By Mike Hensley

No. 3 three seed Louisiana- Lafayette survived another elimination game Friday afternoon by defeating UT-Arlington 5-1, propelling the Cajuns to a Saturday matchup with six-seed Texas State.

The story for the Cajuns all evening was the performance from their starting pitcher, Evan Guillory. Guillory pitched six innings allowing just one run.

“When you get this late into a tournament and you have to work your way through the losers bracket, this pitching performance is going to be really important. Evan did a great job,” said Cajun heaad coach Tony Robichaux. “Our hitters did a good job early. They did shut us down in the middle of the game, but because of good pitching by Evan, we were able to survive and advance.”

The Cajun offense also came to play Friday night, especially the first four hitters in the lineup. Hitters one through four combined for eight hits and three runs batted in.

“Those guys have been so good for us all year. Our bottom got cold for a while and we were kind of running a half of a lineup,” Robichaux said. “Jeremy (Talbot) and babbs (Anthony Babineaux) did a great job preparing our guys.”

The Cajuns got their scoring started in the first inning; after Blake Trahan led off the first inning with a walk, and Kyle Clement reached first on a fielder’s choice. Tyler Girouard doubled to left field scoring Clement and giving the Cajuns the early 1-0 lead.

The Cajun offense kept rolling in the second. Joe Robbins started the inning with a sharp single, and Nick Thurman doubled to Center. Dylan Buttler cleared the bases with a double to the center field wall with one just one out in the inning increasing the Cajun lead to 4-0. The inning ended with Clement being picked off first base.

In the fourth inning the Cajuns sent 7 players to the plate but scored just one when Trosclair singled through the left side of the infield scoring Clement. After a walk to Girouard, and a pitching change, Evan Powell popped out to the first baseman in foul territory to end the inning.

The Mavericks struggled to get anything going all night against the tuff Cajun pitching staff. The Mavericks managed just five hits and struck out 13 times including striking out the side twice.

Chris Charpentier came in the seventh inning in relief of Guillory. The right-hander pitched three no-hit innings and struck out six Maverick Hitters.

It wasn’t until the sixth inning that they were able to sneak across a run.

Matt McLean began the inning for the Mavericks doubling to right center. After Travis Sibley advanced McLean on a ground out, Levi Scott singled to center driving in the only run for the Mavericks.

After the trouble the Maverick pitching staff experienced in the early innings Friday, they really settled down keeping the team close to the hot hitting Cajuns.

The win for the Cajuns forces a rematch with Texas State. The Bobcats beat the Cajuns in the team’s first game of the Tournament 11-10.

Game time between the Cajuns and the Bobcats will be Saturday at 12:30 p.m. The Cajuns would have to defeat the Bobcats twice on Saturday to advance to the conference championship Sunday afternoon.