Cajuns Fall Victim to Hilltoppers' Two-Out Hitting

Contact: Matt Hebert

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LAFAYETTE – Louisiana surrendered five runs with two outs in the Sun Belt series opener with Western Kentucky on Friday at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field and as a result dropped a 6-2 decision to the Hilltoppers.

WKU (13-17, 5-5 Sun Belt) grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning with a two-out home run and triple, then leading 3-2 in the seventh inning delivered the final two-out punch that led to the eighth consecutive loss for the Ragin' Cajuns (13-16, 3-7 Sun Belt).

With two runners aboard, Jared Andreoli tripled to right center off of UL reliever Matt Hicks to stretch the Toppers lead to 5-2. Casey Dykes followed up with a single through the left side to score Andreoli and up the lead to four runs.

WKU reliever Ross Hammonds, who entered in the sixth inning after a leadoff walk by Dylan Butler and retired UL in order, retired the Cajuns in order again in the seventh inning and induced a double play ball in the eighth inning to erase a leadoff single.

Taylor Haydel capped off the Toppers pitching staff's four-hit performance by working a perfect ninth inning to wrap up the victory.

“We have to get better with two outs,” head coach Tony Robichaux said. “Teams are hitting too well against us with two outs. We also need to get the first guy out when it means something, and not when the game is out of hand.”

Jordan Nicholson took the loss for Louisiana as he was charged with five runs in 6 2/3 innings of work. The Ruston native allowed multiple home runs for the second straight outing, giving up a solo home run to Dykes in the first inning and Ryan Hutchison in the fourth inning. Hutchison's homer broke a 2-2 deadlock and put WKU ahead to stay.

“There are certain nights where you are not going to get a lot of runs, and we haven't been getting a lot of runs,” Robichaux added. “But we let a manageable ballgame get away from us. We have to keep the ball in the ballpark. There is no defense against a ball that goes over the wall.”

The two teams continue the weekend series on Saturday at 6 p.m. The Cajuns are scheduled to start left-hander Chris Griffitt (3-2, 3.86 ERA) and the Hilltoppers will send out a lefty as well as Tim Bado (2-3, 3.16 ERA) gets the start. The game will be broadcast live on MyKLAF (cable channel 13, DirecTV 62) with Don Allen (play-by-play) and Chris Venetis (analysis) calling the action.

Andreoli, Dykes, Scott Wilcox and Hutchison, the Toppers 2-3-4-5 hitters, did all the damage. They combined to go 9-for-17 at the plate with six RBI.

Justin Hageman worked five innings and held the Cajuns to two runs on three hits, earning the victory. Hammonds finished with three innings of one-hit relief.

Chase Compton went 2-of-4 at the plate for UL to post his 11^th multiple-hit game of the season.

The Hilltoppers claimed an early lead using a trio of two-out hits in the first inning. Dykes opened the scoring with a solo home run to left field, then a Wilcox single and Hutchison triple ensued and resulted in a second run off of Nicholson.

Back-to-back singles by Compton and Tyler Frederick opened the Cajuns half of the second inning. Two batters after a sacrifice bunt by Daniel Nichols, the Cajuns sliced the WKU lead in half with a Jordan Bourque sacrifice fly down the right field line.

UL made Hageman pay for a four-pitch walk issued to Jace Conrad in the third inning by drawing even when a two-out single from Compton scored Conrad from second base.

Nicholson, who retired the Toppers in order in the second and third inning, extended his string of consecutive batters retired to eight straight before a one-out home run by Hutchison in the fourth inning returned the lead to WKU at 3-2.

Hageman retired the Cajuns in order in the fourth and fifth inning to maintain the WKU advantage.

A double play converted on a strikeout of Dykes and caught stealing of Andreoli was key to Nicholson and the Cajuns keeping the Toppers off the scoreboard in the sixth inning. Wilcox followed with a double down the right field line that would have scored Andreoli.

WKU worked around a leadoff walk by Butler in the Cajuns half of the sixth inning as Hammonds retired Compton, Frederick and Nichols in order to keep the lead intact for Hageman.

BASES NOTED: Casey Dykes' two-out home run in the top of the first inning gave WKU the game's first run and marked only the 11^th time in 29 games that the opposition scored first…Chase Compton's 2-for-4 performance at the plate marked his 11^th multi-hit game of the season, tying him with Ryan Leonards for the team lead…Daniel Nichols' sacrifice bunt in the second inning was his sixth of the season, tying him with Tyler Girouard for the team lead…As a team, UL has 36 sacrifices which is 23 shy of the school record 59 set last season with 26 regular season games remaining…Jordan Nicholson pitched through six complete innings for the sixth time in eight starts…The Ruston native has made 20 starts in a Cajuns uniform and worked through six complete innings 13 times…Catcher Adam Todd made his first career start in a Cajuns uniform…Todd, who rejoined the team last week after sitting out the 2011 season, played in seven contests in 2010…Todd's start marked the first time this season that Chris Sinclair wasn't the Cajuns starting catcher…The Cajuns and Hilltoppers opened the 11^th Sun Belt series between the two programs at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field…Overall, the two teams are meeting in a Sun Belt series for the 19^th time since the league moved away from divisional scheduling in 1995…Louisiana lost its eighth consecutive game, a streak which dates back to a March 24 loss to Arkansas State…It's the program's longest losing skid since a 10-game skid in 2003 (Feb. 28-March 15, 2003)…WKU claimed the series opener from Louisiana for the fourth straight season and won for only the eighth time in 31 meetings at “The Tigue”...UL pitching held the opposition to single digits in runs for the 28^th time in 29 games…Freshman Jace Conrad made it 24 consecutive error-free games played at second base as he fielded cleanly all three chances he saw in the contest…Conrad has now fielded the past 100 chances he's encountered flawlessly…The crowd of 2,094 marked the 12^th time in 14 contests this season that UL has drawn above 2,000 at “The Tigue”.

-- Ragin' Cajuns --

Cajuns Fall Victim to Hilltoppers' Two-Out Hitting

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