CAJUN BATS COME ALIVE TO BEAT BLUE RAIDRERS?April 27, 2002
4/27/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
CAJUNS WIN SEVENTH STRAIGHT SBC TILT
April 28, 2002
?MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun baseball team made it seven in a row Sunday, as the visiting Cajuns used another complete effort in an 11-3 Sun Belt Conference win over Middle Tennessee at Reese Smith Field.
?Starting pitcher Corey Coles shook off a cold start, and UL Lafayette broke the game open in the middle innings for the third straight day as the Cajuns (30-15, 12-3 SBC) won their seventh straight SBC tilt.
?Outfielder Bryan Sneed went 2-for-5 with two RBIs, and third baseman Robert Shelton added a three-run homer to pace the 12-hit Cajun attack. MT (21-23, 3-12 SBC) got a 3-for-4 day from first baseman Josh Archer, and the Blue Raiders did get 11 hits overall.
?But after two early runs, MT could not get on track in dropping its eighth straight.
?The Cajuns jumped ahead early thanks to a wild day from MT starting pitcher Marshall Nisbett. Sneed got the scoring going in the first on an RBI single to center – plating Chase Lambin who reached on a one-out walk – and the visitors made it 2-0 on a bases loaded walk to Phillip Hawke.
?Coles, though, got touched for two runs in the bottom of the first thanks to Justin Sims' two-run single. Despite occasional location problems, though, it was all Coles would give up. The Lafayette sophomore struck out four and scattered seven hits before being lifted in the seventh in favor of freshman reliever Kevin Ardoin.
?UL Lafayette, meanwhile, continued to get gifts from Nisbett and finally got to him in the fourth. The hard-throwing Nisbett walked Lambin for the second time, and Sneed made him pay for it again with an RBI single.
?After a sacrifice fly by Shelton, Nisbett was lifted but not before the normal everyday-outfielder dished out nine walks. Two batters later, though, Hawke made his only hit count as the freshman first baseman delivered a two-out, two-run single off MT's Danny Borne to make it 6-2.
?The Cajuns made it 7-2 in the fifth when catcher Doug Vicknair, who led off the frame with a double, scored on a wild pitch. The only question then was whether the weather would hold off before the game could become official after the fifth.
?After it did, the Cajuns added two more in the sixth when Shelton launched a two-run shot over the right-center field wall. The homer made it 9-2 and was also the Cajuns' eighth round-tripper of the weekend.
?UL Lafayette, which swept New Mexico State at home last weekend, recorded its first back-to-back conference weep since 2000, when the College World Series participants swept both Western Kentucky and Louisiana Tech in late April.
?The Cajuns, who scored 31 runs this weekend, will get a little break now. The squad has no mid-week games and will be back in action this weekend, when Western Kentucky visits "Tigue" Moore Field for a crucial three-game set beginning at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
--LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE--
