University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Harvard
Run Support Lifts Cajuns Over Harvard 23-9
3/21/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 21, 2004
LAFAYETTE-Louisiana's Ragin Cajuns cranked out 22 hits and hit a trio of homeruns en route to downing the
Harvard Crimson 23-9 Sunday afternoon at Moore Field in Lafayette.
The win went to Jeff Morgan who threw three innings in relief of starter Kraig Schambough. Morgan (1-0) allowed three runs on six hits while fanning seven as the Cajuns move up to 14-6 on the season.
In all, four Cajuns pitchers combined to strikeout 14 in the outing.
Harvard evened their record at 4-4. Crimson starter Mike Morgalis fell to 0-2 with the loss after going three innings and surrendering eight runs on nine hits.
Justin Merendino walked on four straight offerings from Morgalis to start the Cajuns' half of the first. Josh Landry reached on a single up the middle moving Merendino to second. Both runners advanced on a double steal. Phillip Hawke pulled a single though the right side to plate the two. Justin Bourque slapped a single into center before Jason Rodriguez drove in the third run of the game with a double to left. Micah Cockrell hit a bloop to right that fell for a hit scoring Bourque. Cockrell swiped second and advanced to third on a groundout that scored another for the home team.
The top of the second was highlighted by Landry's leap over the left field wall to save a homerun. The Crimson did get one across when Josh Klimkiewicz doubled then scored on a David Bach single to the right side.
Bourque led off the bottom of the third with a homerun giving the Cajuns a 6-1 lead.
Trey Hendricks singled to center to start the top of the fourth for the Crimson. Frank Herrmann turned on a pitch and drove it deep and gone to pull Harvard to within three. The visitors would add more when Bach walked and stole second before scoring on a Morgan Brown single. Bryan Hale hit a homerun to tie things up at six apiece.
In the next frame, John Coker gave the Cajuns the lead back with a homerun that left the park via the left field wall. Merendino slapped a single to left, which chased Morgalis in favor of Jason Brown. Landry drew a walk before both runners advanced on a wild pitch. Dallas Morris drove in the pair with a single to left center giving the Cajuns a 9-6 edge. Bourque walked before Coach Robichaux put on the double steal to put the runners on first and second. Rodriguez picked the RBI when Morris crossed the plate on a grounder to second. Bourque scored on a Harvard fielding error that put Cockrell on second. Adam Massiatte singled to left to plate Cockrell who represented the Cajuns' 12th run.
Morgan came on in relief of Schambough in the top of the fifth and would retire the side in order employing the strikeout to sit two in the stanza.
In the bottom of the inning, Landry led off with a double down the left field line before stealing third. Morris drew a base on balls and swiped second before Hawke drove his fourth homerun of the weekend out to right center increasing the Cajuns' lead to 15-6.
Merendino singled to second before Landry shot one up the middle putting the runners on first and second. Morris snuck a single through the left side to score Merendino. Hawke walked to load the bases. An errant throw over to first brought the two lead runners around to score before Brad Saloom doubled to left scoring Hawke giving the Cajuns a 19-6 lead.
The Crimson put up three runs in the top of the seventh on five hits. Lance Salsgiver, Hendricks and Ian Wallace picked up the RBIs before the Cajuns could get out of the inning.
Louisiana-Lafayette added a run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh giving them the 20-9 lead.
Bubba Oliver struck out two of the three batters he faced in the top of the eighth after entering the game in relief of Morgan.
The Cajuns added three more in the eighth frame when Ryan Core tripled to right plating Saloom and Kevin Preau. Core scored on a fielder's choice bringing the score to 23-9.
Patrick Green struck out the side in the top of the ninth for Louisiana-Lafayette as the Cajuns wrapped-up the weekend series going 3-0.
UL Lafayette will play the Lamar Cardinals Tuesday night here in Lafayette. The first pitch will be thrown out at 6:30 p.m.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
