University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Tulane
Cajuns Beat Tulane With Ninth Inning Heroics
3/26/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Wednesday, Mar. 26, 2003
LAFAYETTE- Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns baseball team wins in dramatic fashion with a ninth inning 9-8 comeback win over in-state rival and 19th ranked Tulane. The win avenges an 11-4 loss earlier this month at Tulane and drops the Green Wave to 19-7 overall. Louisiana-Lafayette improves to 8-20 overall on the season entering this weekend's Sun Belt series against Middle Tennessee State.
Tulane scored first on a solo-shot by shortstop Tony Giarratano against Cajun starter Corey Coles to take an early 1-0 lead in the first inning. The Green Wave added two more runs in the third. Second baseman Tommy Manzella added a RBI on a single to right field.
The Green Wave increased their lead to 4-0 after Jonny Kaplan hit his second double of the game with two outs in the inning. Kaplan scored on a RBI single to center field by Tony Giarratano.
Coles left the game after allowing four runs on ten hits through four innings of work. Jeff Martinez took over for Coles entering the fifth inning.
The Cajun bats came alive in the fifth inning with a lead off single by third baseman Dallas Morris who advanced to second when shortstop Ray Dees was hit by a Brandon Gomes pitch. Billy Mohl came in to pitch for Gomes and gave up a three-run homerun to Cajun center fielder Jason Wilson. Wilson's third homerun of the season cut the Green Wave lead to one run. Corey Coles followed the homerun with a double to right field. Coles scored from second to tie the game on a Bryan Sneed single to center field.
Tulane responded to the four run Cajun fifth by adding two more runs to take back the lead. Tony Kaplan picked up his second RBI for the Green Wave and Tony Giarratano added his third of the game.
The Cajuns cut the Green Wave lead to one run at 6-5 in the bottom of the sixth on a Dallas Morris sacrifice fly that scored Ryan Core from third. Both teams swapped runs in the seventh to put Tulane up 7-6 after seven complete. Brad Saloom picked up the RBI on a single to score Corey Coles and bring the Cajuns back within one run.
The Green Wave increased the lead to 8-6 in the top of the ninth setting up a dramatic bottom half of the inning for the Cajuns.
Corey Coles opened the ninth inning with a deep fly ball that looked like it would get over the right field wall until Tulane right fielder Brian Bogusevic leaped up and robbed the homerun for the first out of the inning. Brad Saloom reached first on a fielder's choice following a Bryan Sneed walk. With two outs and Saloom on first base Phillip Hawke doubled to right field to score Brad Saloom from first and make it a one run game. Catcher Ryan Core finished off the dramatic comeback with a blast over the center field wall to score two runs and give the Cajuns a 9-8 victory. The game winning homerun was Core's third of the year.
Kraig Schambough (1-1) picks up the win for UL Lafayette after pitching a flawless 2/3 of an inning in the top of the ninth. Joey Charron (2-3) suffers the loss for Tulane after pitching the final 1 2/3 innings and allowing three Cajun runs on two hits and two walks.
Louisiana-Lafayette improves to 8-20 on the season and will host Middle Tennessee State in a Sun Belt series here at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field starting this Friday night at 6:35 pm. The game will be televised live on KLAF-TV 17 in Lafayette.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
