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MONROE — As it turned out, UL didn’t need Buddy Glass.
The Ragin’ Cajun righthander and normal series-opening starter was scratched from the lineup with a sore shoulder before Friday’s contest with UL Monroe, and nobody noticed.
That’s because Danny Farquhar and Greg Harmon combined for one of the Cajuns’ pitching gems of the season, guiding UL to a 5-2 victory over the host Warhawks in the opening game of their Sun Belt Conference series.
Farquhar struck out 11 ULM hitters and scattered six hits through six and two-thirds innings, and Harmon fanned the final six batters he faced. In fact, had it not been for a couple of defensive lapses, the two would have combined for the staff’s second shutout of the season.
“Danny stepped up big for us,” said Cajun coach Tony Robichaux, “and Harmon’s been in a good rhythm. He may have found himself a niche or a slot there.”
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070505/SPORTS/70505003/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com
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The Cajuns (33-13, 16-6) also found themselves a bigger piece of the first-place slot, with Friday’s win over ULM and Troy’s 1-0 loss at Arkansas-Little Rock putting UL in front by three full games in the Sun Belt race.
Farquhar (4-3) had been on standby since Wednesday when Glass developed shoulder pain, and found out an hour before the game that he’d get the ball for only his second start of the season. The sophomore sidearmer gave up a leadoff double to Andy Jones and followed with three straight strikeouts — one of two times he struck out the side.
“He was really mixing it up,” ULM first baseman Bo Bowman said of Farquhar’s multiple arm angles. “He’d go sub one minute and over the top the next. It was really tough on our righties, and it affected you the first time and sometimes the second time.”
“They probably hadn’t seen a conventional starter with that type of arm angles,” Robichaux said.
“The first inning, I had the jitters,” Farquhar said, “but after that I settled down. As a starter, you have to pace yourself instead of just giving it everything you’ve got for a couple of innings.”
The pacing worked, with Farquhar taking a three-hitter into the seventh inning. In that frame, Bowman’s leadoff line-drive to right field was misplayed by Nolan Gisclair and rolled to the wall for a triple. ULM starting pitcher Ben Soignier followed with an RBI single to center, but Farquhar got two outs and appeared out of the inning when he forced nine-hole hitter Josh Morrison to sky a fly ball to center.
However, Cajun centerfielder Josh Logan lost the ball in the lights, allowing Soignier to score from first base.
Harmon entered the game and got an inning-ending fly ball, with replacement centerfielder Dustin Miller running that shot down in the right-center gap. Harmon then fanned six in a row to wrap up a season-high 17-strikeout performance for UL’s staff.
By the time ULM (27-21, 14-10) picked up those two runs, the Cajuns had built a 4-0 lead off Soignier (2-2) with a run in the first, two in the fourth and one in the sixth. Matt Hicks then added an insurance run in the top of the ninth with a two-out solo homer off reliever A. J. Ford.
“Knowing we had that extra run, that was huge,” said Harmon, who recorded his third save. “We were so much more relaxed.”
Jonathan Lucroy’s double plated Hicks with the first-inning run, and Jefferies Tatford accounted for most of the rest of the damage with an RBI double in the fourth that scored Lucroy and an RBI single in the sixth that scored Devon Bourque.
“Any time the pitchers are going out there throwing strikes and getting outs, it means the hitters aren’t going up there pressing,” Tatford said. “Their guy threw well, but we were able to get a couple of runs and add to the lead, and Matt’s homer eased the pressure. Monroe had gotten the momentum back, and Harmon went out there and struck out the side.”
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