University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
McNeese State
McNeese State Rallies To Beat Cajuns
3/18/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Tuesday, Mar. 18, 2003
LAKE CHARLES- Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns baseball team can't hold onto a 6-1 lead and falls to McNeese State 8-7 here at Cowboy Diamond. Rain pushed the start time back to 7:30pm, but the weather cleared up and the game resumed. The Cajuns fall to 6-18 overall on the year, while McNeese State improves to 17-7.
Cajun junior left-hander Austin Faught made the start against McNeese State, but pitched just one inning as the Cajuns used eight different pitchers on the night. Rick Weber made the start for McNeese State.
Weber lasted just 2/3 of an inning for the Cowboys and left the game after allowing three Cajun runs in the first inning. Dallas Morris scored the first run of the game for the Cajuns on a single to left field by first baseman Phillip Hawke. Junior second baseman Brad Saloom hit a one-out single off Weber to score Bryan Sneed from second. Hawke scored from first on the play after a throwing error by the McNeese State right fielder. Weber left the game with two outs in the inning and his team trailing 3-0.
Faught ran into problems of his own on the hill for the Cajuns, but escaped a first inning bases loaded jam by getting Cowboy catcher Ran Prince to ground into an inning ending double play.
Senior pitcher Danny McMurtry made his sixth appearance of the season for UL Lafayette in relief of Faught to open the second inning. McMurtry retired the first two batters, but loaded the bases after walking three consecutive Cowboys. Freshman Jeff Martinez came on in relief with the bases full and two outs. McNeese State scored their first run of the game on a ground ball Cajun infield error. Martinez got the next batter to ground out and the Cajuns escaped the inning with a 3-1 lead.
UL Lafayette extended the lead in the third inning when junior third baseman Matt Levering hit a two-run homerun over the right field wall with two outs in the inning. Brad Saloom scored on the homerun from first. Catcher Ryan Core followed up Levering's homerun with a solo-shot of his own. The homerun was Core's first at UL Lafayette since transferring from Delgado CC and gave the Cajuns a 6-1 lead.
Cowboy reliever Craig Martel came on in relief with two outs in the third inning and held the Cajuns scoreless for the next 3 1/3 innings.
McNeese State added a run off Martinez in the bottom of the third inning when Cowboy left fielder Tommy Eubanks scored on a double to center field by first baseman Tim Lemke with two outs. Lemke was thrown out on a relay throw trying to advance to third on the play to end the inning.
The Cowboys added one run in each the fifth and sixth innings off Cajun pitching to cut the lead to 6-4. Derek Bordelon and Ran Prince picked up the RBI's for the Cowboys.
Louisiana-Lafayette went up by three runs after getting a run against Cowboy reliever Ronnie Baron in the seventh inning. Brad Saloom picked up the RBI for the Cajuns with a single scoring Bryan Sneed from third.
McNeese State rallied to tie the game in the seventh inning with three runs against Cajun reliever Dan Reed. Second baseman Brian Bernhardt doubled to left field to score two runs. Bernhardt scored the tying run on a Dooley Prince single to left field off Cajun reliever Kraig Schambough.
McNeese State won the game in the bottom of the ninth with a one out single to left field by Prince Dooley scoring Chris Fontenot with the winning run from second. Schambough (1-1) suffers his first loss of the year for UL Lafayette and Josh Hansen (2-1) gets the win for the Cowboys after pitching the final two innings in relief and holding the Cajuns to no hits or runs.
UL Lafayette falls to 0-10 away from home this year and prepares to begin conference play this coming weekend. The Cajuns will open Sun Belt Conference play with a series this weekend against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. Game one will start at 6 p.m. this Friday night in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
