University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Ohio State
Cajuns Fall To Buckeyes in Mardi Gras Ball Opener
3/7/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Friday, March 7, 2003
LAFAYETTE – Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns opened the 2003 Mardi Gras Ball here at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field with a 7-3 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Cajuns have now lost five straight games and drop to 5-12 overall on the 2003 season.
Senior lefthander Andy Gros started his fifth game of the year for UL Lafayette against Ohio State Preseason All-American lefthander Scott Lewis.
Ohio State opened the scoring on Gros in the second inning on a two-run single by leftfielder Wes Schirtzinger and added another run in the top of the fourth when catcher Derek Kinnear singled to right field scoring Brett Garrard from third to give the Buckeyes a 3-0 lead.
The Buckeyes added a run against Gros in the top of the fifth inning on a hit by first baseman Paul Farinacci, scoring Christian Snavely from first on an error by the Cajun rightfielder.
UL Lafayette scored a run against Lewis in the bottom of the fifth inning when Sport Voorhies scored from second on a base hit up the middle by Cajun third baseman Dallas Morris. The RBI was Morris's third of the year and it cut the deficit to 4-1.
Ohio State scored two more runs in the eighth to take a 6-1 lead going into the bottom of the eighth inning. Chris Hanners replaced Lewis on the mound to open the Cajun half of the inning. Lewis pitched seven complete innings for the Buckeyes, allowing just one run on three hits and striking out eight.
The Buckeyes opened the ninth inning with three consecutive one-out singles to knock Gros out the game and pick up one more run for the 7-1 lead. Gros pitched 8 1/3 innings, giving up seven runs (four earned) on 13 hits.
UL Lafayette scored two more runs on a Jason Wilson solo-shot over the left centerfield wall and on a Dallas Morris sacrifice fly scoring Ryan Core from third base. The homerun was Jason Wilson's first of his career at Louisiana-Lafayette. The two-run ninth made the final score 7-3.
Scott Lewis (2-0) picked up the win for the Buckeyes and Andy Gros (1-3) suffers his third loss of the season for the Cajuns. Ohio State improves to 2-2 on the year and will take on McNeese St. (12-6) tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the third game of the 2003 Mardi Gras Ball.
The Cajuns will look to put an end to the current five-game skid when they play Wichita State (11-2) in tomorrow's nightcap at 6:30 p.m. UL Lafayette will go with lefthander Corey Coles (0-1, 0.00 ERA) against Wichita State lefty David Sanders (1-0, 7.36 ERA).
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
