University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Florida Atlantic
Bases Loaded Walk the Difference vs FAU
3/25/2007 4:00:00 AM | Baseball
Devon Bourque's four-pitch walk with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth lifted the Cajuns 3-2 over Florida Atlantic.
LAFAYETTE-For the third game in a row, Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns baseball team needed some late inning magic to edge Florida Atlantic 3-2 on Sunday afternoon at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field.
The Ragin' Cajuns (20-5, 7-2 Sun Belt) got a four-pitch walk with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning to edge FAU (19-9, 2-7 SBC) by one run.
Tied 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth, the Cajuns first two batters of the inning went down in order on consecutive groundouts. Devery Van De Keere drew a walk and advanced to second on a Xavier Alexander single through the right side of the infield. With a pair of runners on base and two outs, FAU's pitcher threw eight consecutive balls to walk Matt Casbon and Devon Bourque. Casbon's walk loaded the bases and Bourque's walk was the game winner for the Cajuns.
The win improved the Cajuns to 13-0 at the Tigue. The Ragin' Cajuns havenow won 16 straight games at Moore Field, dating back to the 2006 season.
Relief pitcher Danny Farquhar (2-0) earned the win for the Cajuns. The sophomore worked 6.0 innings of relief. Farquhar scattered three hits, walked two and fanned five.
Offensively, three Cajuns players collected multiple hits in the game. Josh Logan continued his impressive weekend, finishing the day 3-for-5 witha run scored. Logan scored a run and also stole a base in the game.
Jonathan Lucroy and Matt Hicks both collected a pair of hits. Lucroy went2-for-5 with a double and a triple, adding a pair of RBI. Hicks was 2-for-4 with a pair of singles.
Alexander's base hit in the bottom of the ninth inning extended his team-leading hitting streak to 20 games. The 20-game hitting streak ties Alexander with Dallas
Morris, Butch Harris and Benny Burke for the third longest hitting streak in school history.
Alexander is just one game shy of tying Pete Guajardo with the secondlongest streak and three games short of tying Chris Webb for the all-time longest streak in school history.
Scott Hawkins tied a school record with four walks in the game. It was the most walks for a Cajuns batter since Lucroy drew four free passes against Western Kentucky on May 18, 2006.
The Cajuns were the first to scratch the scoreboard. In the first inning, Logan led off the inning with a single up the middle. With two outs, Lucroy lined a double to right field to score Logan from first.
Florida Atlantic got the run back in the third inning. Starting pitcher Brent Solich struck out the first batter of the inning, but hit the next batter to give FAU a base-runner. A single to right field gave the Owls runners on the corners. A fielder's choice recorded the second out of the
inning at second base, but allowed the runner to score from third. A fly ball to centerfield ended the inning, leaving the score 1-1 after two and a half innings of play.
In the fourth inning, Florida Atlantic led off the inning with a double to deep centerfield. The Cajuns went to the bullpen and brought in Farquhar.A pair of ground balls advanced the runner to third base and then brought him home. A third groundout ended the inning and saw the Owls holding a 2-1edge over the Cajuns.
The score remained the same until the Cajuns tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the seventh. Jefferies Tatford drew a four-pitch walk with two outs to give the Cajuns their first base runner. A triple to left centerfield by Lucroy scored Tatford from first and tied the score at 2-2. The score would remain knotted at 2-2 until the bottom of the ninth inning.
Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns baseball team will hit the road for four consecutive games. The Cajuns begin next week with an in-state match-up in Ruston, La., against Louisiana Tech on Tuesday, Mar. 27. First pitch is slated for 6:00 p.m. UL continues Sun Belt Conference play over the weekend as they travel to Miami, Fla., to take on the Golden Panthers of Florida International. Friday night's game is scheduled for 6:00 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday's games both starting at noon.
