Sean Isabella

sisabella@thenewsstar.com

RUSTON — Louisiana Tech waited 10 long years to earn a baseball win over the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

It took one try Wednesday, and, as an added bonus, it came against a nationally ranked Cajuns program.

Tech posted a 6-2 win over No. 6 UL Lafayette on Wednesday night to secure its first win over the Cajuns since 2006, snapping a four-game series losing skid in the process in front of a crowd of 2,095, which was the largest since Arkansas in 2007. The win also marked the first for Tech over a top-10 team since 2006 when the Bulldogs beat then-No. 3 Mississippi State.

"I hope they learned it's fun to play on the edge. It's fun to play great competition. It's fun to play ... look at our crowd tonight," Tech coach Greg Goff said. "I've never seen that many people. Our players could feel the adrenaline from the crowd. It's just a tremendous win for our program today."

Tech and UL Lafayette hadn't met since 2008. Tech also secured its first win over a ranked team since Fresno State in 2011.

Senior Tyler Clancy, who is usually Tech's Friday night starter, tossed six shutout innings with nine strikeouts. He left the game after throwing 62 of his 107 pitches for strikes. The left-hander struck out the side to open the game and whiffed five batters through the first two innings.

"We knew we could beat these guys. This was no fluke," Clancy said. "We're really excited about this win."

Clancy cruised through most of his outing and had just two innings that required work to dispose of the Cajuns. He allowed consecutive singles in the second inning to put runners in scoring position before generating a strikeout to end the threat.

He again worked around a first and second jam in the sixth to keep UL Lafayette off the scorecard.

"Our best chance to win tonight was to throw him, so we went with him. He's our best guy. How many times have we had a top-10 team ranked here in the country come to our house? It's been 10 years, so you better try to win it," Goff said. "It's respect for their program and what they're doing. If I had to do it over I'd do it again. I like winning."

Stoic as can be during his postgame interview, Clancy exerted all of his energy when he ran off the field on his ninth and final strikeout.

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Tech (3-1) provided Clancy with early run support and out-hit UL Lafayette (3-1), 11-7. Eight of the nine starters had at least one hit, and Raphael Gladu and Marshall Boggs had two hits each.

The Cajuns scored their only runs in the eighth off a single from Hunter Kasuls. The hit came off closer Adam Atkins, who picked up the six-out save, but the runs were charged to Sean Ahlrich, who came on in relief of Clancy in the seventh.

Tech's big inning came in the fifth via four runs on five hits. The Bulldogs received help from the Cajuns as left field Jam Williams misplayed a single into a triple off the bat of Marshall Boggs and allowed two runs to score to make it 5-0 as the dugout erupted.

On Tuesday, Goff said a game against a program like UL Lafayette would tell him a lot about his Bulldogs program. Clancy agreed, noting how the win says Tech is "on their way up."

"Our job is to win conference this year," Clancy said. "We have a lot more important games before we get to conference and we're going to go in with the best record we can."

Earlier in the inning, Gladu ripped a double into the gap, and Cody Daigle fought off a pitch to right field with the infield in to put the Bulldogs up 6-0.

The Cajuns' defense did themselves no favors. In addition to the misplay by Williams, UL Lafayette also had borderline errors on a wild throw on an infield hit and a play when two outfielders ran into each other for a double.

Sterlington native Jordan Washam looped a double down the right field line to score Sean Ullrich for the first run of the game in the second.

An inning later, Bryce Stark belted a leadoff triple off the wall in left center and came around to score when Gladu poked a single to left field.

Tech was able to rattle Evan Guillory, a weekend starter last year for the Cajuns who made his first appearance of the 2016 season Wednesday. Guillory didn't make it out of the fifth inning, allowing three runs on five hits.