Ragin' Cajuns Use Bunts to Squeeze Out Series Clincher with Warhawks
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The Ragin' Cajuns baseball team ended a three inning scoreless battle between bullpens with ULM by executing the bunt three times in the 10th inning which led to a 5-3 victory Saturday evening at Warhawk Field.
With the win Louisiana (12-7, 2-0 Sun Belt) claimed the series victory from La.-Monroe (12-8, 0-2 Sun Belt) marking the first series victory in a league opening weekend since a sweep of South Alabama in 2007.
With two runners aboard for Chase Compton as a result of back-to-back Will Browning walks to start the 10th inning, the sophomore first baseman laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved Tyler Girouard and Dylan Butler into scoring position.
Tyler Frederick was the first to give himself up as he laid down a safety squeeze up the third base line allowing Girouard to score the winning tally. Daniel Nichols followed with another squeeze bunt which plated Butler for a two-run cushion.
Kellogg, who didn't have his best command and had to work out of jams in the eighth and ninth inning, sat down the Warhawks in order in the bottom half of the 10th to lock up the victory.
"The critical part in the inning was when they walked the leadoff batter, we couldn't bunt with (Dylan) Butler because he's never really bunted to this point and we hadn't had time to work with him as a freshman," head coach Tony Robichaux said. "When they walked him, that opened the door for us because then we had a sophomore in (Chase) Compton who's worked on bunting enough and we were able to get it down.
"Once we got to that point we then decided we were going to go with the squeeze bunt until we could pull out the win."
The Cajuns were able to prolong the game with three clutch outs recorded by Kellogg in the ninth inning after Jeremy Sy opened the Warhawks' half of that frame with a double off the left field wall. He induced a fly out from Caleb Clowers, then after a intentional walk to Joey Rapp retired Corben Green (fly to left field) and Judd Edwards (foul out to first base) to send the game to extras.
"He got the big outs and recorded the critical outs when it mattered," Robichaux said. "He was good when it mattered and that's what we're trying to teach our players. You're not going to play this game perfect; you just have to be good when it matters."
The two teams conclude the series on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Cajuns are expected to start senior righty Joe Zimmermann (0-0, 4.70 ERA), who will be making his first appearance since the Towson series. The Warhawks will counter with junior college transfer Cale Wine (3-1, 2.77 ERA).
The Ragin' Cajuns posted a series victory at Warhawk Field for the third straight season and improved to 10-4 in Sun Belt contests against the Warhawks at the facility.
Compton led all players with three hits which included a pair of doubles. Dylan Butler collected an RBI on a sacrifice fly in the third inning giving him at least one RBI in nine of the last 10 games.
Kellogg picked up his second win in relief, tossing the final 3 1/3 for UL and limiting La.-Monroe to two hits. Browning took his first loss of the season after his string of back-to-back scoreless innings was broken up by the Cajuns execution of the bunt in the 10th inning.
A leadoff double by Compton and walk issued to Frederick in the second inning had La.-Monroe starter Andrew Richardson in trouble. He nearly escaped after a failed sacrifice attempt and line out to center field. Ryan Leonards made sure the Cajuns didn't waste the opportunity as he singled through the left side to plate Compton with the game's first run.
A leadoff triple to left center by Bowman in the third inning led to an additional run for UL. Two batters later, Butler's sacrifice fly brought Bowman home to up the Cajuns lead to 2-0.
Cajuns starting pitcher Chris Griffitt followed in Jordan Nicholson's lead by getting the Cajuns off to a solid start on the mound. He zipped through the first three innings on average of 11 pitches per frame allowing only one hit.
Rapp ended Griffitt's stranglehold with a leadoff solo shot over the left field wall in the bottom of the fourth.
Kendall Thamm, who relieved Richardson after Compton's second double of the evening in the third inning, retired the first seven Cajuns he faced to turn the momentum toward the Warhawks side of the diamond.
A pair of two-out hits by La.-Monroe in the fifth resulted in a run which evened the score at 2-all and created a new ball game.
The Cajuns had a two-out answer of their own in the sixth, produced by a Frederick double and Nichols single. The Warhawks pulled into a tie again when Taylor Abdalla took a 3-1 offering from Griffitt over the wall down the left field line.
Browning relieved Thamm in the eighth and left three Cajuns stranded on the basepath. Kellogg did his part to preserve the tie for UL, stranding five Warhawks over the seventh and eighth inning.
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