Garcia Guides Southern to Win Over UL at Lee-Hines Field

Contact: Matt Hebert

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BATON ROUGE – Southern used a three-spot in the sixth inning and a strong outing from starting pitcher Daniel Garcia to hold off the Ragin' Cajuns baseball team 3-2 on Tuesday evening at Lee-Hines Field.

Garcia hung zeros on the Cajuns (15-17) through eight complete innings, needing only 82 pitches to do so.

His teammates broke a scoreless ball game in the sixth inning with back-to-back, one-out doubles off of UL starter Joe Zimmermann and added a third run after consecutive wild pitches were thrown by reliever Cord Cockrell.

The Cajuns made a late comeback attempt as they finally broke through on Garcia in the ninth inning. Jace Conrad posted an infield single with one out, and then on a first pitch offering from Garcia, Chase Compton tripled to right center to score Conrad.

Louisiana moved within a run following a two-out single from Ryan Leonards through the left side off of SU closer Josh Powell. The Cajuns' comeback was halted as Powell forced Logan Preston to fly out to right field for the final out.

The loss snapped a two game Cajuns win streak that was started with wins in the final two games of the Western Kentucky series. Southern (18-14) posted its first win over UL since a 9-4 win on April 23, 2002 – also at Lee-Hines Field – and ended the Cajuns' eight-game win streak in the series.

Louisiana returns to M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field this weekend for a three-game Sun Belt series with FIU (19-13, 7-5 Sun Belt) which runs Friday-Sunday, April 13-15. The series opener is set for 6 p.m., on Friday.

Garcia lasted 8 1/3 innings, scattered six hits and was charged with two runs. He redeemed himself for the loss to the Cajuns in Lafayette on March 13 in which he surrendered six runs over the first three innings in a 6-5 defeat.

“He just dominated us from start to finish,” head coach Tony Robichaux said. “That doesn't say a lot for us when a guy can dominate us from start to finish.”

Zimmermann was the hard-luck loser, despite pitching a season-high 5 1/3 innings. He held the Jaguars to three hits over the first five innings and had the shutout intact until the back-to-back doubles in the sixth inning broke his stranglehold.

The offensive struggles continued for the Cajuns bats as the squad was held to two runs or less for the fifth straight game and seventh time in nine contests since the 5-0 defeat at LSU on March 28.

The Cajuns pitching staff, coming off a week of holding the opposition to two runs or less three times in four games, held the Jaguars scoreless in all but one of the eight innings pitched. The staff limited the opposition to single digits for the 31^st time in 32 games and the 16^th consecutive games since allowing 11 to Southern Miss on March 11.

The contest zipped along through the first five innings, taking only an hour to play as Zimmermann and Garcia each averaged a shade above 11 pitches per inning. They combined to scatter seven hits – only one for extra bases – and received help from their defense as both squads combined for three double plays.

Zimmermann retired the Jaguars in order in the first inning, escaped the second inning when Demario Ellis lined into a double play, benefited from a caught stealing in the third inning, worked around a pair of two-out singles in the fourth inning and retired SU in order in the fifth to maintain his shutout.

Garcia stayed out of trouble when the Cajuns twice failed to execute the sacrifice bunt.

In the third inning, Preston doubled to lead off and Chris Sinclair was hit by a pitch. Daniel Nichols was unable to get the bunt down and instead hit into a 5-4-3 double play for two quick outs.

After his defense turned another 5-4-3 double play to erase a one-out single by Compton in the fourth inning, Leonards popped up to Garcia on a sacrifice bunt attempt in the fifth inning and fielder's choice grounder and fly out kept the Cajuns off the scoreboard.

“We are very poor as hitters right now and can't seem to get the little things done,” Robichaux said. “We need to fix it.”

The Jaguars were the first to execute the sacrifice bunt, doing so in the sixth inning, and it led to the runs that gave Southern enough cushion to hold on in the end.

Jeremy Lopez singled off Zimmermann to start the sixth and was moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt from Taylor Roy. Back-to-back doubles from Brian Rowry and Derrick Hopkins – the latter on a hop off the infield dirt in front of Compton – gave the Jaguars a 2-0 lead and closed the book on Zimmermann.

Cockrell uncorked wild pitches on his first two offerings to Cameron McGriff and pinch runner Tyler Kirksey scored the third run of the inning, one which proved costly for the Cajuns when the ninth inning rally fell short.

“Bottom line is Joe (Zimmermann) did throw well,” Robichaux mentioned. “On the hop we need to square straight up. With this being a rough field you can't back out on a hop like you can on our turf. We also need to limit the wild pitches.”

“When you're not scoring many runs it forces you to be perfect and it's hard to play this game perfect.”

BASES NOTED: Catcher Chris Sinclair, bothered by back spasms during the WKU series, returned to action getting the start behind the plate…Joe Zimmermann made his first start on the mound since Sunday, March 25 vs. Arkansas State…Zimmermann turned in his longest outing of the season, besting his previous high of five innings in a start against Wichita State in the season opener…Brian Bowman's stolen base in the sixth inning was his 18^th of the season, establishing a new personal best (previous best was 17 in 2010)…The stolen base was the 50^th career swipe of Bowman's career, coming in his 139^th career contest…The Cajuns grounded into a season-high three double plays…UL entered the contest having grounded into just 13 double plays in the season's first 31 games…The Cajuns did not record a three-run inning on offense for the 11^th straight game, a streak which dates back to the seven-run frame the club posted in the eighth inning in the Friday night game of the Arkansas State series…The two spot in the ninth inning marked the first crooked number that the offense posted since the eighth inning of the Sunday contest at FAU (April 1)…Consecutive wild pitches by Cord Cockrell in the sixth inning which allowed an inherited runner to score…The UL bullpen has allowed 32 of the 62 inherited runners to score this season (52 percent)…UL visited Lee-Hines Field for the third straight season…Prior to the trip in 2010, UL hadn't been to Baton Rouge to face Southern since April 2002…The game was the lone road contest in the Cajuns current stretch in which seven of eight games are at “The Tigue”…The Jaguars won for only the second time in 12 meetings during the Tony Robichaux era (UL up 10-2 under Robichaux)…The Cajuns still hold a commanding 47-23-1 lead in the all-time series...Jace Conrad played his 27^th consecutive error-free game, a streak which dates back to Feb. 25 vs. Towson…Conrad upped his streak of consecutive chances fielded cleanly to 104…Cajuns batters, who struck out 30 times during the WKU series, only struck out once off of SU starter Daniel Garcia and reliever Josh Powell and it didn't occur until the ninth inning.

-- Ragin' Cajuns --

Garcia Guides Southern to Win Over UL at Lee-Hines Field

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