University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Western Kentucky
Glass Pitches Cajuns Past Hilltoppers
5/19/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Friday, May 19, 2006
LAFAYETTE-For the second night in a row, Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns got a complete game pitching performance and edged out Western Kentucky by a score of 3-1. Starting pitcher Buddy Glass threw his fifth complete game of the season en route to his eighth win of the season.
Glass helped the Cajuns improve to 36-18 on the season and 18-5 in Sun Belt Conference play. The sophomore hurler scattered seven hits on the evening, allowing just one run. Glass issued just one free pass while striking out eight.
With the complete game, Glass ties Hunter Moody with five complete games this season. The Cajuns have 12 complete games this season and are 11-1 when a starting pitcher goes the distance.
Western Kentucky got a complete game performance of their own from their starting pitcher Liam Shanahan. Shanahan held the Cajuns to just seven hits on the night, but allowed three runs to take the loss. He walked two batters and struck out three.
Leading the charge for UL was Jefferies Tatford, Jonathan Lucroy and Josh Landry. Tatford and Lucroy had back-to-back doubles in the bottom of the fourth inning to give the Cajuns a 2-1 advantage. With Glass on the mound, this lead would be all the Ragin' Cajuns needed; however, UL added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Tatford reached base on a bloop single. He came around to score on a Landry triple. The triple was the first for the senior since March 31 against Arkansas State.
The Hilltoppers were the first to scratch the scoreboard. In the third inning, Western Kentucky singled to lead off the inning. The next batter hit a ground ball to the shortstop. Devon Bourque touched second base for the force out and just missed throwing out the batter for the double play. With one on and one out, the next WKU batter doubled to left field to give the Toppers runners at second and third. A ground out plated the lead runner and gave Western Kentucky a 1-0 lead.
The Cajuns battled back in the bottom of the fourth inning. Devery Van De Keere led off the inning with a walk. He moved to second base on a failed pickoff attempt. He came around to score on a Lucroy double to left centerfield. Tatford followed Lucroy with a double of his own. The back-to-back doubles plated a pair of runners and gave the Ragin' Cajuns a 2-1 lead after four complete innings of play.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Tatford led reached base on a bloop single in between the leftfielder, the shortstop and the third baseman. He moved to second base on a wild pitch. A triple to left centerfield by Josh Landry extended the UL lead to 3-1.
Neither team scored past the sixth inning as both pitchers excelled on the mound.
The Ragin' Cajuns and the Hilltoppers will conclude the three game series on Saturday, May 20 at 2:05 p.m. at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field.
-Ragin' Cajuns-
