University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
New Mexico State
Ragin' Cajuns Stay Alive With 9-4 Victory Over New Mexico State
5/22/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Thursday, April 22, 2003
Updated SBC Tournament Bracket & Results
LAFAYETTE -Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns baseball team fights off elimination with a 9-5 do or die win over the second seeded New Mexico State Aggies here in the first of four games Thursday morning at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field. New Mexico State (42-16) becomes the first team to get eliminated from the eight-team Sun Belt Conference tournament, while Louisiana-Lafayette (29-29) avoids going two and out as the host school.
Senior left-handed veteran pitcher Andy Gros picked up his sixth straight win and the Ragin' Cajun bats pounded out nine runs on 11 hits to keep UL Lafayette's post-season hopes alive.
Gros held the Sun Belt Conference's top hitting team to just four runs on six hits with seven strikeouts in 7.2 innings to avenge an April 5th loss in Las Cruces, NM in which he lasted just 1.2 innings. The Ragin' Cajun bats came up with the timely hits that they didn't get against Middle Tennessee the previous night and left just six runners on base the entire game.
New Mexico State scored an early run against Gros following a one-out triple by left fielder Dustin Mote. Mote scored the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly by Brad Ditter, which gave the Aggies a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
UL Lafayette went ahead 4-1 after a big four run inning against Aggie starter Dustin Cameron in the third inning. Lafayette, La., native Corey Coles drove in the first run with a single to right field that scored Josh Landry to tie the game with two-outs in the inning. Bryan Sneed continued the two-out rally with a run-scoring double and Phillip Hawke hit a towering two-run homerun into the pine trees in right center field. Hawke's monster shot capped the four run inning and gave him six homeruns on the year.
The Ragin' Cajuns took a four run lead with another big two-out hit by Ray Dees in the fourth inning. Dees tripled with two-outs to score Josh Landry from first to put the Cajuns ahead 5-1. The triple was the first of the shortstop's career with the Cajuns. He also hit his first career homerun earlier in the season at New Mexico State.
The Aggies loaded the bases against Gros in the sixth inning following two consecutive walks and a one-out single by Dustin Mote. Brad Ditter hit a fielder's choice RBI ground out to make the second out and Billy Becher flied out to center field as Gros escaped a bases loaded one-out jam by giving up just one run.
Both teams exchanged runs in the seventh inning as the Ragin' Cajuns held onto a three run lead at 6-3. Mike Smith opened the bottom half of the inning for New Mexico State in relief of Cameron and was greeted with a lead off double by Cajun third baseman Dallas Morris. Morris later scored on a two-out RBI single by Phillip Hawke.
New Mexico State second baseman Brad Ditter cut the Cajun lead to just two runs at 6-4 with a one-out solo-shot over the left center field wall in the top half of the eighth inning. Gros left the mound for UL Lafayette after giving up a two-out double to Beau Blacken, but center fielder Corey Coles came in to pitch and got the Cajuns out of trouble by retiring Gavin Monjaras on a ground out to Dallas Morris at third base.
Louisiana-Lafayette added three insurance runs in the bottom half of the eighth inning to go up 9-4. Kevin Preau and Brad Saloom opened the inning with consecutive singles against Smith before Ray Dees hit one-out single up the middle scoring the first run of the inning. Corey Coles hit a two-run double with two outs that scored both Dallas Morris and Dees to give the Cajuns a five run cushion heading into the final inning.
Coles ran into trouble in the ninth inning after loading the bases with just one out on a walk and two Aggie singles, but got Dustin Mote to ground into a game ending double play to record his third save of the year.
Gros (8-6) picks up he win for UL Lafayette, while Cameron (8-4) suffers the loss for New Mexico State after giving up five runs on just four hits in six innings. Cameron struck out a season high eight batters on the loss.
Corey Coles and Phillip Hawke each paced the Ragin' Cajuns offense with three RBI's and two hits each. Sophomore shortstop Ray Dees had two hits including a triple on the day to drive in three runs and give him seven RBI's in four games against New Mexico State on the year.
UL Lafayette will next meet the winner of the Arkansas-Little Rock/Middle Tennessee game at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow morning here from Moore Field. The Cajuns will go with right-handed sophomore starter Kevin Ardoin (4-5, 4.25), who will be looking to rebound from a difficult outing last Friday night against South Alabama.
-Ragin' Cajuns-
