Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns baseball team fell to Texas State 9-5 in the final game of the CenturyLink Bobcat Invitational Monday afternoon at Bobcat Ballpark in San Marcos, Texas.

Chris Griffitt suffered his first loss of the season for the Cajuns (1-2) after giving up three runs on six hits in 3.2 innings of work.

Kyle Finnegan earned the win for the Bobcats (2-1) going 6.0 innings while giving up two runs (one earned) on four hits with six strikeouts.

Despite being outhit 15-10, the Cajuns tallied double-digit hits for the second straight day. Tyler Girouard and Logan Preston each posted a pair of hits for UL, while Daniel Nichols had two RBI on the day.

Texas State jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. After a double by Tyler Sibley and sacrifice bunt by Morgan Mickan to lead off the inning, Jeff McVaney doubled to left center to score Sibley.

In the bottom of the second, Nick Smelser came around to score from second on a single up the middle by Isaac Nuti to give the Bobcats a 2-0 edge.

The Cajuns cut into the Bobcat lead in the top of the fourth on a RBI single by Chase Compton that scored Girouard from second.

The Bobcats picked up a run in the bottom half of the fourth as Nuti came in to score on a Derek Howell wild pitch. Griffitt was chased from the contest earlier in the inning after Texas State put runners on second and third with two outs.

TSU ran the score to 4-1 in the bottom of the fifth after Howell hit Cody Gambill with the bases loaded and two outs. Howell got out of the jam in the next at-bat as he struck out Nuti to end the inning.

In the top of the sixth, back-to-back singles by Ryan Leonards and Girouard to lead off the inning gave the Cajuns runners on first and third with no outs. Daniel Nichols brought Leonards home from third in the next at-bat on a sac fly to right to cut the TSU edge to 4-2.

Texas State added three runs on four hits in the sixth highlighted by a two run single by Smelser to make the score 7-2.

Dylan Butler provided a late spark for the Cajuns in the seventh with his first career home run as he crushed a ball over the fence in left center.

An inning later, Louisiana cut the TSU advantage to 7-4 on a RBI single by Nichols that scored Preston from second.

A Casey Kalenkosky solo home run and a RBI double by Gambill made the score 8-5 in the bottom of the eighth.

Preston capped the scoring for the Cajuns with an RBI single in the ninth to make the final 9-5.

The Cajuns return to action on Wednesday as they head to Hammond, La. for an in-state matchup with Southeastern La. at 6 p.m.



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