Twenty-five games into their season, the Ragin’ Cajuns baseball team has one of the deepest pitching staffs in the nation. They have four solid starters: Leger, Lee, Harris, and Burk. The same goes for the bullpen: Guillory, Marks, Huval and anchored by Dylan Moore. They can get even deeper if the Colto/ens: Schmidt and Lee, take their game to the next level.
So why is their RPI 81, following what I consider their biggest their biggest win of the season, a 3-1 win over McNeese State in Lake Charles? Simply put, it’s the bats. (Plus that series vs St. Peter’s) They’ve either been very quite or inconsistent..
After showing some life last weekend against Troy, scoring six, five and seven runs, respectfully, they could only manage three runs against the Cowboys. They left the bases loaded in the 2nd and couldn’t bring Joe Robbins around after a lead-off walk in the 8th.
Speaking of Robbins, he’s tied for the team lead in home runs (2) and sac bunts (4). While that bodes well for his versatility, it also paints a bleak picture of the Cajuns run production.
Make no mistake, the pitching staff could carry this team into the post-season, but how far can they get managing to score only 4.4 runs a game? Somewhere along the line, Louisiana’s bats will need to bail out the pitching staff.
They have huge opportunity in front of them this week. With a win over McNeese State (RPI 30), two games against Southeastern, (RPI 58) including the completion of a suspended game and hosting (RPI 77) South Alabama over the weekend, they could find themselves in the Top 50 (RPI). Not great, but much better than the 95 when they started the week. Should the bats find some life, that’ll go a long way, in what might be, the turn around week of the season for the Cajuns.