University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
0-1
UC Irvine
1-0
Five-Run Fifth Lifts No. 14 UC Irvine Past Louisiana, 7-4
2/18/2022 10:22:00 PM | Baseball
Ragin' Cajuns smack three homers in debut; Ray pitches four scoreless innings in relief
The season-opening, three-game series will continue on Saturday with the teams facing off in a 2 p.m. contest. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Jeff Palermo (pxp) and Ronnie Rantz (color) providing the commentary. The game will also be broadcast on KPEL 96.5 FM.
UC Irvine (1-0) will send southpaw Nick Pinto (7-4, 3.43 ERA in 2021) to the mound with right-hander Peyton Havard (0-0, 2.25 ERA) set to make his first career start for Louisiana.
The Anteaters, who collected 12 hits overall while stranding seven runners on base through the first three innings, built an early 2-0 lead in the second inning when Taishi Nakewake hit a two-run home run to left off Louisiana starter Drew Shifflet.
Louisiana (0-1) quickly responded as it tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom half of the frame when Jonathan Brandon drilled a fastball from Frias off the scoreboard in left-center field. The Ragin' Cajuns kept the momentum in the following inning as Connor Kimple and Carson Roccaforte hit back-to-back homers to give Louisiana a 4-2 lead.
The Anteaters would reclaim the lead in the fifth as they sent nine batters to the plate against left-hander Brandon Talley (0-1). A pair of singles to open the and error on an attempted sacrifice bunt loaded the bases before McGuire would collect his lone hit of the game with a double into the left-field corner. Two batters later, Nakewake would drive in McGuire with an RBI single before Luke Spillane would score on Nathan Church's RBI grounder.
Frias (1-0), who retired nine of the final 11 batters he faced after Roccaforte's home run, scattered five hits, with seven strikeouts in six innings of work. Jake Spillane, Gordon Ingebritson and Jacob King each pitched a scoreless inning for the Anteaters with King pitching a 1-2-3 ninth inning to earn his first save.
Shifflet, making his first career start in his Louisiana debut, allowed five hits and struck out four in 2.2 innings of work before Talley came in the allowed three earned runs in 2.1 innings. Tommy Ray, making his Ragin' Cajuns debut, tossed four shutout innings and scattered a pair of hits while striking out five.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Frias, Michael (1-0)
L: Talley, Brandon (0-1)
S: King, Jacob (1)
Batting:
2B: Castro, Jacob 1 ; McGuire, Connor 1 ; Spillane, Luke 1
3B: Fitzgerald, Ben 1
HR: Nakawake, Taishi 1
RBI: Church, Nathan 1 ; McGuire, Connor 3 ; Nakawake, Taishi 3
SH: Hadeen, Woody 1 ; Fitzgerald, Ben 1
Base Running:
RUNS: McCaffrey, Thomas 1 ; Castro, Jacob 1 ; Fitzgerald, Ben 1 ; McGuire, Connor 1 ; Spillane, Luke 2 ; Nakawake, Taishi 1
CS: McCaffrey, Thomas 1
Batting:
HR: Kimple, Connor 1 ; Roccaforte, Carson 1 ; Brandon, Jonathan 1
RBI: Kimple, Connor 1 ; Roccaforte, Carson 1 ; Brandon, Jonathan 2
SH: Robertson, Tyler 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kimple, Connor 1 ; Roccaforte, Carson 1 ; DeBarge, Kyle 1 ; Brandon, Jonathan 1
PO: Marusak, Max 1
