HOUSTON (AP) — Blake Trahan hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly to cap a five-run ninth inning in Louisiana-Lafayette’s 7-6 victory over Rice on Friday in their NCAA regional opener.
On Saturday, Lafayette (40-21) will face the Houston-Houston Baptist winner. Rice (35-21) will play the loser.
Trailing 6-2 entering the ninth, Lafayette loaded the bases on three walks and cut it to 6-5 on Evan Powell’s RBI single and Greg Davis’ two-run single.
After Nick Thurman reached on a throwing error to load the bases again, Austin Orewiler (5-2) walked Dylan Butler to tie it at 6. Trahan’s sacrifice fly to center gave the Ragin’ Cajuns their first lead.
Will Bacon (6-2) got the win after throwing 3 2-3 innings in relief, allowing three runs on four hits with four strikeouts. Dylan Moore picked up his 11th save with a perfect ninth.
Davis had two hits and three RBIs for Lafayette, including an RBI groundout in the seventh. Powell had three hits.
Ryan Chandler had two hits, including a two-run double in the eighth that upped Rice’s lead to 6-2. Kirby Taylor also had two hits for Rice.
Rice took a 2-0 lead on the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Connor Tekyl, and Ford Stainback scored on a passed ball. The Owls added a run in the fifth when Taylor scored on a sacrifice bunt by Grayson Lewis.
The Ragin’ Cajuns cut the lead to 3-1 in the sixth on Joe Robbins’ RBI double.
Rice upped its lead to 4-2 on a Lewis RBI infield single in the seventh.
The rally wasted a solid outing by Rice’s Blake Fox, who allowed two runs on four hits with two strikeouts in 6 1-3 innings.