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CAJUNS STOP SKID WITH 5-4 VICTORY OVER HILLTOPPERS ... April 21, 2000

LAFAYETTE – During its recent nine-game road trip, Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun baseball team struggled to find a winning combination and dropped eight of the nine games.

On Friday night, the Cajuns found a way to stop the bleeding, using solid fundamental baseball, a strong pitching effort from starter Scott Dohmann and their home field advantage en route to a 5-4 Sun Belt Conference victory over visiting Western Kentucky.

The Cajuns (31-10, 13-6 Sun Belt) broke out of a major hitting slump, banging out 12 hits, eight of which came from seniors Ryan Gill and Nathan Nelson. Gill finished 4-for-5 with a pair of doubles and Nelson stroked four hits in as many at-bats, but his biggest plate appearance came when he failed to reach base.

With the scored tied at 4 and the bases loaded in the eighth inning, Nelson lofted a one-out sacrifice fly that scored pinch-runner Chase Bundy from third base with what proved to be the winning run.

"I thought I could have done better," Nelson said. "I wanted to do something to bust the game open. A one-run lead in college baseball is never safe. We just battled and battled and got the win."

Dohmann (10-2) snapped a personal two-game slide and the team's six-game skid by scattering six hits over eight innings. The Lafayette native whiffed nine and allowed three earned runs in collecting his fifth Sun Belt victory of the season.

Western Kentucky starter Ryan Hutchison matched Dohmann through seven innings before turning the ball over to Matt Wilhite (0-5). While Hutchison kept the Cajun hitters off balance for most of the game, Wilhite struggled in his one inning of work.

After inducing a groundout by Steven Feehan, Wilhite issued a walk to Jarvis Larry. Gill followed with his second double of the game and Danny Massiatte drew the second free pass of the inning from Wilhite. Nelson followed with a fly ball to shallow rightfield that was gloved by Tim Cleland. However, Bundy, who was inserted into the game just moments before, slid home in front of Cleland's throw.

Aaron Welbourne worked an eventful, scoreless ninth inning to record his seventh save of the season, tying him for first place in single-season school history with Greg Kroeger.

"Scotty never cracked and let them have a big inning," said Cajun head coach Tony Robichaux. "Once the game was going to be a defensive struggle, we went defense everywhere."

One of those defensive changes came in the form of Bret Bailey, who entered the game in the seventh as a defensive replacement for Will Hawkins.

In his first at-bat in the seventh, Bailey stepped to the plate with runners on first and third and one out. The junior proceeded to drop an RBI-bunt single down the first-base line to snap a 3-all tie and give the Cajuns back the momentum that switched hands numerous times in the back-and-forth contest.

"Bret did a great job," Robichaux said. "Then, Neil Simoneaux comes up behind him and has a better angle. He almost got it past the pitcher. That's how close we are to breaking out of what we've been in. Two of the guys that were hot (Gill and Nelson) continued to be hot for us. We need to get some of these other guys going."

The Cajuns conference lead remained at 1 ˝ games as New Orleans pasted South Alabama, 14-6 at Privateer Park. The series continues today at 1 p.m. with Justin Gabriel (6-1) taking the mound for the Cajuns against the Hilltoppers' Brandon Miller (4-3).

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics

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