Cajuns Grab Lead Early and Complete Season Sweep of Cowboys

Contact: Matt Hebert

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LAFAYETTE – The Ragin' Cajuns baseball team grabbed hold of the lead in the second inning and never let go on the way to posting a 5-4 victory over McNeese State Wednesday evening at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field, completing the season sweep of the Cowboys.

Louisiana (19-21) scored three times in the second inning and wasn't threatened by McNeese (17-21) until a Michael Sullivan double in the seventh inning produced two runs and cut the Cajuns lead to 5-4.

Matt Hicks pitched a perfect eighth inning and Caleb Kellogg stopped a two-out rally by the Cowboys in the ninth inning by getting Sullivan to hit a comebacker to the mound with runners on the corners.

With the win Louisiana extended its win streak over McNeese at “The Tigue” to eight games. UL topped McNeese for the 11^th time in the past 13 meetings, overall, and swept the season series for the fourth time in the past six seasons.

“Tonight I thought we were pretty consistent all the way around even though they got a couple runs,” head coach Tony Robichaux said. “They got base hits, and we didn't just give it to them. Outside of that the hitters did well, the defense was good and I thought we played a pretty good game overall.”

Eight of the 10 batters the Cajuns sent to the plate produced at least one hit and the squad reached double figures in hits for the fourth time in the past five games overall.

“We played more consistent tonight and that was the one thing we are going to have to have down the stretch,” Robichaux mentioned. “We talked about it before the game started. To try and let the front half go, and to try to be more consistent every time out. That's what has hurt us all season has been lack of consistency.”

UL returns to Sun Belt Conference play over the weekend traveling to Little Rock, Ark., to face UALR (20-20, 7-11 Sun Belt) in a three-game series scheduled Friday-Sunday, April 27-29 at Gary Hogan Field. The Cajuns and Trojans enter the series in a three-way tie for seventh place in the SBC standings with La.-Monroe.

Brian Bowman led the offensive charge for the Cajuns driving home two runs on a 2-for-2 performance. Jordan Bourque also tallied a two-hit outing and scored a pair of runs.

Freshman Austin Robichaux, the youngest of head coach Tony Robichaux's three children, posted his first collegiate victory on the mound, tossing three innings and holding the Cowboys to one run on three hits.

Trey McGee, who was responsible for all five of the Cajuns runs, suffered his first loss of the season. Tyler Parke pitched two innings of scoreless relief to keep the Cowboys within striking distance after Sullivan's double trimmed the deficit to one run.

Wednesday's contest marked the final midweek home game for Louisiana in the 2012 season. It was also the 148^th installment in the rivalry with the Cowboys which is the most-played series in UL baseball history.

UL had two runners aboard with no outs in the second inning following a Tyler Frederick leadoff single and throwing error on a Chase Compton grounder which prevented the Cowboys from forcing out Frederick at second base.

On three consecutive at bats the Cajuns produced a run for an early 3-0 lead. The production came after McGee collected a force out of Frederick at third base on a Daniel Nichols sacrifice bunt attempt.

Logan Preston delivered the first run when he doubled down the right field line to score Compton. Bourque followed with a sacrifice fly to score Nichols and Chris Sinclair drove home Preston with a single to right field.

The Cowboys scratched for a run in the top of the third benefitting from a passed ball, fly out to center and wild pitch following a leadoff single by Connor Lloyd.

UL stretched the lead back to three runs in the fourth inning when Bowman doubled down into the right field corner to score Bourque who reached on a one-out single.

The teams swapped single runs in the sixth inning with McNeese picking up a run on an RBI double by Sullivan and Louisiana collecting a tally on a Bowman sacrifice fly that was set up after Sinclair sacrificed Bourque to third base after a leadoff double.

Back-to-back, one-out singles from Renny Weber and Matt Henry off of Cajuns reliever Derek Howell set the stage for Sullivan's two-out double that sliced the UL lead to 5-4. Howell recovered by getting Skylar Barrentine to ground out for the first of six straight Cowboys retired until a pair of two-out singles off of Hicks in the ninth inning.

BASES NOTED: Louisiana improved to 15-4 at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field vs. McNeese in the Tony Robichaux Era…The Cajuns upped their series lead in the Robichaux Era to 23-16…The Cajuns picked up their 13^th home win of the season and moved within one win of clinching a winning season at “The Tigue” for the 17^th straight season…Chris Sinclair posted a caught stealing of Skylar Barrentine in the fourth inning which marked the 17^th baseunner Cajuns catchers have caught stealing this season…The caught stealing came into play as it erased what would have been a run for the Cowboys as Matt Williams doubled after Barrentine was thrown out…The one-run decision marked the 14^th game that Louisiana played this season that was decided by one run…UL is now 7-7 in games decided by one run…Head coach Tony Robichaux is now 10 wins shy of 900 career wins as he improved to 890-607-1 in his 26^th season as a Division I head coach…Of the Cajuns 19 wins this season, a total of 16 have come when holding the opposition to five runs or less (16-9 record)…UL pitching held the opposition to single digits for the 24^th consecutive game and 39^th time in 40 games overall…The Cajuns haven't allowed double figures since surrendering 11 to Southern Miss on March 11…Louisiana posted a midweek victory for the second straight week and improved 6-4 in midweek games…Wednesday's game marked the last midweek game for the Cajuns until a May 8 visit to Tulane (University administers final exams next week therefore no midweek games are scheduled).

-- Ragin' Cajuns --

Cajuns Grab Lead Early and Complete Season Sweep of Cowboys

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