STARKVILLE, Miss. (Interstat) — Louisiana-Lafayette left fielder Mark Collins drove in four runs in the first two innings, and the Ragin’ Cajuns rolled past Lipscomb 10-4 in an NCAA tournament game Saturday evening at Dudy Noble Field, Polk-DeMent Stadium.

Collins homered to right field in the bottom of the first inning, scoring Rodriguez to give Louisiana-Lafayette a 2-0 lead. An inning later, Collins singled to left field with two outs, driving in Rodriguez and Lewis to push the lead to 4-0. The Ragin’ Cajuns never trailed after that outburst.

Lipscomb answered in the top of the third when Jordan Thomas homered to center field, scoring Miles to cut the deficit to 4-2. But Louisiana-Lafayette answered immediately in the bottom half as Colt Brown homered down the left-field line to make it 5-2.

The Ragin’ Cajuns extended their lead in the fourth when Rodriguez singled up the middle to score Lim, who had singled and stolen third. The Bisons trimmed the margin to 6-3 in the sixth on a solo home run by Kenealy Jr. down the right-field line, but Louisiana-Lafayette struck back in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single by Lim and a wild pitch that allowed Markle to score, making it 8-3.

Thomas drove in his third run of the game in the seventh with a single to left-center, scoring Miles, who had reached on a walk and advanced on a fielding error. That made the score 8-4.

The Ragin’ Cajuns put the game away in the eighth. Lewis led off with a bunt single, stole second and scored on a throwing error by reliever Kaleb Kantola on a bunt single by Rodriguez. Rodriguez later scored on a sacrifice fly by Amedee to cap the scoring at 10-4.

Louisiana-Lafayette outhit Lipscomb 14-5. Rodriguez finished with three hits and two runs. Brown added two hits and two runs. For Lipscomb, Thomas went 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs.

Louisiana-Lafayette starter Ty Roman exited in the fourth inning after allowing two runs on two hits. Parker Smith, Hayden Pearson and winning pitcher Sawyer Pruitt combined for 5 2/3 innings of relief, allowing two runs, one earned, on three hits while striking out five. Pruitt entered in the seventh and pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings.

Lipscomb starter Adam Jamison took the loss, surrendering three runs in one inning of relief after replacing J. Lee in the third. Lipscomb used five pitchers total. The Bisons fell to 29-26 overall. Louisiana-Lafayette improved to 39-24.

Interstat’s game simulator had projected a final score of Lipscomb 8, Louisiana-Lafayette 6. Interstat’s ELO system had projected Louisiana-Lafayette with a 68.30 percent probability to win.