Butler Helps Build Early Lead, Hicks Closes Door on Southern

Contact: Matt Hebert

Box Score | Box Score (PDF)

LAFAYETTE – The Ragin' Cajuns baseball team continued their trend of grabbing hold of an early lead and held off a late Southern rally in a 6-5 victory on Tuesday at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field.

Louisiana (10-7) scored first for the 12^th time in 17 outings, plating a run in the first inning and built up a 6-0 advantage after three innings of play. The big blow came in the second inning when true freshman Dylan Butler launched a grand slam home run.

Southern (8-8) plated two runs in the fourth inning and a single run in the sixth to cut the deficit in half. Starting pitcher Daniel Garcia recovered from three rocky innings to last through the sixth inning and relievers Cade LeBlanc and Josh Powell combined for two scoreless innings.

With Southern having scratched for one run in the eighth inning the Cajuns turned to Matt Hicks. After a hit by pitch forced home another run and trimmed the UL lead to 6-5, Hicks fanned Brian Rowry with the bases loaded.

Chris Sinclair erased a leadoff walk for the Jaguars in the ninth inning when he caught pinch runner Tyler Kirksey on an overslide of second base. Hicks then forced Clint Ourso to fly out for the final out.

The Cajuns ended a two-game losing streak with the victory and extended their winning streak in midweek contests to four games.

“They are a good baseball team. The bottom line is that we gave them too many free runs,” head coach Tony Robichaux said. “We put them within reach when we should have put them away. That's what we have to cure.

“We did a very poor job of making them earn their runs tonight as a pitching staff. You don't want to give people free runs, and young teams will do that.”

Louisiana returns to action this weekend as the squad opens Sun Belt Conference play at Warhawk Field in Monroe. The series with La.-Monroe runs Friday-Sunday, March 16-18. Start times are 6 p.m., on Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m., on Sunday.

Chris Griffitt, who entered the game with no outs and two Jaguars runs having crossed the plate in the fourth inning, retired all six batters he faced and earned the victory.

Butler extended his season-best hitting streak to eight games, collected his fourth home run of the season and increased his team-leading RBI total to 21 with the second inning grand slam.

Since dropping the first midweek game of the season at Southeastern Louisiana, the Cajuns have won the last four in succession – Feb. 28 vs. Alcorn State, March 6 vs. Houston, March 7 vs. McNeese State and March 13 vs. Southern.

Three consecutive two-out singles led to the Cajuns scoring in their first at bat. Tyler Frederick capped off the two-out rally with a single to left field to score Butler who put the wheels in motion.

Louisiana increased its lead in the second inning with one swing from Butler. A Jace Conrad leadoff single and back-to-back, one-out walks loaded the bases. Butler took a pitch from Garcia, then on the second offering deposited the ball over the right field fence for a grand slam which upped the UL lead to 5-0.

“(Dylan) Butler delivered a big hit. We have been working to get a big hit sometime throughout a ball game to deliver a big blow,” Robichaux said. “Tonight he did a good job going to the opposite field. He's got power to both sides of the field. For a freshman that is huge for him to deliver that huge hit for us early.”

The Cajuns added another run in the third inning when a failed pickoff attempt at first base allowed Frederick, who has hit by a pitch to start the frame, to score from third.

In the fourth inning, starting pitcher Kendall Mayer began to have trouble with his delivery and the Jaguars used it to their advantage to put runs on the scoreboard. Ourso was hit by a Mayer offering to start the frame, would move up to second base on a wild pitch and scored the visitor's first run on a Wilmy Marrero single.

Another wild pitch advanced Marrero to third base and with still no outs recorded, Demario Ellis singled through the left side to plate Marrero and end Mayer's night.

Griffitt entered and halted the Jaguars in their tracks by retiring all three batters he faced. He would sit the Jaguars down in order again in the fifth inning and the lead remained 6-2.

The Jaguars cut the lead to 6-3 with a run scoring single from Jeremy Lopez in the top of the sixth. Garcia held the Cajuns at six runs when he escaped a bases loaded jam with a strikeout and groundout in the bottom half.

BASES NOTED: Louisiana upped its all-time series lead over Southern to 47-22-1…Tuesday's meeting marked the fourth consecutive season the two teams have played…After a brief hiatus from 2006-08, the series resumed in 2009…UL is 10-1 vs. Southern in the Tony Robichaux era and has won the last eight meetings…The Cajuns have scored 16 runs in the first inning, outscoring opponents 16-5…The game featured two head coaches, Tony Robichaux of Louisiana and Roger Cador of Southern, who both have amassed 800-plus career victories…Robichaux is now 19 victories shy of reaching 900 careeer victories (881-593-1)…UL and Southern will complete the midweek home-and-home series on April 10 when the Cajuns visit Lee-Hines Field in Baton Rouge…Dylan Butler's grand slam was the Cajuns' first of the 2012 season and first since Chad Keefer hit one on May 15, 2010 against Western Kentucky at “The Tigue”.

-- Ragin' Cajuns --

Butler Helps Build Early Lead, Hicks Closes Door on Southern

Next Event

Footer

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics