University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
East Carolina
Weekend In N.C. Off To Rough Start
5/2/2009 2:00:00 AM | Baseball
GREENVILLE, N.C. ? Zach Osborne
pitched another gem before he and the defense ran into trouble in the seventh
inning, eventually falling 7-1 to the East Carolina Pirates Friday night. The
Ragin' Cajuns are dropped to 21-23-1 overall with the loss.
The
Cajuns struggled offensively from the start, as the first 10 batters were put
out or struck out. East Carolina starter Chris Heston's spell finally broke in
the top of the fourth when Travis Whipple knocked a single into left field.
Louisiana only put up two more hits, one of them a ninth-inning home run, also
from Whipple. The three-hit effort ties for the season's second lowest.
East
Carolina starter Chris Heston kept the Cajuns guessing, throwing eight innings
of two-hit baseball. He struck out 11 Cajuns on his way to the win, improving
to 7-0 on the season.
Whipple
finished the game at 2-for-4 with the only RBI. The home run was Whipple's
eighth of the year, and he now leads the team in that category. Thad Griffen
notched the team's only other hit, finishing 1-for-3 on the game.
Osborne
(3-3) took the loss on seven inning, allowing six hits to score four runs, two
earned, on two walks and five strikeouts. Through six innings, he held the
Pirates to four hits and one run. Blake Haagen relieved with one inning,
allowing three runs, two earned, on two hits and two strikeouts.
The
Cajuns' defense made four errors, costing the team three runs. Two came in the
three-run seventh inning and one in the three-run eighth.
Osborne
retired the Pirates' leadoff hitter and center fielder Trent Whitehead on
strikes, but gave up a solo home run to the next batter, second baseman Ryan
Wood. He settled down and went on to pitch well in the second, third and fourth
innings before an error in the fifth broke the momentum.
The
first 10 Cajuns at the plate were put out or struck out, finally getting the
first hit off East Carolina starter Chris Heston in the top of the fourth when
Travis Whipple knocked a single into left field. Heston stuttered with two
subsequent walks to load the bases with two outs, but struck out Chad Keefer to
escape trouble and keep the score at 1-0 Pirates.
Osborne
cruised until the fifth, when a Greg Fontenot throwing error allowed a one-out
batter to reach. A bit shaken, Osborne gave up a single and a walk to load the
bases. He battled back though and struck out Trent Whitehead and Ryan Wood to
end the threat and the inning, the score still 1-0 in favor of East Carolina.
In
the bottom of the seventh, Osborne was again shaken up by an error, but this
time on his own. After giving up a leadoff single to Devin Harris, Osborne
fielded a Dustin Harrington bunt, but his throw went behind Kyle Bostick
covering at first. That left runners on the corners for Drew Schieber, who
pegged a two-RBI double to the right field corner. He came around to score on a
throwing error by Travis Whipple, who tried to catch him advancing to third
after catching a Jared Avchen liner. The Pirates carried a 4-0 advantage to the
eighth inning.
Blake Haagen entered to start the bottom of the ninth. Matt Goulas dropped a fly ball
to allow the leadoff man Stephen Batts on and around to third, and a grounder
back up the middle from Kyle Roller scored him. Then, Brandon Henderson cranked
a two-run home run over the center field wall to extend the Cajuns' deficit to
7-0.
Travis Whipple cleared up the shutout with a one-out bomb to right field in the ninth,
but that was all the Cajuns could muster.
Game
2 of the series gets started at 2 p.m. CDT Saturday, broadcast via NewsRadio
105.1 KPEL and KPEL1051.com, with live statistics available on RaginCajuns.com.
LINE SCORE
East Carolina 7, Louisiana 1 (May 01, 2009 at Greenville, N.C.)
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Louisiana........... 000 000 001 - 1 3 4 (21-23-1)
East Carolina....... 100 000 33X - 7 8 0 (33-14)
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Pitchers: Louisiana - Osborne, Zach; Haagen, Blake(8). East Carolina - Heston; Simmons(9).
Win-Heston(7-0) Loss-Osborne, Zach(3-3) T-2:09 A-2782
HR UL - Whipple, Travis (8).
HR ECU - Wood (9); Henderson (8).
Weather: 77F; Wind 11 mph left to right
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