Missed Opportunities Leave Cajuns Shorthanded in FIU Finale

Contact: Matt Hebert

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LAFAYETTE – The Ragin' Cajuns baseball team left the bases loaded three times and stranded 16 baserunners in the series finale with FIU on Sunday at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field and as a result came up on the short end of a 2-1 decision.

The pitching trio of Joe Zimmermann, Caleb Kellogg and Matt Hicks combined for 5 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to keep the Panthers' lead at 2-1 and extend the bullpen's string of consecutive scoreless innings in the weekend series to 13 1/3 innings.

Unfortunately for the Cajuns (16-19, 6-9 Sun Belt) the timely hit never came and the Panthers (21-14, 9-6 Sun Belt) were able to hold on for the Sun Belt series victory preventing UL from claiming a weekend set for the second straight weekend.

The Cajuns now prepare for a five-game week that begins with a mid-week, home-and-home series with Northwestern State. The Cajuns and Demons square off in Natchitoches on Tuesday, April 17 at 6:30 p.m., in a makeup game for a contest that was rained out on March 21. The teams take the field at “The Tigue” on Wednesday, April 18 at 6 p.m., in a regularly scheduled game.

Louisiana loaded the bases in the fourth and fifth inning, but FIU starter R.J. Fondon managed to avoid damage both times getting Brian Bowman to foul out to end the fourth and Tyler Frederick to ground into a 5-3 double play to close out the fifth.

Zimmermann continued the strong showing by the Cajuns bullpen, posting zeros from the fifth through seventh inning. The only baserunners the Panthers would get were on walks issued by Zimmermann.

The bases were loaded for UL with no outs in the seventh inning after FIU closer Michael Gomez walked Chase Compton. Gomez and the Panthers escaped another dicey situation as Frederick popped up to shallow right field, Jace Conrad hit into an infield fly and Almann Snowden grounded out to second base.

Kellogg worked around back-to-back singles to start the FIU half of the eighth by notching a force out at third base and then retiring Nathan Burns and T.J. Shantz to hold the Cajuns deficit at one run.

Gomez put two Cajuns aboard to start the bottom of the eighth inning as Adam Todd walked and Bowman was hit by a pitch. UL's inability to have runners tag and advance a base on a fly out to center field by Logan Preston proved costly as a runner was not in scoring position on a Ryan Leonards' fly out to right field.

The UL bullpen held the Panthers in their tracks in the top of the ninth and gave the offense one more chance at a rally. Following back-to-back walks and a sacrifice bunt which put runners on second and third base, Hicks followed up an intentional walk with strikeouts of Aramis Garcia and pinch hitter David Vazquez.

Compton doubled down the right field line in the bottom of the ninth inning and Frederick sacrificed him to third base. The timely hit didn't come around for UL once again as Conrad grounded out to second base which held Compton at third base and Snowden lifted a fly ball to Jabari Henry in left field for the game's final out.

Over the final six innings of action the Ragin' Cajuns stranded 13 baserunners, leaving multiple runners on the basepath each inning from the fourth through eighth inning.

“We've got to get a hit at the right time. That's the bottom line,” head coach Tony Robichaux said. “We failed to tag from second to third and that hurt us. When you are not scoring a lot of runs, you can't afford to make base running mistakes. Our pitchers have been doing their job lately. We just aren't scoring enough runs.

“We have got to get someone to step up at the plate and deliver the big hit. The pitching staff did a good job today and our defense was good. We just need someone to get the job done at the plate.”

Compton and Conrad led the Cajuns at the plate, each posting a three-hit game. Conrad collecting his first career three-hit outing and Compton picked up his 13^th multiple-hit game of the season, moving him into a tie with Leonards for the team lead.

The Panthers got on the scoreboard two batters into the contest when Shantz drove a Jordan Harrison offering over the right field wall.

UL pulled even in the second inning benefitting from a leadoff triple by Compton. He scored two batters later when Conrad singled into center field.

Harrison stranded an FIU baserunner at third base in the third inning when the Cajuns intentionally walked Jabari Henry to pitch to Adam Kirsch who grounded out to shortstop for the final out.

The Cajuns put a runner in scoring position in the third inning following a two-out single from Tyler Girouard and walk by Leonards. The Panthers kept the tie intact when shortstop Julius Gaines fielded a Dylan Butler grounder on the back of the infield and flipped to Shantz at second base for a force out.

The Panthers reclaimed the lead in the top of the fourth inning on a two-out RBI single by Burns that scored Garcia (leadoff walk). Shantz followed with a single through the right side which advanced Burns to third. Harrison, already at 87 pitches through 3 2/3 innings, was relieved by Zimmermann who ended the inning with a Pablo Bermudez ground out.

BASES NOTED: It was another strong weekend series performance for the Cajuns pitching staff, holding FIU to eight runs on 21 hits over 27 innings one week after limiting Western Kentucky to just seven runs and 17 hits over 27 innings…UL pitching limited FIU, which entered the weekend hitting a Sun Belt-best .296, to a .216 average in the series…Since the April 3 game vs. Southeastern Louisiana, the Cajuns pitching staff has worked 71 innings and held the opposition to 20 runs, 49 hits and a .199 batting average…Sunday's game marked the sixth consecutive one-run contest for Louisiana dating back to a 1-0 win over Western Kentucky on Saturday, April 7…Going back to the SLU game on April 3, seven of the last eight games have been decided by one run or less…Cajuns pitching has held the opposition to single digits in runs 34 times in 35 games this season and 19 straight games since allowing 11 to Southern Miss on Sunday, March 11…Counting the midweek game at Southern, the UL bullpen worked 16 innings of scoreless relief over four games…Freshman Jace Conrad extended his string of consecutive error-free games to 30 and has now fielded flawlessly in each of the past 123 chances he's encountered…The Cajuns posted two more sacrifice bunts, increasing the season total to 44 which is 15 shy of the school record 59 set last season with 20 regular season contests remaining…FIU claimed the series from the Cajuns for the fifth consecutive season (2008-12) and upped its all-time series lead to 26-24…The Cajuns still own a 10-8 advantage in series contests played at “The Tigue”…A day after combining to strand 24 baserunners, the two pitching staffs combined to strand 31 on Sunday afternoon…For the series, Louisiana left 38 runners on base and FIU stranded 30…UL committed only two errors in the series over 129 total chances and have fielded at a .984 clip (213 putouts, 99 assists, 5 errors) since April 3.

-- Ragin' Cajuns --

Missed Opportunities Leave Cajuns Shorthanded in FIU Finale

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