Louisiana-Lafayette Squeezes Past Troy in 11 Innings

Friday, May 4

Lafayette, La.

6:00 p.m.

Troy University

Louisiana-Lafayette

Danny Collins

Photo by: Lisa Ray

Louisiana-Lafayette Squeezes Past Troy in 11 Innings

5/4/2012 10:37:00 PM | Baseball

By: Adam Prendergast

LAFAYETTE, La. – Tyler Frederick executed a perfect suicide squeeze bunt in the bottom of the 11th inning to lift Louisiana-Lafayette past Troy 9-8 in the Sun Belt Conference series opener Friday night at Tigue Moore Field.

Chase Compton led off the ULL 11th with a double down the line in left field that was fair by no more than two inches. He moved to third on a sac bunt by Tyler Girouard and Troy elected to intentionally walk Jordan Bourque to set up a potential double play. Thomas Austin threw away to Frederick on the first pitch of the at-bat to try and get the Cajun batter to tip his hand, before Frederick pushed the second pitch between the pitcher's mound and third base to plate the game winner.

The Trojans forced the extra frames with an improbable comeback in the ninth inning. Troy entered the final frame down 8-3 and with just six hits in the game before storming back with five runs on three hits in the inning.

Danny Collins and Tyler Hannah led off led off the top of the ninth inning with back-to-back homers to pull Troy within three, 8-5. It was the first back-to-back homers by Troy since May 22, 2010, at South Alabama; Collins' blast was his second of the game and 10th of the season.

ULL closer Caleb Kellogg came in and walked Chase Mathis and Jo-El Bennett around a fielder's choice to bring the tying run to the plate in Jakob Nixon. Nixon drew a five-pitch walk to load the bases for Tyler Vaughn, who hit a sac fly to right to close the gap to two.

The Cajuns intentionally walked Logan Pierce to face Boone Shear. Shear fell behind in the count 1-2 before punching a single back up the middle to drive in a pair and tie the game at 8-all.

After ULL jumped out to a 4-0 lead, Collins brought the Trojans back within one, 4-3, with one swing of the bat in the top of the sixth. Nixon was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Shear kept the frame alive with an infield single. Collins then took a 1-1 slider from ULL starter Jordan Nicholson off the scoreboard in left-center field.

The Cajuns (21-23, 9-13 Sun Belt) scored single runs in the first and second innings before pushing two across in the third to take a 4-0 lead; all four runs scored with two outs.

Compton drove home ULL's first run of the game with a single in the first after a Jace Conrad double. Troy starter Tyler Ray retired the first two Cajun batters in the second, but Daniel Nichols doubled to left field and Chris Sinclair drove him home with a single to right.

Vaughn, who was named to the Capital One Academic All-District Team Friday morning, extended his hit streak to 11 games with a double in the first inning, while Collins finished 3-for-5 to lead Troy (20-26, 8-14).

Ray got Nichols to pop up to second to open the home half of the sixth inning, but then what could go wrong did go wrong for the Trojans.

Sinclair hit his third home run of the season to put ULL up 5-3 and then Brian Bowman drew a walk to end Ray's night. Conrad followed with a single to shallow center field and then both Cajun base runners moved up a base on a double steal. Dylan Butler grounded out to third to bring home Bowman and Conard scored on a passed ball to give the Cajuns a four-run lead again. ULL added another run in the seventh on a Troy throwing error.

Matt Hicks (3-0) cleaned up the damage that Kellogg started for the Cajuns with 2.1 scoreless innings to close out the game and pick up the win. Austin (2-3) was charged with the hard-luck loss for the Trojans after he allowed one run on one hit in 2.1 innings.

Troy will look to even the three-game series on Saturday in game two of the series. The game will be televised live by the Sun Belt Network on CSS and Cox Sports Television; first pitch is scheduled for 6:07 p.m.