
May 19 – Little Rock, 6 p.m. (ESPN+)
May 20 – Little Rock, 6 p.m. (ESPN+)
May 21 – Little Rock, 4 p.m. (ESPN+)

Fans are encouraged to stay engaged with the Ragin' Cajuns by downloading the #GeauxCajuns app. Click here for iOS/Apple platforms and here for Android platforms.

For the latest updates on Ragin' Cajuns baseball, follow on Facebook (RaginCajunsBaseball), Twitter (@RaginCajunsBSB) and Instagram (@RaginCajunsBSB) or check RaginCajuns.com.

Louisiana Visits SBC Leader Texas State In Key Weekend Series

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Players Mentioned

Julian Brock

Kyle DeBarge

Connor Kimple

Trey LaFleur

Max Marusak

Tyler Robertson

Carson Roccaforte

Jacob Schultz

Brandon Talley

Jeff Wilson

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