Ragin? Cajun News

4/19/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

CAJUNS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MISCUES TO BEAT NMSU

April 19, 2002

?LAFAYETTE – Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun baseball team took advantage of four New Mexico State errors and got another stellar pitching performance from its ace as the hosts took a 6-3 Sun Belt Conference win over New Mexico State Friday night at "Tigue" Moore Field.

?Left-hander Justin Gabriel (7-1) went 8 2/3 innings, allowed six hits and struck out 12 Aggies in running his conference record to a perfect 4-0. NMSU, meanwhile, committed four errors which led to four unearned runs as the Aggies (27-14, 4-6 SBC) dropped their SBC road opener.

?Cajun catcher Mike Kabel led the Cajun sticks, going 2-for-4 with an RBI. The entire bottom part of the Cajun lineup, which has struggled for much of the season, had a good night overall.

?The 7-9 part of the order went 4-for-8 with four RBIs.

?Right fielder Ryan Kenning paced the NMSU offense with two of the club's six hits. Jason Williams (4-1) took the loss despite giving up just one earned run in 5 1/3 innings.

?The game was tied at 1-1 entering the bottom of the sixth before UL Lafayette exploded for five runs during the next two frames. The Cajuns got four hits and used two NMSU errors to score three runs and jump ahead 4-1.

?In the seventh, UL Lafayette got an RBI single from Lloyd Ellis and a sacrifice fly from Jason Wilson to break it open.

?The rest of the night belonged to Gabriel. The 2000 All-American struck out double figures for the third time this season and came on "K" from his career high. He came just one out shy of his third complete game of 2002 but gave up two runs in the ninth, and freshman Kevin Ardoin came in to get his third save.

?The two teams will continue the series at 2 p.m. Saturday.

--LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE--