University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Lamar
Lamar Edges Cajuns in Road Trip Opener
3/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Pitching staff gets work as Louisiana-Lafayette uses eight arms to warmup for Sun Belt-opening series
BEAUMONT, Texas - Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns dropped the first game of a five game road trip, falling to Lamar 5-4 in Beaumont, Texas.
With the loss, the Cajuns fall to 10-8 on the season while the Cardinals improve to 16-10.
The Ragin' Cajuns entered the game wanting to get their pitching staff some innings of work and they did just that. UL used eight pitchers on the night with each pitcher averaging one inning.
The pitching staff gave up five runs, three earned runs, on 12 hits. They combined for six strikeouts, while walking only one batter.
Greg Wilborn (0-1) took the loss for the Cajuns surrendering a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.
The Cajuns scratched the scoreboard in the first inning.
John McCarthy led off the game with a walk and advanced to second on a passed ball by the Lamar catcher. A sacrifice bunt by Devon Bourque would move McCarthy to third base. Jameson Parker hit a sharp ground ball down the leftfield line that the Cardinals' third baseman bobbled. McCarthy came around to score and Parker was able to advance to second base.
Jonathan Lucroy and Tim Santiago had back-to-back singles to plate Parker and give the Cajuns a 2-0 advantage. With the bases loaded and one out, Josh Landry lifted a ball to deep centerfield, which scored Lucroy on the sacrifice fly.
Leading 3-0, Matt Pilgreen took the mound for his first start in a Ragin' Cajuns uniform. The junior surrendered an infield single to Lamar's leadoff batter, but then induced a pair of pop ups and struck out a batter to end the inning.
In the bottom of the second inning, Lamar used a string of four consecutive base hits to tie the score at 3-3.
C.J. Ebarb singled to second base to start the inning. Dan Henderson doubled to right center to give the Cardinals a pair of runners in scoring position. Matt Lambeth singled up the middle to plate the runners and cut the UL lead to just one run.
Following a Jo Jo Haney singled to leftfield, the Cajuns switched pitchers bringing in Andrew Laughter to pitch. The Cardinals tied the game as Erik Kanaby hit a sacrifice fly to leftfield. The Ragin' Cajuns retired the next two batters to end the threat and exit the second inning tied 3-3.
In the Cajuns half of the third inning, Parker led off with a single to first base. Parker proceeded to steal second and third to place the go ahead run 90-feet from home plate. First baseman Jefferies Tatford laced a single through the right side to give the Cajuns a 4-3 advantage.
Lamar benefited in the bottom of the fourth inning from some clutch hitting and a Ragin' Cajuns miscue. With two outs in the inning, the Cardinals used three singles and an error to score a pair of runs and take a 5-4 lead.
The score would remain 5-4 as the neither team could plate any runners after the fourth inning.
The Cajuns are set to open Sun Belt Conference play this weekend as they travel to Mobile, Ala. to face South Alabama. The Cajuns claimed the 2005 SBC regular season championship, while the Jaguars claimed the Sun Belt Tournament Championship.
The games are scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
