University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Arkansas State
UL Lafayette Holds On To Win Opener Against Arkansas State
5/9/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Friday, May 9, 2003
JONESBORO, Ark. - Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns baseball team wins the series opener here at Tomlinson Stadium against the Arkansas State Indians by a score of 4-3. UL Lafayette (25-26) improves to 12-7 in the Sun Belt and has been victorious in 10 of the last 11 games, while Arkansas State (22-25) suffers their sixth consecutive conference loss to fall to 8-10 in the Sun Belt.
UL Lafayette starter Kevin Ardoin (4-4) threw 7 1/3 innings, giving up just three runs on seven hits to pick up the win. Kraig Schambough notched his fourth save of the season after retiring the final four ASU batters.
Louisiana-Lafayette struck first in the opening inning after third baseman Dallas Morris reached base after striking out on a wild pitch against Arkansas State starter Jody Petty. Morris moved over to second on a sacrifice bunt by Corey Coles and advanced to third on a ground out by Bryan Sneed. Morris scored the first run of the game on two-out single up the middle by Cajun catcher Ryan Core to give UL Lafayette the early 1-0 lead.
The Cajuns increased the lead to 3-0 in the third inning on three consecutive one-out hits. Center fielder Corey Coles doubled and scored the first of two runs on a single up the middle by Bryan Sneed. Sneed advanced from first to third on Petty's second wild pitch of the game and scored the second Cajun run of the inning on a double to right field by Ryan Core.
Ardoin retired the first six Arkansas State batters before giving up a lead off homerun to Indian first baseman Dusty Sexton in the third inning that cut the Cajun lead to just two runs.
Bryan Sneed led off the fifth inning with his sixth homerun of the season over the left field wall to extend the Cajun lead back to three runs at 4-1.
Arkansas State loaded the bases with one out in the fifth inning on three singles and scored one run on a sacrifice fly to center field by left fielder Blake Denischuk and added another on a wild pitch by Ardoin to make it a one run game.
The Indians threatened to tie the game in the bottom half of the seventh inning after a lead off walk to Dusty Sexton. Sexton moved over to second on a sacrifice bunt and advanced to third with just one out on a passed ball. Sexton attempted to tag up and score from third on a fly out to shallow center field, but Corey Coles threw Sexton out at the plate to prevent the tying run and get the Cajuns out of the inning.
Arkansas State threatened again in the eighth inning before Kraig Schambough came on in relief of Kevin Ardoin with one out in the inning and a runner on the second base. Schambough got Matt Rogelstad to fly out to center field, then hit catcher Zach Shipley with a pitch before striking out designated hitter Monte Douglas to end the threat.
Schambough retired all three Indian batters in the ninth inning to preserve the 4-3 win. UL Lafayette is now 21-0 on the year after leading past the seventh inning.
Jody Petty (5-5) suffers the loss despite retiring 14 of the last 15 Cajun hitters to finish with a complete game. Petty gave up four runs on eight hits with four strikeouts and a walk.
Senior left-fielder Bryan Sneed led the Cajuns offensively with a homerun in the fifth inning to go 2 for 4 on the day with two runs driven in. Sneed extended his current hitting streak to seven games. Junior catcher Ryan Core also drove in two runs after going 2 for 4.
UL Lafayette wins for the tenth time in eleven games to improve to 25-26 on the season and 12-7 in conference play. The series resumes with game two tomorrow at 2 pm here at Tomlinson Stadium. Jordy Templet (6-4, 3.42 ERA) will take the mound for the Ragin' Cajuns against John Anderson (3-5, 6.72 ERA) for Arkansas State.
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