Cajuns ready to open Houston Regional with Rice

The Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns baseball team will open the 2015 Houston Regional today at 2:30 p.m. as the third-seeded Cajuns face second-seeded Rice at Cougar Field.
The contest’s winner will face the winner of the Houston/Houston Baptist contest Saturday at 7 p.m., while the losing teams will meet in an elimination game at 2:30 p.m. the same day.
The Houston Regional games can be seen live on ESPN3.com with Doug Sherman providing the play-by-play and John Gregory adding color.
Fans also can catch all of the Ragin’ Cajuns games on KPEL 96.5-FM with Jay Walker making the call.
The Cajuns (39-21) are riding a five-game win streak, having defeated South Alabama 5-1 in the Sun Belt Conference Championship game to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
Louisiana-Lafayette will give freshman right-hander Wyatt Marks the nod against Rice. Marks is 6-1 this season with a 3.25 ERA in 55.1 innings. In his last start, Marks combined with freshman right-hander Dylan Moore to shutout Texas State at the conference tournament.
Stefan Trosclair and Kyle Clement are tied for the team lead in batting average, hitting .358. Trosclair has a team-high 16 home runs and 53 RBIs.
The Ragin’ Cajuns are 6-17 all-time against the Owls but only trail 2-3 to Rice in the postseason, having split two meetings at the Austin Regional in 2010.
The Owls (35-20), an at-large selection in the tournament, went 0-2 at the Conference USA tournament, dropping two one-run decisions to Middle Tennessee and FIU.
Left-hander Blake Fox will make the start for Rice. Fox is 8-2 with a 3.34 ERA in 14 starts and has 49 strikeouts in 72.2 innings.
Offensively, the Owls are hitting .300 with 81 doubles, 14 triples and 16 home runs.
The squad is led by Kirby Taylor, who is batting .339 with 11 doubles, while John Clay Reeves paces the squad with eight homers and 55 RBIs.