Cajuns Pitching Ties Up Lions In Series Opening Win, 4-1

LAFAYETTE, La. – The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns baseball pitching staff was lights out on Friday night limiting a potent Southeastern Louisiana lineup to one hit as the 22nd-ranked Cajuns defeated the Lions 4-1 to open the series at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field.

The win improves the Ragin' Cajuns to 23-11 on the season. Louisiana has now won 11 of its last 13 contests and is 14-2 at The Tigue this year. Southeastern Louisiana falls to 25-10 overall as the Lions have dropped three straight decisions.

"Our hitters did a good job of having a good approach at the plate tonight against a good pitcher," head coach Tony Robichaux said. "He made a couple mistakes and we made him pay for them. Tonight we were able to play a complete ball game with pitching, defense and timely hitting. That's what we needed to do to beat them with the kind of arm that they had on the mound."

Leger (4-2) was outstanding in his sixth quality start of the season holding the Lions to one run on one hit in seven innings to notch his fourth win of the year. The left-hander walked two and struck out two as he retired the last 10 batters that he faced.

Relievers Eric Carter and Dylan Moore combined to toss two scoreless innings to close out the game. Carter fanned two in an inning of work, while Moore picked up his seventh save of the year and 21st of his career with a perfect ninth inning.

The trio held the nation's leading hitting, Jameson Fisher, to an 0-for-3 night at the plate with one free pass.

SLU starter Kyle Cedotal (4-4) was handed his fourth loss of the season after giving up four runs (three earned) on eight hits in 6.1 innings.

Offensively, Brian Mills and Stefan Trosclair led the way with two hits apiece as the Cajuns had nine hits on the evening.

Louisiana got on the board first in the bottom of the second as Dylon Poncho scored on a throwing error by the Lions shortstop Brennan Breaud with two outs to make the score 1-0. Nick Thurman was thrown out at the plate on the play trying to score from second on the errant throw by Breaud.

Southeastern Louisiana answered with a run of its own in the top of the third to even the contest at 1-all on a sacrifice fly to left field by Taylor Schwaner.

The Ragin' Cajuns regained the lead in the bottom half the third when Mills scored on a wild pitch by Cedotal with two outs. Mills doubled to lead off the inning and then moved to third on a ball hit to shortstop by Joe Robbins with one out.

Brenn Conrad extended the Cajuns advantage to 3-1 in the bottom of the fourth as he drove a 2-1 pitch from Cedotal over the fence in right field for his third home run of the season.

Robbins tacked on the final run of the game in the bottom of the sixth with a solo opposite field home run to right to give Louisiana a 4-1 edge. The home run was the ninth of the year for Robbins.

The Ragin' Cajuns pitching staff retired 16 of the final 17 batters in the contest to give the squad a three-game win streak.

The Cajuns and Lions return to action tomorrow at 6 p.m. as the series shifts to Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field in Hammond, La.

Sophomore right-hander Wyatt Marks (3-3, 4.22) will take the mound for Louisiana, while SLU will turn to sophomore right-hander Mac Sceroler (5-2, 2.30 ERA).

The two teams will close out the series at 1 p.m. on Sunday at Alumni Field. Both games can be seen live on Cox Sports Television (CST), channel 37 on Cox and channel 35 on LUS. The broadcast will be simulcast on ESPN3.com outside of the Cox viewing area.

The contest can also be heard on News Talk 96.5 KPEL-FM with Jay Walker and Jeff Schneider making the call.

For updates and info on Ragin' Cajuns baseball, follow the team on twitter @CajunsBaseball or check RaginCajuns.com.

-- Ragin' Cajuns --

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Team Stats

Brian Mills

Stefan Trosclair

Joe Robbins

Brad Antchak

Players Mentioned

Eric Carter

Brenn Conrad

Wyatt Marks

Brian Mills

Dylan Moore

Dylon Poncho

Joe Robbins

Nick Thurman

Stefan Trosclair