The Louisiana Ragin Cajuns 11-5 loss on Sunday to South Alabama had very few bright spots to it, especially after an eight-run first inning blew the doors wide open.
After Austin Perrin was pulled in the first after recording one out, head coach Tony Robichaux called upon true freshman Brett Williams. Before Sunday, he only had two limited appearances including two-thirds of an inning against Kentucky where he allowed two earned runs off of one hit. What he did against the Jaguars on Sunday was a bright spot as the Cajuns begin to zero in on the meat and potatoes of the season.
“He came in, gave us every opportunity and got close to 80 pitches.” Robichaux said, “That’s a lot for him because he’s a true freshman and he’s only been up to 45 pitches and all of a sudden that was a big spike for him. We just let him go until we felt he had enough and he did a great job for us.”
The Deer Park, Texas native threw five and two-thirds of an inning of shutout baseball and didn’t allow a hit. That kind of performance seemed to give Robichaux faith in him as he stated that having a game like this opens the door for more freshmen to be used.
“It helps us even though you have a bad game like that in getting those freshmen in there and get some dirt under their cleats.” Robichaux said, “I think the more they get in there, the more they calm down. He pitched a lot better than he did at Minute Maid because he’s getting in again.”
With every weekend series from here on out being a conference series, the pitching staff will need to step up, especially when there’s some uncertainty in the Sunday starter slot as long as Hogan Harris is still on the mend. However, Robichaux mentioned that he’s almost there and should be ready to go for the road trip against Georgia Southern. He also mentions that if they can get the former St. Thomas More Cougar back in the rotation that will drive some of the freshmen into more of a midweek role. Having someone like Williams get more reps in the midweek is going to be big, especially once the calendar flips over to April with three five-game weeks.
-Clint Domingue