Following Friday’s loss where the Cajuns gave up five runs in the ninth inning, Louisiana came back Saturday afternoon with a vengeance to take the series over ULM with a 6-1 win.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
ULM’s Ryan Cupit was left stranded to start the game after Cajuns pitcher Jeff Wilson struck out Austin Beech for the third out of the inning.
Tyler Robertson after recording a single, stole second, then third base when Kyle DeBarge was walked. Carson Roccaforte had the sacrifice fly out to bring home Robertson. Louisiana led 1-0 with one full inning played.
The Warhawks’ Colby Deaville singled down the middle, but would get out on a double play the following play. ULM left the top of the second with no one on base.
The Ragin’ Cajuns Max Marusak doubled in the bottom of the second towards center field, which brought in Connor Kimple and Trey LaFleur to push the their lead to 3-0.
At the top of the third, the Warhawks earned their first run after Grant Schulz singled down left field for the RBI to bring home Mason Holt.
Louisiana responded soon after as LaFleur crushed a two-run home run over the center wall to make it 5-1, in favor of the Cajuns. Roccaforte was the other who scored on the play.
The fourth, fifth, and sixth inning were scoreless by both teams, where only two hits were recorded, with both coming from ULM batters.
Louisiana survived the top of the seventh with bases loaded and no outs at that point, but surrendered no runs to the Warhawks.
After a couple of wild pitches at the bottom of the seventh, Robertson was on third base, then ran home for the score on DeBarge’s double down the infield line. Next, Jonathan Brandon’s bunt allowed DeBarge to score and advanced Roccaforte to third base.
The Cajuns defense handled business the last couple of innings to secure the 7-1 win over ULM with Jake Hammond as the closing pitcher.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Trey LaFleur
Coming back from injury, LaFleur did well offensively, scoring a two runs on a couple of hits, and recorded two RBI’s in four trips to the plate.
BIG NUMBER: 6
The Cajuns base runners stole six bases in Saturdays 6-1 win over the ULM Warhawks to improve to 20-15 on the season and take the series.
UP NEXT: Ragin’ Cajuns baseball (20-15) will be in Baton Rouge on Tuesday, April 19th to play LSU (23-12) in the Wally Pontiff Jr Classic.