Robbins Big Hit Lifts Cajuns Over Princeton 5-3

In its regional  preview, D1baseball.com tabbed Louisiana's Joe Robbins as the best defensive player in the Lafayette Regional.

Robbins can hit a little, too.

The Cajuns' third baseman laced a triple to left-center to score Hunter Kasuls with the go-ahead run as the top seed Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns defeated #4 seed Princeton, 5-3 Friday night at M. L. "Tigue" Moore Field.

Eric Carter (6-2) picked up the win in relief for the Cajuns allowing just one hit in three innings of relief.  He walked two and struck out five.

Dylan Moore retired the Tigers in order in the ninth to notch his school record 14th save of the season, breaking his own school record.

Kasuls got a one out single off Princeton starter Chad Powers (6-4) and went to second on a wild pitch.  Robbins then delivered the go ahead run and the Cajuns (42-19) got an insurance run on a Kyle Clement sacrifice fly in foul territory down the right field line.

The Tigers got a run off Cajuns' starter Nick Lee in the first inning when Billy Arendt laced a one out triple to the left center gap and scored on a Danny Hoy sacrifice fly.

But Steven Sensley got that run back in the bottom of the second against Powers, driving a fast ball over the right center field wall to tie the game.  It stayed that way until the fifth when Kennon Fontenot homered to the opposite field in right to give the Cajuns a 2-1 lead.

But the lead didn't last.  Lee, who cruised into the sixth having retired nine straight batters, was touched for consecutive singles by Jesper Horstead, Arendt and Hoy to tie the game.  Eric Carter then came in and struck out two straight batters, but designated hitter Joseph Flynn singled up the middle to give Princeton a 3-2 lead.

Powers did not allow the lead man to reach base until the seventh when Stefan Trosclair lined a single to left-center.  Brenn Conrad bunted him to second.  Powers struck out Sensley for the second out, but Fontenot blooped a single to center to tie the game at three.

The win, the eleventh straight for the Cajuns, sends them into a winner's bracket game Saturday night at 7:00pm against #2 seed Arizona, a 7-3 winner over Sam Houston State.  Princeton (24-20) will face the Bearkats in an elimination game at 1:00pm.