University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
McNeese State
Baseball Bats Heat Up At McNeese
3/17/2009 5:00:00 AM | Baseball
LAKE CHARLES, La. ? Matt Broussard
retired 17 of the first 19 batters he faced and Louisiana took advantage of
McNeese State miscues all game long en route to a 10-2 victory Tuesday evening
at Cowboy Diamond.
The
victory extended Louisiana's non-conference win streak to five games and
improved the Cajuns (7-9-1) to 4-1 in mid-week contests.
Broussard,
making his first start on the mound this season, turned in a gem. He tossed a
one-hit shutout over seven innings and faced only four batters over the
minimum. He needed only 60 pitches to get through the first five innings and
ended the game with 95 total pitches.
Kyle Olasin, who began the game with no extra base hits, belted two home runs and a
triple and led UL with three RBI.
Matt Goulas saw his first action of the season for the Cajuns, starting in the
designated hitter slot. Justin Robichaux came in relief of Broussard in the
eighth inning for his first appearance since March 1 at Southern Miss.
The
first two innings moved quickly as Broussard and McNeese starting pitcher Matt Click
combined to retire the first 11 batters. McNeese (9-8) ended the string when
Nick Eubanks singled to shallow center field with two outs in the second.
Goulas
ended Click's string of eight consecutive retired when he shoved a single through
the left side with two outs in the top of the third.
Olasin
led off the fourth inning with his first extra base hit of the season, a home
run to right field which put UL up 1-0. A hit batsman in the next at bat and a
couple of McNeese errors helped the Cajuns plate two more runs.
Those
errors kept the inning alive by the time Goulas' second at bat came up. He ripped
a double to the warning track in left field to score Chad Keefer, who reached
on the Cowboys' second error, with the fourth run of the inning.
McNeese's
first threat came in the bottom of the sixth inning when back-to-back, two-out
walks by Broussard put two Cowboys on the basepaths. Broussard struck out cleanup
hitter Taylor Freeman to end the inning.
A
two-out error by McNeese second baseman Alex Johnson in the top of the seventh opened
the flood gates and allowed Louisiana to extend its lead. Following the error, Olasin
recorded his second home run of the contest lofting one off the wall down the
right field line for an inside-the-park home run to stretch the lead to 6-0.
The
Cajuns scored the runs off of Cowboys reliever Michael Robbins who entered the
game to face UL's three lefties at the top of the lineup. He didn't record an
out, and after Travis Whipple doubled down the left field line he was replaced
by Tommy Luce who recorded the final out with one pitch.
McNeese
took advantage of control problems by Robichaux in their half of the eighth. Two
walks and single loaded the bases for the Cowboys. Robichaux induced a double
play off the bat of Steven Irvine and a run scored. MSU dropped the UL lead to
8-2 when Josh Lebert scored on a wild pitch.
An
RBI double by Whipple and a Keefer sacrifice fly in the ninth inning capped off
the scoring for the Ragin' Cajuns.
Click
took the hard-luck loss for the Cowboys. He surrendered only one earned run
over 6 2/3 innings and struck out six Cajuns batters.
Louisiana
returns to Sun Belt Conference play this weekend at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field. The
Ragin' Cajuns host UALR for a three-game set Friday-Sunday, March 20-22. The
series starts Friday with first pitch set for 6:30 p.m. Fans can catch all the
action on SportsRadio ESPN 1420-AM on Friday night and on 105.1 KPEL for
Saturday and Sunday's games, while tracking live statistics and viewing live
video on RaginCajuns.com. Saturday and Sunday's games will also be televised
locally on MyKLAF-TV.
LINE SCORE
Louisiana 10, McNeese State 2 (Mar 17, 2009 at Lake Charles, La.)
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Louisiana........... 000 400 222 - 10 9 0 (7-9-1)
McNeese State....... 000 000 020 - 2 3 4 (9-8)
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Pitchers: Louisiana - Broussard, Matt; Robichaux, Justin(8). McNeese State - Click, M;
Robbins, M(7); Luce, T(7); Bailey, T(9).
Win-Broussard, Matt(1-0) Loss-Click, M(0-1) T-2:28 A-735
HR UL - Olasin, Kyle 2.
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