The Louisiana Ragin Cajuns had a very difficult go of things over the weekend against the Troy Trojans, losing two of three and their second Sun Belt series. Let’s take a deeper look at how the Cajuns performed and grade the positions on how they did over the weekend.
Offense: C+
On the whole, the Cajuns did fairly well offensively, batting .344 against the Trojans and should have been able to take two of three. However, it’s the amount of runs or lack thereof that will be a point of concern for Cajuns fans with only 11 over the weekend.
Despite the solid hitting, it didn’t mean anything until the series finale when Zach LaFleur slapped a walkoff single through the right side. It was another step in the right direction, but there weren’t enough runs on the board to justify the offense from being any higher than that.
Infield Defense: C
I’ll give credit to the infield having some great plays, especially on Sunday when Jonathan Windham had a great defensive play to end the fifth inning. The big reason why I’m putting this grade square in the middle is because of some E1’s over the weekend.
Again, the overall product is getting better, but there were some mistakes from one position defensively that really hurt the Cajuns grade.
Outfield Defense: C-
While there were three total errors by the pitcher this weekend, the outfield only committed one error and that was on Friday due to a fielding error that moved Matt Sanders and Manning Early into scoring position in the third. It was a costly one, but it was also the lone blemish on the weekend.
Starting Pitchers: D+
Outside of Colten Schmidt’s weekend, the Cajuns weekend rotation was exposed with 14 of Troy’s 17 runs coming from the starting pitchers. Schmidt in fact was the only starter for the Cajuns who was able to get past the seventh inning before being pulled for Logan Stoelke.
Bullpen: B
The bullpen’s performance was a different monster with Brett Williams shining once again in relief of Burk on Saturday and Stoelke helping the Cajuns get the win on Sunday with two shutout innings of relief.
If not for poor pitching from the starters combined with some costly errors, it’s entirely feasible that they could have won two of three.
Overall Grade: C
Despite losing two of three, the Cajuns performances were just okay and showed that this young team still needs to go through some growing pains if they want improve their standing in the Sun Belt Conference.
-Clint Domingue