University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
New Orleans
Sun Belt Sweeps Streak Up to Four
5/9/2010 9:30:00 PM | Baseball
Louisiana scored twice in the ninth inning to rally for a 5-4 win over New Orleans at Maestri Field on Sunday and complete the squad's fourth consecutive Sun Belt series sweep.
Trailing 4-3 entering the ninth, Matt Goulas was hit by a pitch from UNO starter John Pivach and Jordan Poirrier followed with a walk. Kyle Bostick laid down a sacrifice bunt on a 0-2 count to move pinch runner Brian Bowman and Poirrier to second and third.
After an intentional walk to Tyler Frederick loaded the bases, Lance Marvel lofted a deep fly ball to center for a sacrifice fly which scored Bowman with the tying run.
Alex Fuselier - who finished the series with eight hits - stepped up with two outs and delivered the game-winning hit through the right side of the infield which scored Poirrier for a 5-4 lead.
Dayton Marze, who entered in relief of starter Michael Cook in the third inning, finished off the longest outing of his career by working around a two-out base hit and getting UNO senior Nick Schwaner to pop out to shortstop for the final out in the final Sun Belt contest at Maestri Field.
Louisiana (31-16, 16-8 Sun Belt) will travel to Baton Rouge on Tuesday for a 6 p.m., contest with Southern University and then return to "The Tigue" to host Western Kentucky (32-18, 13-11 Sun Belt) in another pivotal Sun Belt series Friday-Sunday, May 14-16.
Fuselier ended the day 2-for-5 with a team-high two RBI. The St. Martinville native went 8-for-13 with seven RBI in the series.
The Cajuns won for the first time this season when trailing after eight innings and posted a win over the Privateers (11-34, 2-23 Sun Belt) for the 16th time in the past 18 meetings at Maestri Field.
Louisiana swept UNO for the sixth time in the past eight seasons.
Pivach pitched eight solid innings and gave the Privateers a chance to win holding the Cajuns to three runs and seven hits before running into trouble in the ninth inning.
The Privateers scored first taking advantage of Cook's inability to find the strike zone. Of Cook's first 24 pitches only nine went for strikes. As a result the bases were loaded for UNO with no outs in the second inning. Cook would work out of the jam, allowing only a Tyrone Wethers sacrifice fly.
A Chad Keefer solo home run in the fourth inning evened the score. Frederick worked the count full and drew a one-out walk then Marvel followed with an infield single. Fuselier fired a single through the right side which scored Frederick for a 2-1 Cajuns lead.
A double, walk and single to start the bottom of the fourth ended the day for Cook. Marze entered in relief and held the Privateers to a single run which scored on a Schnell fielder's choice grounder.
Each team scored an unearned run in the sixth inning and the score remained tied. UNO broke the tie with an Alan Harris solo home run in the eighth inning.
BASES NOTED: This was the final Sun Belt game between the two schools...The Cajuns swept UNO for the fourth time in the last five trips to Maestri Field...Thanks to Florida Atlantic's win over South Alabama the Cajuns are now in a three-way tie in the loss column for first place in the Sun Belt...The Cajuns finish 48-20 in Sun Belt regular season games against the Privateers (36-14 under Tony Robichaux)...UL's current Sun Belt win streak of 12 games is two shy of the conference record 14 consecutive SBC wins set by South Florida in 1986...Chad Keefer's home run was his 11th of the season tying him with Jordan Poirrier for the team lead...Kyle Olasin's sacrifice bunt in the sixth inning was his 13th of the season, setting a new single-season record (previous was 12 by John Coker in 2005).
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
