University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Troy
Missed Opportunities Cost Cajuns
5/6/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The Trojans tied the series with the Cajuns at 1-1.
Saturday, May 6, 2006
LAFAYETTE-Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns baseball team held the nation's second ranked scoring team to just three runs on the day, but found themselves on the wrong end of a 3-1 score. The Cajuns (31-16, 13-4 SBC) fell to Troy (35-13, 14-3 SBC) in the second game of a Sun Belt Conference series on Saturday afternoon at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field.
The Cajuns tried some ninth inning heroics but fell just short. Trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs, Tim Santiago and Jameson Parker had back-to-back singles to put the tying run on base. A walk by John McCarthy loaded the bases. Devon Bourque stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. With a 2-2 count, Bourque went down swinging to end the game.
Bourque did have the Cajuns only run batted in on the day and was just inches way from putting the bat on the ball on the final strike.
Parker was the only Cajuns batter with more than one hit. He finished the day 3-for-3 with a walk and the only UL run of the day.
He led a Ragin' Cajuns' offense that collected nine hits on the day. Seven different batters had hits for UL, but the Cajuns were not able to generate more than one run as they left 10 runners on base and hit into two double plays.
Starting pitcher Buddy Glass (6-2) took the loss for the Cajuns. He allowed just two runs on eight hits. He struck out three, but walked one and hit two other batters. The last time Glass surrendered eight hits in a game came in his only other loss of the season ? a 2-0 complete game loss to South Alabama on Sunday, March 26.
Troy was able to scratch the scoreboard first. With one out in the first inning, the Trojan's Tom King lined a double down the leftfield line ? his conference leading 30th double of the season. He was able to move to third base on a passed ball and came around to score on a two out single to leftfield.
The Trojans threatened in the top of the third inning. The leadoff batter singled to center field. A sacrifice bunt moved the runner to second base. After King was hit by a pitch, the Cajuns were able to get the Trojans to hit two fly balls to centerfield to end the threat.
The Cajuns were held hitless until the bottom of the third inning. Jefferies Tatford singled just out of reach of Troy's diving second baseman for the first hit of the ballgame. UL would not be able to do anything with Tatford's single as the next batter hit into a double play. Parker followed with a single up the middle. He advanced to third base on a McCarthy single to left field. The Ragin' Cajuns tied the game with an RBI single by Bourque. The single plated Parker and moved McCarthy to third base. The Cajuns were unable to plate anymore runners, but saw the score tied at 1-1 after three complete innings.
With one out in the bottom of the fourth inning, Alex Preciado singled to leftfield to give the Cajuns a base runner. He moved to second base on a Josh Landry single. Both runners advanced as Tatford was hit by his team leading 15th hit by pitch. The Cajuns were unable to capitalize on the bases loaded opportunity as UL hit into the inning ending double play.
Troy took the lead for the second time on the afternoon in the top of the fifth inning. Ian Craze singled with one out to give the Trojans a base runner. He moved to second base on a groundout. A single to right field plated the runner and gave the Trojans the 2-1 lead.
Louisiana-Lafayette tried to get something going in the bottom half of the fifth inning. Parker led off the inning with a base on balls. The Cajuns were unable to move the runner as the next three batters flied out to end the inning.
The Cajuns worked their way out of a jam in the top of the seventh inning. With runners on the corners, the Bourque fielded a ball and pitched it to Parker covering second. Parker's throw to first was too late to turn the double play, but interference was called giving the Cajuns the inning ending double play.
In the top of the eighth inning, the Cajuns walked the lead off batter. Chad Beck entered the game in relief of Glass. He gave up a single to give Troy a pair of base runners. A sacrifice bunt advanced the runners into scoring position. Beck fell behind 2-0 on the batter, but worked his way back and struck out the batter for the second out of the inning. He fell behind 2-0 on the next batter, but once again managed to fight back. With a 3-2 count on the batter, Beck induced a fly ball to end the inning and end the Trojan threat.
In the Ragin' Cajuns half of the inning, Bourque led off the inning with a walk. Van De Keere laid down the sacrifice bunt to move the runner into scoring position. UL was unable to take advantage of the opportunity as a ground out and a strikeout saw the Cajuns entering the ninth inning trailing by a score of 2-1.
Troy added an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning. The leadoff batter Jared Keel doubled down the left field line to start things off. He moved to third on a ground out to second base. Bourque backhanded the ball behind the plate and made the difficult throw to retire the runner. A wild pitch brought the runner home and extended the Trojans lead to 3-1.
The score would remain 3-1 as the Cajuns were not able to plate any runners in the ninth inning after loading the bases.
The Cajuns and Trojans will battle on the diamond in game three of the series on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. The Ragin' Cajuns will look to Jason Fernandez (7-1) to help them claim the series and a share of the Sun Belt Conference lead.
-Ragin' Cajuns-
