CAJUNS COMPLETE SWEEP OF VISITING SIENA...March 4, 2001

LAFAYETTE – For the first month of the season, Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun baseball team was waiting to hit on all cylinders.

All it took was a visit from Siena to make their wishes come true.

The Cajuns completed a three-game weekend sweep of the visiting Saints by downing Siena in both games of Sunday's doubleheader at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field.

"We swung the bats well and with more confidence," Cajun head coach Tony Robichaux said. "We threw the ball well over the weekend. They didn't come in a very good hitting ball club. We still need to get better."

Behind five strong innings from senior right-hander Eric Templet and one inning apiece from four relievers, the Cajuns swept the twinbill with a 3-0 shutout victory in the nightcap.

Templet (3-2) was dominant, overpowering the Saints in his five innings, racking up 10 strikeouts after allowing a single to Kevin Roberts to open the game.

The Cajuns (11-7) then took advantage of a couple of Siena miscues to put the Saints away.

With runners on first and second and one out in the second, Charlie Babineaux fouled a pitch off behind home plate. However, Siena catcher Bill Cilento dropped the foul ball, giving Babineaux new life.

The Cajun freshman then delivered an RBI single in front of a diving Chris DiMartini in right field to give the Cajuns a 1-0 lead. Two batters later, Justin Knoff (1-1) hit Brad Saloom with the bases loaded, forcing home another Cajun run.

Then it was Templet's turn to make it stand up and the right-hander did just that. After Roberts' game-opening single, Templet struck out seven of the next nine Saint hitters as he moved into fourth place in the Cajun record books for career strikeouts.

The four Cajun relievers followed suit, combining with Templet to strike out 16, including Gordon O'Brien striking out the side in the ninth to earn his first save of the season.

Eric was not the only Templet who shut down the Saints on the mound. Freshman Jordy Templet (2-0) made his first career start a memorable one, striking out five Saints in five innings while allowing only one run as the Cajuns rolled to an 8-1 victory in the opener.

"They both did a good job with fastballs and sliders," Robichaux said. "That was what was giving these guys trouble. They both have pretty good fastballs and pretty good sliders and they matched up well with this team."

In the first game, the Cajuns rattled off 14 hits as they eventually pulled away from the Saints.

Leading 4-1 and looking for some insurance in the eighth inning, the Cajuns found plenty of it in the form of the long ball.

Scott Atwood and Charlie Babineaux blasted back-to-back home runs off Saint reliever Mark Sanborn and the Cajuns added two other runs to provide the final margin.

"We've said we felt we had better power than what we had shown," said Robichaux, whose team connected on back-to-back homers for the second time in three games. "We just need to get confidence. To get confidence, sometimes you have to have wins. With these seven home games, we need to build some confidence going into our trip to Western Kentucky."

Neil Simoneaux, who finished the weekend 7-for-10, Tyler Tiesing and Jess Poche, who picked up seven hits in the three games, combined for seven of the 14 Cajun hits in the opener.

Siena vs Louisiana-Lafayette

NCAA Box Score Game Play-by-Play

Box Score

2001 Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun Baseball Siena at Louisiana-Lafayette (Game 1) Mar 4, 2001 at Lafayette, La. (Tigue Moore Field) Siena 1 (2-7) Name (Pos) AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg ROBERTS, Kevin 2b......... 2 0 0 0 2 0 2 3 0 HANAN, Blake ss........... 4 0 0 0 0 1 4 3 3 FINN, Ryan lf............. 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 BUCKLEY, Jim c............ 3 1 1 0 0 2 5 1 1 CIPOLLA, Tony 3b.......... 4 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 0 KEAN, Josh cf............. 3 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 1 DelVECCHIO, Chris ph...... 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 CILENTO, Bill 1b.......... 3 0 0 0 0 2 6 1 1 DILLON, Mike ph........... 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 DiMARTINI, Scott rf....... 3 0 1 0 0 1 3 0 0 FRANCO, Fausto dh......... 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 WENGERT, Brent p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 SANBORN, Mark p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 SMITH, Mark p............. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals.................... 30 1 4 1 3 10 24 11 6 Louisiana-Lafayette 8 (10-7) Name (Pos) AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg BAILEY, Bret cf........... 3 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 LARRY, Jarvis lf.......... 3 0 1 1 1 1 3 0 0 VERRET, Chad pr/lf........ 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 SIMONEAUX, Neil 2b/ss..... 3 2 2 1 1 0 0 2 0 TIESING, Tyler dh......... 5 1 2 1 0 1 0 0 3 POCHE, Jess 3b............ 4 0 3 1 0 0 0 2 0 PREAU, Kevin pr/3b........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 SHELTON, Robert 3b........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 ATWOOD, Scott 1b.......... 3 1 1 1 1 0 12 2 0 BABINEAUX, Charlie rf..... 4 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 1 BUNDY, Chase rf........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 KABEL, Mike c............. 3 0 1 0 0 0 5 4 2 VICKNAIR, Doug pr/c....... 0 2 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 HAYDEL, Rick ss........... 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 3 0 SALOOM, Brad 2b........... 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 TEMPLET, Jordy p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 COLES, Corey p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 TOWNSEND, Cory p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 WELBOURNE, Aaron p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Totals.................... 31 8 14 8 6 4 27 16 8 Score by innings: R H E ---------------------------------------------- Siena 000 100 000 - 1 4 0 Louisiana-Lafayette 000 201 14 - 8 14 1 ---------------------------------------------- E - SIMONEAUX(2). DP - SIENA 2; Cajuns 1. LOB - SIENA 6; Cajuns 8. 2B - BUCKLEY(1); TIESING(2). HR - ATWOOD(1); BABINEAUX(1). SB - FINN(2); BUCKLEY(1); KEAN(2). CS - DiMARTINI(1); PREAU(4); HAYDEL(1). SH - SALOOM(1). SF - SIMONEAUX(2). Siena IP H R ER BB SO AB BF ERA NP WENGERT, Brent...... 7.0 9 4 4 5 3 25 31 97 SANBORN, Mark....... 0.1 5 4 4 1 0 5 7 25 SMITH, Mark......... 0.2 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 7 Louisiana-Lafayette IP H R ER BB SO AB BF ERA NP TEMPLET, Jordy...... 5.0 2 1 1 3 5 17 20 75 COLES, Corey........ 1.0 0 0 0 0 2 3 4 16 TOWNSEND, Cory...... 2.0 2 0 0 0 3 7 7 24 WELBOURNE, Aaron.... 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 9 Win - TEMPLET, J. 2-0. Loss - WENGERT 1-1. Save - None. WP - WENGERT 4(4); TEMPLET, J.(1). HBP - by COLES (BUCKLEY); by SANBORN (BAILEY). Umpires - Home:Garrett O'Connor 1st:Myron Miller 3rd:Todd Weber Start: 1:02 pm Time: 2:22 Attendance:

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics

CAJUNS COMPLETE SWEEP OF VISITING SIENA...March 4, 2001

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