University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
South Alabama
Cajuns Down South Alabama to Advance in SBC Tournament
5/26/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Friday, May 26, 2006
BOWLING GREEN, Ky.-Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns used three multi-run innings to eliminate South Alabama from the 2006 Sun Belt Conference Tournament by a score of 8-5. UL scored a pair of runs in the fifth inning, four runs in the eighth inning and then added two more in the ninth inning to slide past the Jaguars.
Jonathan Lucroy and Scott Hawkins paced the Cajuns with two hits a piece. Lucroy finished the day with four hits, including a double and a triple. He scored two runs and drove in a run. Hawkins had two hits on the day, including a double and a homerun. He scored a pair of runs and drove in two.
The Ragin' Cajuns and Jaguars met at 9 a.m. in a Sun Belt Conference elimination game. The game marked the first meeting between the two teams in the conference tournament since 1998. The Cajuns downed that South Alabama team that featured four future major leaguers ? Juan Pierre, Tom Whitehurst, Jason Norton and Mike Fisher ? by a score of 11-4.
The Cajuns threatened in the first inning, but were unable to scratch the scoreboard. With one out, Jameson Parker drew a base on balls. He moved to third base on a two-out single by Lucroy. A fly ball ended the inning and UL threat in the first inning.
Louisiana-Lafayette surrendered a single to right field in the Jaguars half of the first inning. With the runner breaking on the throw, the pitch caught the outside corner for strike. Lucroy cocked back and fired a strike down to second base in time to record the first out of the inning. The Cajuns then retired the next two batters ? a fly ball for the second out and a ground ball to end the inning.
Starting pitcher Jason Fernandez faced the minimum through three innings. A fly ball to left field was the first out of the third inning. Fernandez walked the next batter to give USA just their second base runner of the day. After recording the second out of the inning with a fly ball to right field, the Cajuns caught the runner stealing to end the inning. The caught stealing was the second of the day for the Ragin' Cajuns and retired the only two base runners for the Jaguars to that point.
Lucroy recorded his second hit of the morning. The sophomore lined a base hit into centerfield with one out to give the Cajuns their first base runner since the first inning. The runner was stranded as the next two batters struck out to end the inning.
The Cajuns retired the first two batters of the fourth inning. A pitch got away from Fernandez and struck David Freese in the helmet. The pitch caused Freese to leave the game with a facial laceration. Ben Daw entered the game in place of Freese. Daw came around to score as Jeff Cunningham doubled off of the left centerfield wall. Fernandez hit a second batter in the inning to give USA a pair of baserunners. Fernandez ended the inning with a strikeout, but the Cajuns found themselves on the wrong side of a 1-0 score.
In the top of the fifth inning, Josh Landry collected his first hit of the tournament. He singled up the middle just to the right of second base. Hawkins followed Landry with an RBI double off of the left centerfield wall. Following Devon Bourque's team leading 47th walk of the season, John McCarthy laid down the sacrifice bunt to advance the runners. With one out, Parker hit a deep fly ball that scored Hawkins from third. The sacrifice fly was Parker's third of the season and gave the Cajuns a 2-1 lead after four and a half innings of play.
The Jaguars started off the bottom of the fifth inning with a single to left field. A sacrifice bunt moved the runner to second base. A single to left centerfield tied the score at 2-2. A groundout moved the base runner to second base. The Cajuns got out of the inning with no further damage as a ground ball ended the inning.
With one out in the sixth inning, Alex Preciado got his first hit of the game as he singled through the right side of the infield. A fly ball gave the Cajuns two outs. Preciado stole his fifth base of the season to move into scoring position, but it didn't do any good as the Cajuns struck out to end the inning.
Fernandez struggled with his command early in the bottom of the sixth inning. With a 2-0 count, Fernandez hit the lead off batter. The Cajuns' starter started the next batter off with three straight balls. After throwing a fast ball that split the middle of the plate for strike one, the Jaguars' Cunningham hit his fifth homerun of the season to give South Alabama a 4-2 edge with no outs. The Ragin' Cajuns saw a groundball for the first out of the inning. Fernandez struck out the next batter for the second out of the inning. The punch out marked the 100th of the season for the right hander. UL got out of the inning with a ground ball, but after six complete innings the Cajuns trailed 4-2.
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Jaguars used a pair of singles to place runners on the corners. Fernandez struck out the next USA batter to end the inning with no runs scored.
Devery Van De Keere led off the top of the eighth inning with his first hit of the game. Lucroy followed that with a double over the head of the Jaguars' third baseman. The left fielder mishandled the ball which allowed Van De Keere to score on the play. A ground ball moved Lucroy to within 90-feet of tying the game. Jefferies Tatford lined a ball down the right field line for an RBI double to tie the game. The right fielder mishandled the ball and allowed the go-ahead run to move to third base. Landry hit a ball to the warning track, which was deep enough to score Tatford from third and give the Cajuns the lead. The sacrifice fly was Landry's team leading 11th of the season. Hawkins followed with a solo homerun to left centerfield to continue the inning and increase the lead to two runs. Following a pitching change, Bourque walked for the second time to extend the inning. For Bourque, the two walks in the game marks the 10th time this season the junior has had multiple walks in a single game. The Jaguars recorded the final out, but not before the Cajuns put up four runs in the inning to take a 6-4 lead after seven and a half innings of play.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, USA's Cunningham led off the inning with his second homerun of the game. The pair of homeruns by Cunningham was the first multi-homer game of his career and the first time this season that Fernandez has allowed multiple homeruns. The Cajuns brought in freshman Danny Farquhar in relief of Fernandez. The freshman recorded two groundouts, issued a walk and then got out of the inning with an inning ending line drive.
In the top of the ninth, Parker lined a ball into right field to get the inning started for the Cajuns. Van De Keere successfully executed the sacrifice bunt to move Parker over to second base. Lucroy tripled off of the left centerfield wall to score Parker. With two outs, Tatford hit a fly ball to left field. The leftfielder dropped the ball for his second error of the game. The error allowed Lucroy to score from third and Tatford to reach second base safely. A strike out ended the inning, but saw the Cajuns leading 8-5 heading into the last half of the ninth inning.
The first batter of the ninth inning battled against Farquhar. After fouling of numerous pitches, he drew a walk to start off the inning. A ground ball moved the runner to second base, as the Cajuns traded the base for an out. Farquhar hit the next batter to give the Jaguars runners on first and second with just one out. The HBP was the fourth for the Cajuns in the game. With two on and just one out, Farquhar struck out the next batter for the second out of the inning. Cunningham stepped to the plate with two outs and two on representing the tying run. He flew out to centerfield to end the game and secure the Cajuns win.
The Ragin' Cajuns will return to action this afternoon as they take on Middle Tennessee at 4 p.m.
-Ragin' Cajuns-
