Just by the numbers, the University of Louisiana's baseball squad begins one of its most important Sun Belt Conference series of the season tonight.

The Ragin' Cajuns (23-5, 2-1) open Sun Belt road play in tonight's 6:30 p.m. contest against Arkansas State (19-8, 1-2) at Tomlinson Stadium, after taking two of three games over South Alabama at home last weekend.

The Cajuns, ASU and USA (15-11) are three of only four teams in the Sun Belt with winning overall records. In other words, after this weekend, UL will play only one other league team - Florida International (21-9) at home April 22-24 - that currently has a winning mark.

It's way too early to start counting on what happens the rest of the season, but the significance of the weekend is not lost on the Cajun squad and coaches.

"This weekend's huge for us," said senior catcher Justin Morgan, the reigning Sun Belt Hitter of the Week. "We're tied for first, and ASU plays as well at home as anybody else in the league. We have to play our 'A' game."

The UL squad has won five of its last six and went 6-2 in an eight-game homestand that ended Tuesday in a comeback 6-5 win over Northwestern State. In that game, the Cajuns trailed 4-1 early and were down 5-4 entering the ninth inning.

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com